Search found 307 matches

by expatscot
Tue Mar 12, 2024 8:19 pm
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: Family Living Locations
Replies: 5
Views: 780

Re: Family Living Locations

applecake wrote:

> Wondered if we were looking for a throwback to the 80s where we had family
> neighborhoods and kids biking in the streets reminicent to Stranger Things
> - which schools / cities would be best to take a closer look at?

Actually, pretty much any city where there are compounds, in particular ones where there are a large number of expats living in them. Beijing has a few in Shunyi which are like this - Capital Paradise being one - and there are a few in HCMC and KL too.
by expatscot
Tue Feb 27, 2024 11:36 pm
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: How realistic are my chances of an IS job?
Replies: 12
Views: 1986

Re: Discussion

PsyGuy wrote:
> Im going to disagree with @expatscot
>
> This is IE not DE in the UK (Scotland, England, etc.).
>
> Being a humanities IT in a specialty does not make an IT a humanities
> generalist. Being able to teach poli.sci doent mean the IT can teach
> history or anything else for that matter.

Yes, it does. Have a look at virtually any British school across the globe, and you will see history, geography, politics, psychology, business, and economics teachers all teaching humanities to Y7, 8 and 9 - as combined courses. You will also see history teachers teaching geography at IGCSE, maths teachers teaching psychology, and economics teachers teaching politics.

If you are a humanities teacher in any British school internationally, it is very, very unlikely that you will be expected, or indeed able, to teach only the subject your degree or PGDE is in. Frankly, it's the only way they can maintain a full KS3 curriculum.

I agree with you to a point in that it's unlikely the OP specifically would get a job at at middle-to-top tier school, but he might at a lower level (although this wouldn't be great for his kids, which is his priority.) But more generally, for those with much more recent experience, it's not necessarily impossible.
by expatscot
Thu Feb 22, 2024 10:41 pm
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: How realistic are my chances of an IS job?
Replies: 12
Views: 1986

Re: How realistic are my chances of an IS job?

Going to disagree with psyguy here on the subject - I'm a Head of Humanities.

Firstly, you would a Humanities teacher. The subject of Citizenship as taught in KS3 & KS4 at the time you were in the UK is broadly an "introduction to politics" course - similar courses are taught elsewhere, such as Modern Studies in Scotland. The map across to international subjects is less clear, as this isn't really taught below A Level or IBDP, but you'd certainly be able to cover Cambridge's IGCSE Global Perspectives and similar courses.

Secondly, in most British schools, Humanities is a required subject at KS3 so all the classes pass through the department. It's quite easy to fill up a Humanities teacher timetable with KS3 classes if you have enough students. Your ESOL experience could be put to use here as this is where many kids really struggle - look at EAL jobs too.

However, I do agree about some of the disadvantages. You have two kids, so they are going to cost (you don't say how old they are, but this is significant - are we talking teenagers, or primary age kids?) Your own age might be a problem too - many countries start to have restrictions at around 55, and certainly by 60 some of the big ones like China are out.

On the whole, it's probably worth a punt. I'd focus on China now as that's where I suspect you might be more able to match what you are qualified to do with what you are expecting for your kids. Be aware, though, that Humanities teachers are ten-a-penny and it is competitive - you might be better applying for an EAL role but adding that you could teach some KS3 Humanities too.
by expatscot
Thu Jan 18, 2024 2:22 am
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: How would you answer these interview questions?
Replies: 5
Views: 28896

Re: How would you answer these interview questions?

(Before I start - these are not the answers I would give......)

1) What is your teaching philosophy?
Students get the work done.

2) What is your teaching style?
Chalk and talk. Can't get past the sound of my own voice.

3) What are your weaknesses?
Weaknesses?

4) How do you use technology in class?
I have a collection of slide rules, and one Texas Instruments calculator which is about an inch thick. Neither come into much use, as I teach English.

5) What is the most important component of teaching? (curriculum, standards, management, etc)
Coffee

6) How do you motivate students?
Sticks usually work, failing which flying blackboard dusters.

7) How do you use differentiation in class?
The kids who don't understand it sit at the table in the corner so that it's easy for me (and everyone else) to remember who they are.

8) What are the most important measures of safeguarding?
Don't get caught.

9) How do you manage behavior?
See (6).

10) How do you keep up to date with PD / best practices?
Sitting in the corner of the staffroom with my colleagues.

You know, THAT corner. The one where you don't touch the coffee cups under pain of death.

(Thinking back, I have actually worked with a number of teachers who could answer at least two of those questions that way, if they were being truthful in an interview - and I'm old enough to have experienced (6) and (9) during my own school years!)
by expatscot
Wed Jan 10, 2024 11:28 pm
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: Search Associates - white people only?
Replies: 18
Views: 13044

Re: Search Associates - white people only?

Michelle wrote:
> Maybe you forget to tell Search you had a teaching credential and years of
> experience in K-12 education just like you did here?

The OP did tell us:

goblinhunter wrote:
> the full package from the UK (NPQs/Masters/PGCE QTS)

PGCE is the teaching qualification and QTS the teacher registration from England. Search are well aware of this (and I'd be very surprised if any of the associates weren't aware of this as it's a basic requirement.)

@goblinhunter - what I'm not clear about is whether you were not accepted for registration by Search, or whether you were (and your profile is 'active') but they would not put you forward for the role? If it's the former, then it is likely to be something in your references which is causing the problem.

As others have suggested, unless the school is only looking through Search it's worth applying directly - if only because the school will be able to avoid paying the Search fee if they recruit you!
by expatscot
Wed Nov 29, 2023 8:10 pm
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: Resignation and reapplying help
Replies: 15
Views: 165697

Re: Resignation and reapplying help

That's good news if you have successfully signed up for Search - if you have asked for references from your current school it means that they have provided ones which Search are happy enough with. Do look at TES - there are some January or April jobs on there (don't know your exact subject) and it's worth keeping an eye out for the Australian schools in places like Malaysia & Singapore which might still be advertising.
by expatscot
Tue Nov 21, 2023 9:28 pm
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: AI and Future Job Security
Replies: 10
Views: 56875

Re: Discussion

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.)
by expatscot
Tue Nov 21, 2023 9:20 pm
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: Resignation and reapplying help
Replies: 15
Views: 165697

Re: Resignation and reapplying help

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.
by expatscot
Thu Nov 16, 2023 11:16 pm
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: What's more valuable...
Replies: 4
Views: 25146

Re: What's more valuable...

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!
by expatscot
Thu Nov 16, 2023 10:59 pm
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: AI and Future Job Security
Replies: 10
Views: 56875

Re: AI and Future Job Security

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....
by expatscot
Sun Nov 05, 2023 9:26 pm
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: 'Normal' full time teaching load in Secondary
Replies: 17
Views: 107995

Re: 'Normal' full time teaching load in Secondary

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?
by expatscot
Wed Oct 11, 2023 10:43 pm
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: What you wish you knew before going to China?
Replies: 9
Views: 25438

Re: Response

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.
by expatscot
Tue Oct 03, 2023 8:10 pm
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: What you wish you knew before going to China?
Replies: 9
Views: 25438

Re: What you wish you knew before going to China?

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.
by expatscot
Wed Sep 20, 2023 10:34 pm
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: Staff Representative / Communications
Replies: 11
Views: 61713

Re: Reply

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.
by expatscot
Sun Sep 17, 2023 10:46 pm
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: Staff Representative / Communications
Replies: 11
Views: 61713

Re: Discussion

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.