PsyGuy wrote:
> Parents will need their children supervised, monitored, and some level of
> proctoring for assessments, so there will be job security, but less and
> less of the edus job is going to be engaged in knowledge transfer and
> instructional tasks. CMI has already seen a lot of advancements,
> specifically in the static learning domain (push), reading, lecturing,
> visual elements, AI brings in the dynamic elements (pull), asking and
> responding to inquiries, generating supplemental material. That really only
> leaves intervention, studio, and experiential (tactile/manipulable)
> learning left for an edu.

Nah. Potentially there's more scope for more enquiry-based curricula, which AI could assist with, but what I'm seeing more of is actually a move away from that and back to more 'traditional' teaching styles, particularly in state-driven education systems. One of the biggest problems in schools with tech is the resultant behaviour issues, partly because of the tech used but also because of the lack of human intervention and collaboration in teaching. If the kids don't learn social behaviour norms - something which AI can't teach, because every single child is different - then they find it much more difficult to collaborate (as demonstrated post-COVID lockdowns, when kids struggled with the social aspects of returning to school.)

I'm going to tip in my tuppenny worth here....

Firstly, reading what you say, I wonder whether this is actually the decision of SLT or even of the head involved. Their actions - references, feedback to you on observations etc - suggest that they themselves know that what they are doing is wrong, but they may well be being pushed to do it from above and can't say directly to you.

Secondly, most contracts do come with a probation period, and it looks like they have essentially activated this. In any case, they can pretty much do what they like - knowing the country you're in would be helpful (don't need the school though.) They are certainly not behaving the way I'd expect a decent school to act, especially cutting you off at Christmas.

Even if it's not the job advertised, is there any way you could do something to stay on for the year - for example, a paid cover teacher, or some work which you could contribute to?

In terms of January starts, there are some advertised - SE Asia (especially Singapore and Malaysia) has quite a few schools which run on the southern hemisphere timetable.

It's kind of a difficult answer (at first, I thought you were asking which was more important, strong curriculum knowledge or strong teaching, which is a whole other argument.)

I think content just edges it. Knowing your subject in a much wider way than the focussed elements of IB, IGCSE etc, allows you to provide a much wider context to the topic. For example, in my Y10 History class the other week we were looking at how Hitler in particular was able to manipulate public opinion to gain support for the Nazis - this actually developed into an interesting discussion about Machiavellian politics. In addition, to teach about the rise of Hitler you need to at least be aware of what was happening in Russia after 1917 (even if you don't actually teach that bit of the course.)

When I've picked up a new subject, I have just been a 'curriculum' teacher and had to follow the syllabus point - and hated it. I found it boring, so I can't imagine what the kids would have felt!

I'm with shadowjack. Education is one of those jobs where the human element is key, particularly in managing behaviour. There will be some who say "AI can do everything" but as history shows us, humans are singularly bad at predicting how society will change. After all, by 2020 we were all supposed to be travelling in mini-spaceships....

hitherejen wrote:

> We are also expected to join at least one expedition or trip which lasts
> for a week. In high school these happen in the holidays.

So that's not a holiday then - do they count these as part of your contract?

PsyGuy wrote:

> 8) All the rent a name ISs are bad, at least compared to their foreign
> partners DS experience.

That's a pretty broad brush. Some are pretty hopeless, particularly the ones which are not purely 'international' because they have the licence to accept Chinese national students and all the Chinese bureaucracy which goes along with them, but there are ones which aren't. They may not be to your taste as a school, but that's not the same as being a bad school.

On the point of the English levels of students - off the top of my head I can think of at least three former students (born and brought up in China) who are now trainees at Magic Circle law firms in London, and virtually all of the students had a higher level of English than the similar age group I taught when in the UK. Again, maybe it's different schools - I know that in other schools that might not have been the case.

I'm less jaded than sciteach. Spent 5 years there, left a couple of years ago, looking to move back again because where I am now just isn't as interesting a place to live.

1. Before you do anything else, download and subscribe to a VPN. Express VPN and Astill seem to be the most reliable at present, with Astrill just ahead. From a teaching perspective, this lets you use Google, YouTube, etc; for home stuff, it means you can access Netflix / BBC / whatever.

2. I don't think the Didi English app is available at the moment - if you had it you were OK and it updated, but it got blocked in 2019 and I don't think it was ever restored. You can access it though through WeChat or Alipay (again, get these downloaded and set up before you enter China.)

3. You can now attach a foreign Visa credit card to WeChat before you arrive, but you have to do this when you are abroad.

