Search found 50 matches

by zenteach
Sat Mar 28, 2020 12:23 am
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: China closed
Replies: 67
Views: 80253

Re: China closed

How does this impact educators who already have contracts at schools in China for next school year? Does this mean they will not be able to work there?
by zenteach
Sat Mar 21, 2020 5:30 am
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: Schools refusing to close due in COVID-2019 pandemic
Replies: 7
Views: 11805

Re: Schools refusing to close due in COVID-2019 pandemic

@Helen, excellent point about cost saving measures with less people on campus. We are mainly worried about the fact that students and teachers are all very close contact without the required amount of space between us. Not to mention most of the teachers take public transport.

@Sid, all of the similar size and type of international schools are closed. We are amongst about 2-3 total that are open (of our type of school).
by zenteach
Fri Mar 20, 2020 5:41 am
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: Schools refusing to close due in COVID-2019 pandemic
Replies: 7
Views: 11805

Re: Schools refusing to close due in COVID-2019 pandemic

The school claims they are following the governmental regulations. However, there are a variety of measures that they are not actually following, and have not been following.

No doubt, money has a big part to play. And don't get me wrong, I am grateful I have a job at this time.

However what really gets me is that the "leadership" team asks for opinions, and then when you tell them the truth they get incredibly defensive about their choices. Don't ask us questions if you do not want answers.

All of the other schools that have closed (5+) in our city are higher ranking Tier 1 type of schools. Indeed, it is already damaging the school's reputation. Parents are writing really strong comments on social media and digital public forums.

The staff morale is in the gutter, but the school continues to carry on with their nonsense about how we are safer at school than at home.
by zenteach
Wed Mar 18, 2020 9:44 am
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: Schools refusing to close due in COVID-2019 pandemic
Replies: 7
Views: 11805

Schools refusing to close due in COVID-2019 pandemic

Is anyone else at a school that is refusing to close? I am in a SE Asian country where the numbers are not that high, but steadily and rapidly increasing. Our school leadership team keeps mentioning that we should "trust" them, yet other international schools in our city are all closing for at least the next couple of weeks.

There are members of our parent community who have contracted it, and we have a couple students in quarantine as a result.

What might be going on here? Why would a school be so opposed to closing in a global pandemic?
by zenteach
Mon Nov 11, 2019 8:25 am
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: Non-collaborative colleagues - advice?
Replies: 5
Views: 7415

Re: Non-collaborative colleagues - advice?

Thank you for the advice everyone. Good points. For the most part my school is very collaborative. I am only having these issues with this one person, and unfortunately it is the person I am to work closely with.

The issue did slightly get raised at one point, and the person did agree with a higher positioned boss-type that they agreed to work in a particular way. However they are still not doing what they said they were going to do in terms of collaboration.

PsyGuy, this person is part of a leadership team, so telling the higher positioned people does not exactly work. I also do not want to complain because I do not think the higher positioned people have time for this type of thing. From now on I will just address it with the person directly. I've realized the person is who they are, and I can only control the way I react to the situation.
by zenteach
Tue Nov 05, 2019 9:59 am
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: Non-collaborative colleagues - advice?
Replies: 5
Views: 7415

Non-collaborative colleagues - advice?

What is your best advice for working with non-collaborative colleagues when you've tried to address it in the past and nothing changes?

Background...the role I am in requires me to directly work with someone who likes to do their own thing, without checking in with others on the team. While this might be fine in certain circumstances, these actions then directly impact my role and others on our team. I've attempted to have conversation with this person, however they get quite defensive and ultimately their behaviors have not changed. Our roles require us to collaborate, so there is no going around that.
by zenteach
Thu Sep 12, 2019 9:59 am
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: Last straws
Replies: 13
Views: 19355

Re: Last straws

Thank you for your thoughts everyone! Sid, I know what you mean. It is amazing to think how dramatically different and yet the same many of our lives will be as we either decide to move on or not.
by zenteach
Fri Sep 06, 2019 5:42 am
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: Last straws
Replies: 13
Views: 19355

Last straws

When you have moved on from a school that was not necessarily aligned to your educational philosophy, what was the straw that broke the camel's back? In other words, what were either the tiny events, or larger event(s) that led to you deciding that the environment was no longer the right place for you?
by zenteach
Sat Jul 27, 2019 2:10 am
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: Traits of Best Colleagues
Replies: 45
Views: 39580

Re: Traits of Best Colleagues

Haha! No paper due here. Just hoping to have a great year and remind myself of qualities to keep or toss.

I see your point about IT's keeping to themselves, but what about collaboration? Just kidding PsyGuy...
by zenteach
Sat Jul 27, 2019 1:20 am
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: Traits of Best Colleagues
Replies: 45
Views: 39580

Traits of Best Colleagues

What have been some of the traits of the colleagues you've most enjoyed working with?

What do you hope your colleagues do this year to make it a great school year?
by zenteach
Tue Jun 04, 2019 9:10 am
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: Colleagues with Big Egos - Say Something or Not?
Replies: 16
Views: 18734

Re: Colleagues with Big Egos - Say Something or Not?

Thank you for the replies everyone. For now I have decided not to say anything as I agree with the opinion given that words do not necessarily change people like this. In the end, I think this person may just have a very low self-esteem so they need to talk themselves up. It gets old quick, but I can ignore it and move on for now as it is annoying, but not hurting anyone.
by zenteach
Tue Jun 04, 2019 9:04 am
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: Finding an opening school/being a founding teacher
Replies: 5
Views: 6397

Re: Finding an opening school/being a founding teacher

In my previous posting I was a school founder, and it was the best experience of my teaching career. Beginning everything from scratch, building as a new team, creating a community with students and families are all things that I loved being part of. I also had an amazing and inspiring HOS, which greatly added to the experience.

As I've recently stepped into a new position, and was left quite a mess to clean-up, I find I long for the days of school founding, where one does not inherit the mess of another.

That being said, if your husband is a teacher who likes order and can't deal with chaos, being a school founder will be challenging. It can be fairly messy in the beginning, even with organized leadership. However during that time he will learn life changing skills that will impact his career forever.

I had a few roles in my previous school, and for my teaching role I did the following - put together massive ordering lists (if he is art, P.E. or science this can be super time consuming), collaborate on anything and everything, build up the advisory program, develop lessons/units from scratch, potentially investigate standards to adopt, the list goes on.

Founding a school was the best experience I ever had as a teacher. I highly recommend it, however it is not for everyone. If a teacher is inflexible, school founding is not necessarily for them.
by zenteach
Thu May 30, 2019 10:10 am
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: Colleagues with Big Egos - Say Something or Not?
Replies: 16
Views: 18734

Colleagues with Big Egos - Say Something or Not?

Have you ever experienced working with someone in international schools with a huge ego?

Signs of this include repeated mention of how great they are, what they use to do at their last school that was so amazing, how everything is terrible unless they are involved in it, so on and so forth. Additionally these types tend to put others down in order to feel better about themselves.

Do you eventually point it out to them when they time and time again raise themselves above others, or do you just let them live in their la-la land? Are some things just better left unsaid? Or is it worth mentioning so that you do not have to listen to it anymore?
by zenteach
Thu May 30, 2019 9:57 am
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: Reasons HOS/Directors/Principals Lose Touch
Replies: 3
Views: 4884

Reasons HOS/Directors/Principals Lose Touch

What are the key reasons that you believe Heads of School/Directors/Principals lose touch with the pulse of a school?

What characteristics do you believe to be key in order to stay in touch?