Blogs of international school teachers: “Before the Mountains” (An international school STUDENT teacher at an international school in Asia)

Are you inspired to start up a blog about your adventures living abroad?

Our 31st blog that we would like to highlight is called “Before the Mountains”.  It is written by a student teacher doing their practicum at a British international school!  Check out the blog entries of this international school STUDENT teacher who currently is working at an international school in asia.

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A Day in the Life of the International School Teacher

“For the first 2 months of my practical, I taught in a third grade classroom of 14 wonderful students. Yes, class sizes are incredibly small compared to U.S. standards, and every class has a full-time teacher’s assistant as well. Mine was amazing! You might be beginning to think this was a walk in the park for me, but let me introduce you to my students. I had 11 boys and 3 girls…tables already turned against me, so to speak. Only 3 of my students came from homes where English is their first language. Six of my students were still receiving daily support for English language learning. Two others received special educational support. Then, we can talk about cultural background: 4 East Asian students, 4 South Asian students, 1 European student, 2 Americans, 2 bi-cultural students, and one Canadian…”

So nice to have a small class size, but as this blogger points out, that does not necessarily mean everything is a piece of cake.  It is nice though to have a full time adult aide in your classroom to help. Even better if you get lucky enough to have one of the better ones that work at the school!

It is important to remember that it is pretty much guaranteed that you will have some English Language Learners in your classroom if you plan on teaching at an international school.  This blogger is absolutely correct in saying that it will be an every day task for the teacher to help make the curriculum accessible to these students.  Having an aide help you make all those visuals, that you may like to use, is also quite helpful!

On a side note, we also have an article on our blog about international school teachers’ dependence on IKEA when living abroad.  Check out the article here.

“On some days I was dealing with who said what bad word to whom in Korean while I was trying to make a lesson have enough visual aids to support a child who needed it. At other times, I answered countless “What does ____ mean?” questions during a lesson on whatever that I thought would be pretty straightforward. I often contemplated moving students around the room to deal with behavioral issues, but at every possible arrangement, I had to think, “How is this going to affect that student?” Usually a move of any kind would disrupt the very delicate balance I managed to hold onto. Even though the idea of a small classroom sounds nice, I think there actually needed to be more “balance” kids in the mix. There were new challenges every day of this first half of the placement, but the kids were amazing to work with. I learned that teaching is no easy task. It can make even the toughest person weak in the knees and so incredibly aware of his/her inadequacy…”

Not only do you have students whom do not speak English as their first/home language, it is true that you will also most likely have other issues in your classroom (e.g. students with learning plans, students with behavioral issues, etc.).  The key to a successful international school is to think hard about what their view of being an inclusive school is and how it looks like at their school.  Having systems and support in place before the students arrive is the ideal situation to strive for.  Also, providing teachers with the necessary PD is important so that they can be the most up to date with using some best practice teaching strategies (ones that you would utilize at an inclusive school.

Want to work for an international school in Asia like this blogger is currently doing their student teaching?  Currently, we have the following number of international schools profile pages listed in Asian regions of the world on International School Community:

East Asia: 207

SE Asia: 201

Asia: 113

If you are an international school teacher and would like your blog highlighted on International School Community contact us here.

New Teacher Orientation Must-Haves at International Schools: Getting access to the internet AS FAST AS POSSIBLE!

In this blog series we will talk about the ins and outs of an excellent new teacher orientation programme at an international school.  A new teacher orientation programme can really play a very important part to the start at your new school, in your new host country.  What are all the must-haves then?  Check out our blog series here to read all about the ones that we have discussed so far.

Must-have #10: Getting access to the internet AS FAST AS POSSIBLE!

368470-10-tips-for-troubleshooting-your-internet-connectionYou arrive in a new country and things are just crazy for you, everything is crazy.  Living in your new apartment or house without any internet access set-up is probably going to get you to the tipping point of your new-teacher craziness.

Please schools (the ones that help teachers find apartments or have new teachers move into school-owned housing), the best thing you can do to help out your new staff is to think ahead and somehow get the internet set up in their houses…before they arrive or VERY soon after they arrive.

Well we cannot say that having the internet is more important than clean drinking water or getting running electricity to your place, but it is definitely in the top five things that you would most like to have set up immediately after your arrival.

Getting the internet set up in another country can go very smoothly in some more developed countries where you can speak the local language, but getting the internet set up, on your own, in a country where you don’t speak the local language can prove to be one of the top most stressful moments for you after your arrival.  Maybe the internet company has an employee who can speak in English forinternet_installation you, but their English might not be at the fluent level that you are desiring!

Let’s not forgot though how much trouble there can be trying to get the internet set up in your home country.  Things can be less than ideal there as well, and it can take weeks sometime.

If only somehow international schools could help out their new expat teachers just a tiny bit more with regards to their forthcoming internet crisis.  The solution is simple: somebody in charge of new teacher orientation gets access to the new teacher’s flat and after calling the local phone/internet company, get the internet all set up and ready before the teacher arrives.  That solution doesn’t seem to be happening though at most placements.  Another solution is to set up a time that a local employee at the school can help call the phone/internet company for you to set up the time for them to come to your house (of course, in the local language!).

Once your internet is finally set up, at least some of your stress will be alleviated. Then you can finally check your email, contact your friends and family, download your favorite home country tv programs, and get updated and post an update on Facebook (unless you are in China that is without VPN access!).

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Hopefully too you are living in a country where they are known for having very fast internet!  If you find that your internet is very slow, don’t forget to ask your phone/internet company about the specifics of their package options.  In some countries there is actually an option to pay more for faster internet.  Better to know that sooner than later, after a year or so of torturing yourself (and unfortunately getting used to) with slow internet.

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So, does your international school help new teachers get access to the internet AS FAST AS POSSIBLE!?  Please share your experiences!

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