“If only my life could be like The Amazing Race!” I say that to myself all the time.
I can’t stop watching this show as it is like all my dreams coming true. How cool would it be to travel around the world (for free), do amazing challenges with your teammate and interact in a very interesting and meaningful way with a variety of different cultures?
Many of my international teacher friends watch this show religiously. Why? Because I think we are attempting to do “The Amazing Race” in our lives abroad every time we book a flight for our next trip. The international educator’s life is one step closer to the life of an Amazing Race contestant. Luckily, we have more money and more vacation time to go on more trips. Living in the United States, I was lucky to travel internationally once a year (and it was more like every 2-3 years). Because of that fact, it will be some day when I decide to go back to live there.
Here are the countries that The Amazing Race has been to so far:
Who cries during the finale, when the winning team is running towards the final pit stop mat? Actually, I get emotional at the end of any of the episodes; when the last team explains what traveling around the world with their teammate has meant to them. I do like traveling by myself, but there is something quite special experiencing another language and culture in a foreign country with a good friend or your life partner. I personally have some great memories about many of my trips that I have taken with friends.
The unfortunate thing is that the vast majority of us will never get to be on the Race itself while living abroad. You need to be currently living in the U.S. Also, you need to be able to leave your job for 2-3 months, and that is just not possible for most of us working at international schools.
How cool to meet someone though who has actually been on The Amazing Race? I actually have met somebody (who is currently an international school teacher) who was on the Race! It was the The Amazing Race though in Belgium. She got in 2nd place!
So, what makes International School Community unique you ask?
There are indeed a few other review and comment-based websites currently on the internet helping out international school educators gather information about international schools around the world. However, International School Community is trying to take it to the next level.
So, what are some ways that make International School Community unique?
– A member is able to find real people that work at the schools they are interested in. Integrated networking! If a member lists a school that they currently work at or have worked at in the past on their profile, their name will show up in the Members of this School section on the school profile pages. That means you now have a real person to contact that can answer your specific questions about the school! Those other websites don’t allow for this type of of networking.
– You can search for other international school educators based on criteria. For example, if you want to find where the EAL teachers are in East Asia, just search it on our website. Again, networking has just become that easier!
– You can search for the international school based on your criteria. For example, if you want to find a school that is in Western Europe, that teaches the UK curriculum and that is in a city less that 750,000 people. You can do just that using the search feature on our homepage! Finding the right school for you is possible on International School Community. We don’t know another website that currently has that kind of search power.
– International School Community is organized. Finally, now you can find the information you want, easier and faster. For example, if you want to know more information about the housing allowance, just go to the Benefits section. If you want to more about school grounds, just look in the School section. Other websites put all the school, benefits, city and travel info all in the same section which takes longer to find the information you are looking for.
– Our website focuses more positive and really useful information sharing. All schools have good and bad aspects. International School Community allows for members to leave truthful, firsthand information no matter if it is good or bad. We have structured all of our questions to not allow for our members to rant on and on about certain aspects of the school. The more controversial topics are put in the voting sections, where members are only allowed to vote.
These 5 things are just a few of what makes International School Community different from what’s currently out there. And guess what? We have plans to add more features and functions that will make being a member even more benefiticial.