Search found 34 matches

by monkeycat
Sat Sep 11, 2021 8:13 pm
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: End of Non-T1/T2 Schools in China? Or Just Rumors?
Replies: 5
Views: 6994

Re: End of Non-T1/T2 Schools in China? Or Just Rumors?

It's hard to predict what the CCP will do next. It's definitely possible this is just a bit of saber rattling and that things will die down without escalating.

However, I will say that in the past few years, China has definitely been drifting towards a more nationalistic approach to education. It's gotten to the point where even Chinese parents are slightly concerned. The ISs in my area have taken any sort of world history/global politics subjects off their curriculum as a precaution. So it's not impossible that regulations will tighten in the next couple of years.
by monkeycat
Sat Sep 04, 2021 11:14 pm
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: getting hired at a British school
Replies: 5
Views: 9922

getting hired at a British school

Hello all. I was wondering how difficult it is to get hired at a British international school with no prior experience with the British curriculum. My partner is British but both of us have US teaching licenses. We also have IB experience (MYP/DP) and AP experience in our subjects. A lot of British schools say on their websites that they prefer teachers with PGCEs and/or prior experience with the UK curriculum but that it is not a requirement. I'm curious if any non-British teachers who have worked at British schools could share their experiences.
by monkeycat
Sat Sep 04, 2021 7:13 am
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: Apply for QTS using a DC standard license
Replies: 7
Views: 11226

Re: Apply for QTS using a DC standard license

You can apply for QTS online with your DC license. Citizenship doesn't really matter. From what I understand QTS doesn't require renewal.
by monkeycat
Wed Apr 01, 2020 6:52 pm
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: China closed
Replies: 67
Views: 80271

Re: China closed

eion_padraig wrote:
> I was talking to my family and saying I'm not sure that I'll be leaving
> China for the summer. I definitely won't if they keep the ban on foreigners
> entering, but I'm not likely to do that even if they keep the 14 day
> quarantine in a hotel. I'd consider it if there was a 14 day quarantine in
> my own apartment. My family responded that thought it might not be a good
> idea to return given what's happening in the country any way.

We are thinking the same. We have a toddler and just finished the 14 day hotel quarantine. We got extremely lucky and were put in a decent hotel with kind staff members, in two rooms with a connecting door. But hotel quarantine is a crap shoot and people we know got put in really awful places. Some families were forced to split up. We are not risking that. Even if they allow you to quarantine at home, there is always the danger your flight will include someone with a fever and then suddenly you're put somewhere else. We've pretty much resigned ourselves to staying put this summer. (Also things back home are a shambles, and who knows what it will look like come July.)
by monkeycat
Sat Mar 28, 2020 2:15 am
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: China closed
Replies: 67
Views: 80271

Re: China closed

Our school was telling teachers who hadn't returned that once school re-opened they wouldn't get paid their salary until they returned to the classroom. But they were allowed to keep their benefits (insurance, housing, flight allowance etc). I don't know what their stance is going to be now that it's impossible for these teachers to return even if they wanted to. And there's no way any teachers are returning to China while this ban is in place. The idea that the Chinese government would make any exceptions for teachers, extraordinary or no, is laughable. I don't think any IS in China, no matter how unreasonable, would try to argue that teachers without Chinese passports could somehow find a way back right now.

Withholding their salary was our school's way of trying to get these teachers to suck it up and just come back, despite the fact that there's a mandatory 14 day hotel quarantine in place. It's doable if you are a single teacher, but some teachers have families with young kids. And some of the hotels are pretty awful, with food that is not in any way kid friendly. But's that all moot now, I suppose.

Schools can only hope that this ban won't last past the spring.
by monkeycat
Tue Feb 25, 2020 4:23 pm
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: China People - What Does Online Learning Look Like for You Right Now?
Replies: 21
Views: 35821

Re: China People - What Does Online Learning Look Like for You Right Now?

Every day I have class, I upload my Daily Lesson Plan for the students, which consists of a numbered list that walks them through the tasks they should be working on for that day. We're supposed to assign 60 minute's worth of work per lesson, but the feedback we've received is that the students are all a bit overwhelmed by the workload for distance learning. I think a lot of my colleagues have gone overboard in trying to be creative with their lessons, resulting in students have to familiarize themselves with a whole bunch of different platforms and web sites all at once. My goal has been to keep it as simple as possible. My students are all in different time zones right now, so webinars or online discussions aren't really a viable option. I've been conducting online discussions via Teams, and the participation rates have been reasonable.

We are encouraged to assign tasks that take the students away from the computer, but since literature usually consists of reading, writing, and discussion, there's not a lot I can do at the moment that doesn't involve screen time, especially since we've been told we can't assume students have access to a printer.

I worry about the students have ILPs or tend to struggle in general. They are rapidly falling behind.
by monkeycat
Thu Feb 20, 2020 10:37 pm
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: Situation in China
Replies: 37
Views: 81984

Re: Situation in China

It’s times like these that show a school’s true colors, I feel.

