{"id":9268,"date":"2023-07-16T16:03:11","date_gmt":"2023-07-16T16:03:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/internationalschoolcommunity.com\/blog\/?p=9268"},"modified":"2023-07-16T16:04:54","modified_gmt":"2023-07-16T16:04:54","slug":"from-senior-leadership-to-homeroom-teacher-embracing-the-journey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/internationalschoolcommunity.com\/blog\/from-senior-leadership-to-homeroom-teacher-embracing-the-journey\/","title":{"rendered":"From Senior Leadership to Homeroom Teacher: Embracing the Journey"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Almost a year ago, I found myself heading back to the school where my international teaching career began in Cambodia. When I left this school in June 2018, I was leaving a senior leadership post for an ed-tech role at a large IB school in China. At the school in Shanghai, I worked with over 190 adults, and the culture was truly international. My job was a dream, and I collaborated with an amazing team to grow the department to the success it is today. However, the lockdown in March 2022 changed the course I had plotted for myself, and it was at this time that I put my family and my well-being first and decided to leave. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Fast forward to July 2022, and I found myself back in an entry-level position as a homeroom teacher, with a responsibility for ed tech. This was a hard pill for my ego to swallow. However, I was back at the school that I loved, working with established educators in a culture that embraced collaboration at a different level. In the beginning, I thought that I would have a bunch more time, but I underestimated how much work a homeroom teacher does. You see, I had been out of the classroom for 7 years. Although I still taught, it was middle and high school, and then for only 4 hours per week at the most! Now, I was teaching all day, every day with grade 5 students. It was overwhelming, but also hugely rewarding. The relationships I built with those amazing kids were awesome, and I was reminded every single day why I got into teaching back in 2004. I found myself working late nights and weekends again so that I could help my students realize their potential. Having said that, and although time was even more precious now than before, I still needed to push ahead with some side projects outside of my schoolwork. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first thing I did was to restart the master’s program I paused during the lockdown. Aside from scheduling myself time each day for reading, this was fairly straightforward as deadlines (which I need to stay motivated) are set by the university. My next challenge was to remain connected with the tech circles which I had worked hard to become part of back in China, through the ubiquitous WeChat groups that exist there. I tried to break into the tech circles in Phnom Penh but found that it was too difficult and gave more easily like I would like to admit. I did continue hosting PudPD, as I had done in Shanghai for the previous 4 years, meeting some awesome international educators from across the city. Now, I needed to pursue something tech related, that would keep me on top of current trends, and enter ISTE. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back in August 2022, I had the chance to apply to become an ISTE evaluator. I thought this was in line with increasing tech presence, so I applied and got accepted for the training phase. Over the next few months, I and a group of other hopeful evaluators met with the fabulous ISTE team to learn how to evaluate portfolios. I learned a lot about grading as well as getting to see the amazing work that educators across the world are doing to empower their students. After 3 months of 430am meetings, and practice grading portfolios, I was accepted as an ISTE evaluator. As such, I could now apply to become an ISTE trainer, which I jumped at! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This process was much more difficult, as we had to train with existing trainers online. I found it quite daunting as well, as I was delivering content that I had not created. It required a lot of visualizing the ISTE criteria and anticipating what questions might come my way. I was also training adults that I had never met, which outside of speaking at conferences, was a new experience for me. I found it difficult to build rapport online, but such is the reality of online work. All of the training I was doing really built up my appreciation for andragogy and a newfound appreciation of the complexities of adult learning. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I always find vacation time a chance to find space to reflect on what I am doing and where I am going, and spring vacation was no exception. During this break, I decided that whilst I was loving teaching with my fifth graders, I needed to work towards getting back to a similar role to the one that I had left in China. In that role, aside from being responsible for technology integration and coordination, I was also involved in the school’s gentle push toward coaching. So, I enrolled in a coaching course, run by the Instructional Coaching Group, which has been a real eye-opener for me and has served to remind me of where I hope the next chapter of my education life will be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article was submitted anonymously by an ISC member.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Almost a year ago, I found myself heading back to the school where my international teaching career began in Cambodia. When I left this school in June 2018, I was leaving a senior leadership post for an ed-tech role at a large IB school in China. At the school in Shanghai, I worked with over […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9271,"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":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12],"tags":[2798,3068,30,32,3067,2793,3066,3069,60],"class_list":["post-9268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-highlighted-articles","tag-change","tag-evaluator","tag-international-school-community","tag-international-schools","tag-iste","tag-lockdown","tag-online-training","tag-relfecting","tag-teaching-abroad"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/internationalschoolcommunity.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/businessman-g60ce88139_640.png?fit=640%2C434&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2flVT-2pu","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8162,"url":"https:\/\/internationalschoolcommunity.com\/blog\/covid-19-update-what-is-the-current-situation-and-well-being-of-staff-like-at-4-international-schools\/","url_meta":{"origin":9268,"position":0},"title":"COVID 19 Update: What is the Current Situation and Well-being of Staff like at 4 International Schools?","author":"ISCommunity","date":"November 30, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"International school teachers around the world are all going through challenging times at their schools. 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