4. If your school offers direct payment to an overseas account, usually as a % of salary, take it. It's much easier and cheaper than going to the bank to do it yourself. When I had to do this, it usually took at least an hour to process everything and you have to be there for the full time.

5. If your school doesn't offer direct payment, then they should allow you the time to go to the bank to do this (banks are helpfully only open during school hours.) If your school doesn't allow or like this, then maybe this is a school to avoid.

6. Despite what some will try to tell you here, not all the 'rent a name' schools in China are bad - Dulwich has a good reputation in both Beijing and Shanghai.

7. Sometimes you just have to roll with it. China can be really frustrating because of its bureaucracy - have a look at the official in the Simpsons episode "Goo Goo Gai Pan" - and even getting things like a train ticket can be difficult because you have to show your passport, visa, the birth certificate of your third cousin once removed's granny's neighbour (or at least, it can seem like that!) Take a deep breath, say to yourself "it's just China" and move on.

8. The people you will meet professionally will generally be more educated than the average Chinese person - you would be working in a school, after all - and will have had more contact with Westerners. This means they *might* be more open to different ideas, especially if you work in one of the schools under scitech's band 1 or even 2. However, many Chinese outside the major cities still haven't had much contact and you will be a novelty to them. You might also want to consider how you introduce yourself - British friends never really had a problem, but I know some Americans who said they were Canadian.

9. Be clear that, the further down the school scale you go, the less English there will be. At the top, almost every communication will be delivered in English, Mandarin and often also Korean. Further down, it will be in Mandarin and English, with the quality of English deteriorating the further down you go. The kids reflect this - at the top level schools, the English spoken by some in IBDP is of a higher level than their counterparts in the UK, USA or Australia.

10. Your first long holiday will be around now in October (Golden Week.) You might have your work permit by this time; if not, you have to stay in China. And anywhere you go will be busy - and I mean busy. Think Times Square on New Year's Eve, the Notting Hill Carnival, or other big events in the West busy, then double it. Thankfully, there are lots of places in China you can go which have lots of space - but book these well in advance.

11. Put politics out of your head. You learn that there are points when the rhetoric increases - in the run up to a major CCP congress, for example - but most of the time it's easy just to let it bypass you, as most Chinese do. Yes, there are cameras watching you, but genuinely if you are going about your normal business as a teacher or a person, they're not really interested. There are things you can talk about and things you can't - these are usually pretty obvious if you know China's history - and your school should help guide you around these.

PsyGuy wrote:

>
> Whats wrong with dictatorships? Lots of organizations (militarys for
> example) are very effectively run autocratically or as dictatorships. Many
> professional soldiers are still professionals despite taking, following,
> and executing orders. Leaders need to say do this, and have it done, and it
> doesnt matter the field its in whether a military organization, the
> director directing the cast of a film production of a classroom. It
> shouldnt even be that alien to an IT, we do the same with students all the
> time. From the leadership perspective its not autocratic leadership styles
> thats the issue, its ITs who want more autonomy than leadership and by
> extension what ownership is comfortable with, thats a 'you' problem, not a
> 'them' problem.

The problem with dictatorships is that they rely on having people in place who are either happy to be subordinate and do what they are told, or who are kept happy with sufficient scraps that they don't intervene (thinking here of the proles in '1984'). If either of those don't happen then the only other option is brainwashing (see North Korea).

I disagree about the definition of the leader though. A leader needs to have a clear vision of what they want done, but they need to be open to different roads to doing it. Sometimes, the dictator role is appropriate - if something needs done urgently, such as pruning a staff body, or in an emergency. Most of the time, though, is it not better to get what you want done in a way which keeps the majority happy, even if it's not your idea? If, as teachers, we behaved in an autocratic, not-listening way, then we'd never actually improve our teaching skills because we wouldn't be open to other ideas as to how to improve. It's not unrealistic to expect our leadership to do the same.

PsyGuy wrote:
> Even the good leaders (they do exist)
> see it as criticism, constructive criticism or non-personal criticism but
> still criticism, because if we are being honest thats what it is. The
> current system, practice, idea, thing is less effective or efficient than
> the system, practice, idea, thing I have in mind, which when you collapse
> down to its salient qualities is a critique, the root of all
> criticism.

Good management though should always be open to that. The best leaders I've seen (in and out of education) are the ones who know they need someone on their shoulder to challenge them, because that way they avoid making bad decisions (bearing in mind that good decisions are not always popular decisions.)

The problem in education in particular is that Principals aren't necessarily trained in management; and that senior management behaviour tends to reflect the types of senior management they themselves have seen. That means there are too many for whom 'my way or the highway' is their mantra, and while that is sometimes necessary it can frequently be detrimental to the school especially where management see this as being 'good' or - worse still - 'strong' leadership. It's not really leadership then - it's a dictatorship.