Our school has been paying us our normal salary, thankfully. We are required to teach distance learning classes, of course (not necessarily videos or streaming). The initial announcement was for each day of distance learning to count as half a day of actual learning in terms of counting school days and adjusting vacations. The school sent out a survey to the teachers and most of the teachers argued that the amount of prep involved for distance learning shouldn’t be underestimated. Not sure if the school will rethink the policy or not though.
by monkeycat
Wed Feb 12, 2020 5:16 am
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: Situation in China
Replies: 37
Views: 81984

Re: Situation in China

According to my colleagues in China at the moment the quality of life sucks right now. Most things are closed and people are discouraged from leaving the house unless absolutely necessary. You can't even visit friends unless you live in the same compound. Everyone is going a bit insane. School is supposed to reopen first week of March but everything seems up in the air as of now.
by monkeycat
Tue Jan 28, 2020 7:27 pm
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: Situation in China
Replies: 37
Views: 81984

Re: Situation in China

We are in Shandong province and our school is closed until Feb 17. School said we will provide distance learning, but no details on what that will look like.
by monkeycat
Tue Jun 18, 2019 10:26 pm
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: Contract done. Change schools in same country. Consequences?
Replies: 7
Views: 8834

Re: Contract done. Change schools in same country. Consequen

We are located in China and just signed a contract with a different school in the same city. They treated us the same as any other hire from overseas. The issue was never even raised.
by monkeycat
Thu Mar 07, 2019 9:23 pm
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: Filing a complaint in China
Replies: 11
Views: 11822

Re: Filing a complaint in China

Having worked in China for a handful of years, I concur with the advice to keep your head down. If you try to complain to a Chinese person that your boss gave you a lighter workload for the same pay, they would think you are bonkers regardless of the context.
by monkeycat
Wed Feb 13, 2019 7:52 pm
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: Advice Needed - 3-Year Transition to International Schools
Replies: 24
Views: 22644

Re: Advice Needed - 3-Year Transition to International Schoo

In my experience, most of my friends in IT started their careers in schools they would not want to send their kids to long term. But your kids are pretty little so if you want to work at a lower tier school for a couple years it might not be as big a deal. It's always possible you'd get a good school right off the bat, but it wouldn't be easy. Best of luck.
by monkeycat
Tue Feb 12, 2019 7:43 am
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: Seeking advice
Replies: 36
Views: 34877

Re: Seeking advice

Teaching 20+hrs a week with four preps (including an AP prep) sounds insane. I used to teach AP Lit and my school gave me a lighter classload because AP is a lot of extra work.
by monkeycat
Sat Feb 09, 2019 8:48 am
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: 2019 Search Associates Bangkok
Replies: 79
Views: 121456

Re: 2019 Search Associates Bangkok

Just wanted to post an update - we ended up signing with a school that we interviewed with a couple weeks ago. (This school was not at the fair.) We got pretty lucky and ended up with a school that ticks all of our important boxes. It was one of those "reach" schools that we never really expected to hear back from, and there was a week of radio silence from them that made us almost give up, but in the end we were more than happy with the offer they made us.

Despite the fact we didn't get any jobs as a result of the Bangkok fair, we don't regret going - as newbies we learned a lot, and I feel that what we learned may have helped us interview better for the school we ended up with. Anyway, I just wanted to offer some encouragement to the other newbies out there - we were pretty resigned to staying another year at our current school but things did work out for us in the end. Best of luck to everyone!
by monkeycat
Sun Jan 13, 2019 11:11 pm
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: 2019 Search Associates Bangkok
Replies: 79
Views: 121456

Re: 2019 Search Associates Bangkok

PsyGuy, thank you for your observations. We'll just have to disagree on some points. I don't see the point of taking a deliberately negative view of certain situations. Job fairs are stressful enough as it is. It's true that interviews mean little if you don't get the job offer, but the reason why a job offer is made to one person and not another is influenced by a lot of variables (and I say this from the point of view of someone who has been involved in the hiring process on the other end). Maybe they already had a top pick and were just jerking us around, but maybe they were actually looking for the best fit. You can't really know that as a candidate, and from my point of view you might as well take what encouragement you can get.

I suppose it's possible that a school will waste your time for whatever reason, but I'd like to think that schools wouldn't want to waste their own time if at all possible. Again, how do you know if it's going to be a waste of time or not? You just have to put yourself out there and hope for the best.

When we peeked at the school folders the night before Day 1, they were almost completely empty. It wasn't until the morning of Day 1 that people started putting resumes in. Some schools had obviously gone through their resume stacks before sign up, but others hadn't.

The initial email we got prior to the fair was one asking us for an interview. It was very clear.

Also there is no more social hour at the SA Bangkok Fair. For whatever reason, it's not part of the schedule any more.

The biggest problem with the current schedule of school presentations being held after the sign up is that a lot of people have interviews scheduled during that time, so it's very difficult for candidates to get to presentations as well as juggling interviews (although maybe the presentations are aimed at people who weren't able to get interviews at sign up, I don't know).