International School Community Member Spotlight #14: Carol Craig (An international teacher currently working in Nairobi, Kenya)

Every 1-2 months International School Community will highlight one of our members in our Member Spotlight feature.  This month we interviewed Carol Craig:

Tell us about your background.  Where are you from?

I started teaching when I was forty and realized after about 6 years working in RI and CT that if I wanted to make enough money to save anything I would have to go overseas to do it.  I also found that teachers in the U.S. were ill-treated in their school districts and that kids and parents were running the show in education stateside.  I had come out of sales and engineering fields where I was accustomed to being respected in my fields.  I started teaching math and science to educate young people about climate change and other important factors about the world around them.  I have lived all over the U.S. and always loved adventure, so I was a perfect candidate for being an overseas teacher.

How did you get started in the international teaching community?

I heard about a job fair coming to Boston and decided to see what it was all about and low and behold, I got hired at my #1 choice in the Caribbean and off I went the next year.

Which international schools have you worked at?  Please share some aspects of the schools that made them unique and fun places in which to work.

I have worked at a school in Port of Spain, Trinidad ( International School of Port of Spain) and then in Cairo at an all Egyptian school called Misr American College and now we are in Nairobi (Aga Khan Academy Mombasa).

All of the schools have been wonderful and fun.  Each of them had their own unique reasons for being such. For instance, I am a scuba diver and living on a Caribbean island allowed me to dive occasionally.  I have been to Grenada 3 times and to Tobago many times since I first started coming here.  I also met my husband while at this post and we just celebrated our third anniversary.  He is a local island man and has now shared many new and exciting adventures with me as a trailing spouse of an overseas teacher.  We spent an exciting two years in Egypt and even lived through the uprising/revolution there.  During our stay there we traveled all over Egypt taking a Nile River cruise, climbing Mt. Sinai and diving in the Red Sea, just to name a few of the adventures.  There were so many places to visit that we never went anywhere else during our time there.  We still have some spots that we did not get to, but when the contract ended, we came home to Trinidad for one year while he worked and I wrote a book.  Now we are in Kenya for a new adventure.  I had done summer volunteer work for four years in a row here when I first started teaching, so I have had experience with this part of the world.  There is still so much to see and do; it is a great country to live in.

Describe your latest cultural encounter in your current placement, one that put a smile on your face.

The cultural encounter that put a smile on my face was when I discovered a new roadside produce stand and I filled my canvas bag with an assortment of lovely fruits and vegetables which would have cost around $20US back home, but was only around $2.50 ~ Yea!

What are some important things that you look for when you are searching for a new position at an international school?

I look for a school that has a reasonable student/teacher ratio, I look at information on the standard of living based on salary, I look to see if housing is included, I read other teacher’s opinions about the school through websites like this (I do take comments with a grain of salt as more complainers tend to post vs. contented employees), I ask other overseas teachers what they know about a school I may be applying to.  I also talk to my director if he/she is someone who has worked the circuit.  I go to a myriad of websites to see what the new location is like economically, politically, and what there is to do from a sightseeing standpoint.  I ask a lot of questions during an interview regarding the teaching venue, the curriculum, the technology that is available and the extra-curricular expectations.  Is there medical insurance and also adequate medical facilities available?  What are some of the other benefits that I can expect?  Will there be an orientation and someone available to help us get settled into life at the new location?  What are the travel arrangements and also what visa requirements are there?  There is a lot to ask when getting ready to move overseas.

In exactly 5 words, how would you describe the international school teaching experience?

Exciting adventure of a lifetime!

Thanks Carol!  If you are a member of International School Community and would like to be our next member spotlight, contact us here.  If we choose to highlight you, you will get a coupon code to receive 6 months free of premium access to our website!

Want to teach at an international school in Kenya like Carol?  Currently, we have 9 international schools listed in Kenya on International School Community:

• Aga Khan Academy Mombasa
• St. Austin’s Academy Nairobi
• Braeburn Mombasa International School
• Oshwal Academy
• Brookhouse International School
• The Banda School
• International School of Kenya
• Pembroke House
• Greensteds International School

Common Myths and Misconceptions about Bilingual Children #4: Bilinguals are like two monolinguals in one person

As teachers working in international schools, we are most likely teaching and working with bilingual children (or even, more likely, multilingual children).  Many international school educators also find themselves starting a family; with potentially bilingual children.  We all know colleagues that have ended up finding a partner from the host country while living there, getting married to them, and then starting a family.  None of us are truly prepared to raise a multilingual family and for sure there are many questions and concerns that we have.

What is the best way then to teach and/or raise bilingual children?  What does the research say are the truths about growing up bilingual and how bilinguals acquire both languages?

On the Multilingual Living website, they have highlighted the 12 myths and misconceptions about bilingual children.

