Blogs of international school teachers: SirSolo

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

Our 15th blog that we would like to highlight is called “SirSolo.”  Check out the blog entries of this international school teacher who has worked at British International School Shanghai.

A few entries that we would like to highlight:

New Year, new role…building the team

“Following our wonderful Christmas break in India, it was great to get back and see our colleagues at BISS; and especially the Humanities team, who I am excited to now be leading.  Although, I cannot believe how cold Shanghai has become!

Our first day back was a training day and was well structured and enjoyable; following a warm welcome back from Sir Terry, the secondary and primary staff split to follow separate training schedules. Our day (secondary) was focused on Formative Assessment and was extremely interactive and practical.”

International schools are sometimes in a pickle trying to organize good, useful, purposeful, effective, etc. professional development on the few days back after winter break.  I have worked at international schools when they have had somebody booked months in advance (for the after winter break PD days) and then to find out kind of last minute that the person couldn’t come any more.  Not just every trainer wants to (or is able to) lead their PD sessions in exotic locations around the world I imagine, but the ones that do…are indeed in very high demand (e.g. Virginia Rojas, Ron Ritchhart, etc.)!

Cutting Ties…

“I was recently contacted by my previous employer, an International School in Vietnam, who politely asked me to close down the Edmodo groups I had set up whilst at the school. In particular they wanted me to close a group I had set up named ‘Social Connections’ that was created to allow students (and staff) to remain in touch after moving on…as so often happens on the international circuit. They stated that new school policy dictated that any contact with students must cease when you leave.

The group set up meant that teachers didn’t have those awkward moments when saying goodbye to tearful students whereby they would normally be forced to say: “sorry no, you can’t be my Facebook friend or have my email”. Instead they’d simply say, “Keep in touch, see you on Edmodo!” The communications we exchanged about their reasons for me closing the group were all valid and I fully agreed but it did get me thinking about some interesting questions and ethical dilemmas teachers could find themselves in…”

Each international school is different and has their own rules about how they would like their school to be run.  It is important we share their differences with each other, thanks SirSolo!

Check out the British International School Shanghai profile page on International School Community.  Currently, there are 17 international schools listed in Shanghai on our website, with all 7 of them being schools that teach the U.K. curriculum.

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

American Overseas Schools Historical Society website

The overseas education of more than four million American children and youth since World War II is an unwritten chapter in the history of American education and represents the schooling of several generations under circumstances unique to human history.

Today the U. S. departments of Defense and State operate or assist more than 300 schools in over 100 foreign countries.  Additionally there are more than 600 private American owned or supported schools abroad.

The mission of AOSHS is to collect, record, and preserve the unique history of educating American children and youth abroad; and to enhance public knowledge, understanding, and appreciation of the contributions made by American educators and their students in the advancement of democracy around the world.

The American Overseas Schools Archives (AOSA) was first established on the campus of Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff in 1989. The AOSA is dedicated to preserving the history and memorabilia of the kindergarten through grade 12 education of an estimated 4 million American children who attended more than 900 American overseas schools over the past 150 years.

In 1995 the American Overseas Schools Historical Society (AOSHS) was incorporated as a non- profit IRS 501(c)(3) organization.  The AOSHS office and archives are located in Wichita, Kansas.

They even have a section called: Overseas Educator Information.  There is much information about the teachers that work at these schools.  There is a picture on this page showing a reunion of some overseas teachers in Japan.  How cool to be reunited with the colleagues that you worked with in another country a long time ago perhaps.  I know after being at my third schools now, I am already starting to lose touch with the teachers that I worked with at my first international school.


Antwerp, Belgium

One part of their website has all the American Overseas schools and their alumni associations listed alphabetically.  Some of the schools listed are:
American International School in Vienna
Asociacion Escuelas Lincoln
American International School of Kabul, Afghanistan
Antwerp International School (AIS)
American Cooperative School of La Paz

There are many, many more schools listed on their website here.

Most of the schools listed on the American Overseas Schools Historical Society website are also found on International School Community.  Some of the schools listed on our website can be found here (the number of comments and information submitted by our members is also listed next to each school’s link):

There are many, many more American international schools listed on our website which can be easily searched on our schools list page.

New features on International School Community #2: Number of comments, school profile views counter, and more!

International School Community’s goal is to have a website where the information that international school teachers want to know about is very easy to find.  Thus we are always working on improving the organization of our website and its features to better serve our members.

We now have 1095 (9 February, 2012) international school profile pages on our website.  On each school provide pages there are many, many different features and information. We have made some more changes on our school profile page.  Now there is a statistic showing the number of views on each school profile.  You can find this statistic under the link to the school’s website.

Which international schools are our members most interested in checking out?  Now you can check out which international school is the one that is most popular; the one that has been viewed the most, on our homepage under the Requested Schools to Be Reviewed section.  As of today the top school that has been viewed the most is Island Academy Antigua.

Another feature that has been added on the school profile page is the ‘city’ link.  Now members interested in working in a specific city in the world will find it easier to get to the other international school listed in that city on our website.  They can simply just click on the city’s name which can be found near the top of the school profile pages.  After you click on the city link, you will be transferred to the schools list page with the list of that city’s international schools opening up automatically.

We have also added some new widgets on the left side of the school profile page.  One section is called “Other schools in this country” which will display the other international schools listed in this country on our website.  The other section is called “Related schools” which will display other schools that meet the same search criteria as the one you are viewing.  These features are meant to help members to get to the other schools that are of interest to them much faster!

Another improvement has been made on the schools list page.  Now the number of comments and information that have been submitted for a certain school will show up next to the school’s name on the schools list.

There are many more improvements to come so stay tuned!

International School Community is indeed the new place to go to gather and share information about life at international schools.  Become a member of International School Community today!  You currently get 1 month of free premium access to our website when you sign up.  If you are already a member of International School Community, share what you know and submit some comments and information about the international schools you know about today!

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