{"id":246,"date":"2011-10-29T19:29:19","date_gmt":"2011-10-29T19:29:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/internationalschoolcommunity.com\/blog\/?p=246"},"modified":"2012-10-15T10:11:13","modified_gmt":"2012-10-15T10:11:13","slug":"blogs-of-international-school-teachers-expat-educator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/internationalschoolcommunity.com\/blog\/blogs-of-international-school-teachers-expat-educator\/","title":{"rendered":"Blogs of international school teachers: \u201cExpat Educator\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Are you inspired to start up a blog about your adventures living abroad?<\/p>\n

Our 10th blog (http:\/\/expateducator.com\/<\/a>) that we would like to highlight is called \u201c<\/strong>Expat Educator<\/strong>: Every child. Every lesson. Everyday.<\/strong><\/a>\u201c\u00a0 This international educator seems to be quite experienced, having been in education for the past 16 years.\u00a0 Check out the blog entries of this international school teacher who is now working in Hong Kong at Hong Kong International School<\/a><\/strong><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Entries we would like to highlight:<\/p>\n

International Students Go to Camp: The Importance of\u00a0Play<\/a><\/strong><\/h2>\n

\u201cWhen I taught in the US, students went to Outdoor School. The Oregonian children learned to read the age of a tree, the names of major plant species, and experience the Northwest natural habitat.<\/p>\n

Imagine my surprise when I first learned that my international school students go to Camp to play. So this is a really long recess? <\/em>I wondered. I\u2019m sacrificing hot showers, quality food, and personal hygiene so that students can PLAY?<\/em><\/p>\n

While I admit to Facebook grumbling about ants in the shower, plastic beds, and food representing only the white and brown food groups, I have come to see the value in free play for tweens in my setting.<\/p>\n

Here is what I notice:<\/p>\n

1. My students get a break from over-scheduled lives.
\n<\/strong>Many parents in my community buy into the philosophy of Amy Chua<\/a>, believing that the best way to love children is to push them to achieve. Highly achieve. Lest one think this phenomenon is reserved for parents of Asian heritage, many of my students\u2019 parents are former Ivy-leaguers and\/or CEOs of international companies and expect nothing less from their children. The pressure to succeed is enormous.<\/p>\n

By adding play time to our annual calendar in the form of camp, sports days, and field days, students develop the skills they will need<\/a> to run the major companies of the future. They learn emotional control and practice social skills that can make them better leaders.<\/p>\n

2. Students practice independence.
\n<\/strong>While students often have enormous amounts of academic pressure, many students do not learn to do chores such as changing beds, sweeping floors, or scraping dishes. Like students in many international school communities, my students\u2019 families employ domestic helpers. At camp, students make their own beds and clean their own cabins. They are required to scrape plates\u00a0and pile their dishes.<\/p>\n

3. Students don\u2019t miss their electronic devices.
\n<\/strong>We spend a great deal of time and effort enforcing \u201cscreen-free zones\u201d at school. No student has ever verbally expressed missing an xbox. Instead, they play Uno, Spoons, and Blockus.<\/p>\n

4. Students return from camp different than when they left.
\n<\/strong>As I type this, I\u2019m thinking about two of my new students who, until this week, were quite shy. One student was spotted taking leadership in her group\u2019s cabin clean-up efforts. Another one has been given a nickname \u2013 and he smiles whenever he hears it. Camp allowed him the opportunity to show off his amazing tennis skills, earning the respect of the other class athletes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Culture Shock and the Expat\u00a0Educator<\/a><\/strong><\/h2>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re a new expat teacher (or an expat teacher in a new setting), you may be wondering what the #@!*% you were thinking when you decided to move.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s normal. Perfectly normal. You probably moved in late July and are heading into the dreaded period of anxiety associated with culture shock<\/a>.\u00a0Even in countries lovingly termed \u201cexpat lite\u201d (i.e. Hong Kong, Singapore) the most mundane things can be frustrating.<\/p>\n