Myth #4: Bilinguals are like two monolinguals in one person

Reality: There are special capabilities that bilinguals have that monolinguals do not. Bilinguals very often have one (dominant) language that is compatible to that of a monolingual and another, weaker one, which they use less often. In any conversation, bilinguals choose whether to operate in a bilingual mode or a monolingual mode.

One time a director told me that there was a true bilingual person working at the international school I was working at six years ago. This teacher had been born in a Spanish-speaking country, so she grew up speaking Spanish at home and in her community.  During her childhood, she attended an international school actually, an international school in was in the same Spanish-speaking country.  She was learning mostly in English there, but still taking classes in Spanish and most likely speaking in Spanish in the hallways, with her friends, and on the playground.  Then after her formal schooling she ended up living in Los Angeles for many years, so she was in a English-speaking country now, but the surrounding community was also very Spanish.  She started teaching in that city in their public school system, and I am sure that she had many students in her class who were from Spanish-speaking backgrounds as well.

During her time in Los Angeles, she met her partner who was a man from Argentina…another native Spanish speaker, though he knew English as well from living in the United States for some time.  From Los Angeles she and her partner moved back to live in the country she was raised in and took a job as a teacher at the international school she attended when she was younger (what an interesting turn of events!).  In turn, she was back speaking her native tongue in the Spanish-speaking country she was born in, living with her native Spanish-speaking husband, and working at a school where she would be using Spanish and English on a daily basis.

Is this teacher a true bilingual?  She did seem to be acting like two monolinguals in one person as she has had opportunities to develop both languages to a very high proficiency level due to her experiences moving around the world, having a partner that was bilingual as well, and teaching in schools that encouraged the learning of both languages.  The myth though, however, states that bilinguals are not like two monolinguals in one person.  I suppose then that is true, mostly because the “power” of one language surely dominated the other depending on the living and work situation of the person.  It is complicated being a “true” bilingual and I am sure it is not crystal clear on the abilities of each language at a specific moment in a bilingual’s life.  The proficiency levels of each language are most likely always in flux and constantly changing. On the other hand, for this person, her proficiency level in each of her languages is and has been always very high, so the argument that one was more dominant is negligible.

For students at international schools though, they haven’t had the same amount of language experiences as an adult has had.  On the other hand, maybe they have.  Many international school students are moving around from country to country and their abilities in their native language and the other languages they know are also always in flux and constantly changing.  It would be difficult to say that an international school student at any given moment in their life is acting like two monolinguals in one person as they most likely haven’t achieved the same level of proficiency in the two languages they know and have been learning in.

What do you think about the topic of bilinguals not being like two monolinguals? Please share your comments. How many “true” bilinguals are at the international school you work at?

Video Highlight: KIS International School (Bangkok, Thailand)

There are so many international schools in Bangkok.  Which ones are good places for international school teachers to work at?  How does the international teaching community view the international schools there?

KIS International School (Bangkok)

The school building looks quite big.  Also, there is a large outdoor swimming pool and a climbing wall.

The outdoor playgrounds appear to have tarps installed on the trees to aid in shading the heat from the sun.

Looks like the students enjoy playing soccer as most students at international schools do during their play time.

The school has the students wearing uniforms appropriate to the tropical climate of the country.

Every shot of a classroom makes it seem as if there is much learning space allotted for the students. It is nice to have a lot of space for students to explore and not be so distracted by others in the room.

The indoor shot of the atrium looks impressive and definitely creates a welcoming feeling as you walk along the hallways of the school.

I noticed a shot of an exercise room on campus.  I still haven’t had the chance to work at an international school that had one of these.  Would be nice to have access to a gym on campus!

Wow their special celebration days look to be quite the spectacular!  There is a great open space outside on the field to hold these types of big events.

There have been 39 comments and information submitted on this international school on our website.  Want to know more about what life is like as a teacher at this international school?  Take a look a their profile page on our website – KIS International School (Bangkok) (39 Comments)

Additionally, you can check out the school’s website here and their employment page here.

Currently on www.internationalschoolcommunity.com we have 24 international schools listed in the city of Bangkok.  The number of comments and information that have been submitted for each school is listed to the right the link to each school.  Here are a just a few of them:

• Bangkok Patana School (14 Comments)
• Harrow International School (Bangkok) (10 Comments)
• International School Bangkok (16 Comments)
• St. Stephen’s International School (Bangkok) (8 Comments)
• Hampton International School (13 Comments)
• Thai-Chinese Int’l School Bangkok (7 Comments)
• Berkeley International School (Bangkok) (8 Comments)

If you know about what it is like working at one of these international schools in Bangkok, log-on today and submit your own comments and information.  If you submit more than 30 comments and information, then you can get 1 year of premium access to International School Community for free!

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