It depends on the school and the group. Psyguy puts it all in his inimitable, rather negative way, but as always it's not as clear cut as that.

The number of staff child places is certainly diminishing. Ask any head and they will tell you they will almost always prioritise "single, no kids" or "couple, no kids" ahead of anyone with kids. You could take this as a sign of how the school is doing financially - if they're scrabbling to make sure every potential fee place is filled, then maybe there is an issue.

However, it's still not unusual to have at least one fully funded place per teacher; or even two per family. Three, though, does often cause a problem and there's actually only one of the school groups I can think of who I know allow this.

In terms of tax, it depends on the country. There is still a threat hanging over Chinese schools that this may be implemented, and in the higher-fee schools like Dulwich or WAB (in Beijing) this could be really challenging to get around.

I don't agree that children always have no benefit though. In "proper" international schools I can see that argument, but in the lower tier schools where there may be less international and more local students, this may be something which bosses will consider. Whether it would be a reason to employ, I'm not sure.

So to answer your question in short - most schools will cover tuition for some kids, but usually only one or two. Schools who cover three fully will be the exception rather than the rule.

Thames Pirate wrote:
> PsyGuy, we rarely agree, but this "a closed mouth gathers no
> foot" is a great phrase that hits the nail on the head.

*faints*

PsyGuy wrote:

> 2) This is a BS, and like most BSs ITs often have a schedule with more
> instructional hours and are assigned a broader range of classes. Its very
> likely ITs teach a full day with only a lunch and a prep period. The LWs
> schedule may be different but if it isnt than somehow those ITs with little
> time already have to now be carefully scheduled so that they can fill in
> for a Friday/Monday. This might be doable in a large IS with a
> substantially sized department, but if the department is small there is
> isnt likely the warm bodies to do it.
> 3) There will be a continuity issue in the courses for the students. They
> will have IT X for 2-4 days a week and then effectively have a substitute
> from within the department for those Monday/Friday classes because classes
> are either T, TH, M,W,F, or M-F.

However, as it's a British school, the SMT will most likely be British too and therefore well used to making these adjustments. Certainly for 3 - yes, there's a continuity issue, but it can easily be resolved through careful planning (eg the teachers teach different parts of the course, one focuses on exam skills while the other focuses on content, etc.)

PsyGuy wrote:
> @expatscot
>
> Because recruiting is a chore and the only real joy in it is crossing it
> off the to do list.

Surely though that's the argument to get it right first time? If you hire someone in October, that person might - by January - have realised they could have had a better offer elsewhere. So you end up with a new start who's lacking a bit in motivation and already thinking about where they're going in two years' time, rather than being keen to get started.

> As to missing anything, you can go to the bakery anytime in the day and get
> a loaf of bread made that morning, or you can wake up early and go when its
> the freshest out of the oven. For many recruiters and leadership, you dont
> know what you dont know, and youre not missing anything you dont know.
> Maybe the morning bread had a better loaf available, maybe not, and maybe
> the loaf bought later is just fine.

Not quite sure that's the right -. But taking it further, if you arrive at the bakery too early, then you find that the baking either hasn't started or the bread that's there isn't properly baked because the oven wasn't hot enough. Too late, and the bread has gone stale or you're left with the broken ends that nobody really wants.

The main point is you want to hit the sweet spot when you have the maximum number of candidates available. Of course, the principal might not have the confidence in his own school to fight his corner for various reasons such as location, salary or whatever, and I guess in that instance a smaller pool - which is generally the less well-baked international teachers - might suit.

buffalofan wrote:
> I've normally seen non-renewal done early on in the school year, around the
> time letters of intent are issued. Seems to work out best for both parties
> that way.

Some schools go so early though you wonder why. I've heard principals boasting "we got all our contracts done and almost all our hiring before Christmas" without realising that, by going so early, they have tied up their posts before most teachers have made up their mind to leave, thus missing a huge pool of staff.

Sometimes schools can be too quick to fire teachers. They need to have in place the support for them to try to improve, and really firing should only be as a last resort - where all attempts at getting the teacher to improve have failed and there's no real other action.

Equally, though, I've seen situations where, while it's easy enough to fire expat staff, local staff are much more difficult. This has led to underperformance by those staff (they know that, almost whatever they do, they're not going to be sacked) and this can start to cause issues with other staff who are working hard, and also resentment resulting in staff turnover. As a result, your good staff leave (because they can) and your poor staff stay.