An example\u2026<\/strong>
\nI\u2019ll never forget the first time I wanted to send a check in $US to someone in America. I left school early to make the hour-long trek so that I could get to one of the branches. I arrived to find the branch closed with a sign indicating they closed at 4:30. Seriously? 4:30?<\/em>\u00a0I took the hour-long bus ride home.<\/p>\n

The next day I left school even earlier, racing out the door after the students left. I arrived at the branch.
\n\u201cI\u2019d like to get a check in US dollars,\u201d I said.
\n\u201cYou\u2019d like to check your account?\u201d the woman asked.
\n\u201cNo, I\u2019d like a CHECK,\u201d I tried to enunciate clearly as I made the universal hand motion for a signature.
\nPoor gal was still confused. She went to get her colleague.
\nI waited. And waited. Branch doors started closing. Security guards were glancing back and forth between their watches and me.
\nThe colleague arrived. \u201cCheck?\u201d she asked. \u201cI can get you a checkbook.\u201d
\n\u201cA checkbook in US dollars?\u201d I asked.
\n\u201cNo, [local country] dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n

I burst into tears. The ladies at the bank branch looked at one another, wondering what to do with the foreigner dripping liquid from unsanitary facial orifices.<\/p>\n

Flustered, the ladies started handing me forms. One of the forms had to hold the necessary clues to the mysterious transaction request. The forms helped me deduce that chequebook<\/em>\u00a0is spelled with a que<\/em>. I quietly cursed Webster.\u00a0Finally, I phoned a colleague. Turns out I wanted a demand draft<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Normally, I\u2019m pretty level-headed. I don\u2019t generally curse dead dictionary authors. But, for a task that would take me 10 minutes in my home country, I had invested almost three hours of travel time over two days and I couldn\u2019t figure out how I was going to pay my US credit card bill on time. My head spun into pictures of credit card penalties and bad credit rating reports. I was convinced my credit card would be shut down and I wouldn\u2019t be able to buy a DVD player to replace the one I first bought that wouldn\u2019t play DVDs from the US (Region 1? Why in the world would countries make DVDs that couldn\u2019t be played elsewhere?<\/em>). If I could just get the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice<\/em>\u00a0to play, I could ruminate on the problems of Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy and cry over something that wasn\u2019t my current situation.<\/p>\n

When I finally pieced together that string of thoughts, I wondered if I needed counseling. How would I pay for counseling without a credit card???<\/em>\u00a0The blubbering started again.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, I had read up on culture shock<\/a>\u00a0and, a glass of wine later, I realized the irrational behaviors could all be traced back to the predictable stage (okay, maybe it was a few glasses<\/del>\u00a0bottle of wine).\u201d<\/p>\n

*If you are an international school teacher and would like your blog highlighted on International School Community<\/a> contact us here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Are you inspired to start up a blog about your adventures living abroad? Our 10th blog (http:\/\/expateducator.com\/) that we would like to highlight is called \u201cExpat Educator: Every child. Every lesson. Everyday.\u201c\u00a0 This international educator seems to be quite experienced, having been in education for the past 16 years.\u00a0 Check out the blog entries of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[52,40,613,129,56,57,58,614,46],"class_list":["post-246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogs-of-international-teachers","tag-blog","tag-culture-shock","tag-expat-educator","tag-hong-kong-international-school","tag-international-educators","tag-international-teacher","tag-international-teachers","tag-life-abroad","tag-living-abroad"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2flVT-3Y","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2162,"url":"https:\/\/internationalschoolcommunity.com\/blog\/blogs-of-international-school-teachers-expat-teacher-man-an-international-school-teacher-at-a-hong-kong-international-school\/","url_meta":{"origin":246,"position":0},"title":"Blogs of international school teachers: \u201cExpat Teacher Man\u201d (An international school teacher at Hong Kong International School)","author":"ISCommunity","date":"August 2, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Are you inspired to start up a blog about your adventures living abroad? 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