Does anyone have any tips for working with challenging husband and wife teams?

I work fairly closely with both the husband and the wife and the dynamics can be odd from time to time. While I have a fairly decent working relationship with both of them, let's just say it is not exactly a joy to work together for reasons I can't exactly pinpoint.

Without getting into all of the details, I am curious if there are typical tips that seasoned international school educators live by when working with husband and wife teams. For the most part I have only encountered really positive experiences when working with spouses, however I am beginning to see this is not always the case.

PsyGuy, thanks for clearly differentiating small, medium and large size international schools, very helpful to have more realistic numbers!

Yes, 2000 is quite large, I was somewhat randomly throwing numbers out there, and they were not super accurate. I appreciate hearing the different points of views.

As I've worked in all three ranges of schools, I am trying the currently examine where I thrive and am the most effective.

Thank you for your responses as I appreciate hearing these perspectives. All of us have different circumstances for wanting to stay put for longer than the 2 year initial contract, depending on our personal situation etc.

While the school culture is quite negative, I stay out of the griping sessions of teachers etc. so in many ways it does not impact me directly on a day to day basis. However, when it comes down to it, my understanding is that the vast majority of the teachers are not incredibly happy due to a variety of reasons.

I would definitely never say a bad word about a school at a future job interview. In many ways I like challenging situations and can survive, however I am wondering if I will thrive. And that is the debatable piece!

Can it actually harm your future job prospects if you work at a school that is known to have a negative school culture?

While it is preferable to to stay at a school and contribute for longer than one's initial contract, can staying longer at a school like this be detrimental to your job search 5-10 years down the road?

In terms of K-12 schools do you prefer a smaller school (300-2000 students) or larger school (2000-5000 students)?

What are your reasons for preferring one over the other?

How do you know when you have selected the right school to work at? What are the signs that you selected the wrong school to work at?

Thank you so much for the wonderful feedback. I appreciate the invaluable advice.

What are your best tips for when you enter a new school in a leadership role? What are things to be certain to do? What should you steer clear off? I would love to hear from both those in teaching and leadership roles.

Thank you so much for all of your expertise on living in Singapore. The advice helped!

What would be an ideal salary to live comfortably and simply in Singapore?

Housing is paid for so please take that out of the equation. Thank you!

PsyGuy is correct on this one, as I should of said "recommended" rather than "allowed." However if the school is an IB candidate school at this point in time, the IB consultant will most likely tell the Language acquisition department to follow the recommendation.

On pages 20-21 of the MYP Language acquisition guide it states:

"It is at the school’s discretion to group students in the six phases. However, it is essential to consider first and foremost a reasonable differentiation and manageable combination of proficiencies in one class. The school should take into account the demands on the teacher to concentrate on the needs of all the students and to plan appropriate teaching strategies and learning experiences for all. Teachers should take note of the following recommendations.

• Students should be grouped in no more than two consecutive phases in one class together."

So can there be more than 2 phases in a course? Yes. Is it good practice? You be the judge. A teacher with four phases in a class will need to differentiate quite a bit more in lessons and summative assessments as the written language requirements of words and/or characters are different.

I did not state that the MYP is more valuable than the DP. In fact, I think they are equally valuable. It looked like skybluesky was mainly assigned MYP courses so it might of been easier to ask for only MYP in year one. I think it is wise of skybluesky to consider this potential teaching overload before jumping in. Sure, teachers can and do teach both in their first year of teaching within the IB, however is that always the best scenario for quality instruction for students? If skybluesky said he/she had one MYP course and one DP course (2 preps) it is much more doable, however it looks like he/she will have multiple different preps.

Part of the reason why it may seem some teachers are not embracing the IB as PsyGuy stated is because they are spread entirely too thin. This is why I personally think it is smart to not overwhelm teachers who are new to the IB with multiple different preps. It takes quite a few years to become a seasoned MYP and/or DP teacher, though that can be catalyzed when you start small and then grow into more.

As you can see, a potential issue at some schools can be the MYP/DP divide where people want to put more value in one programme over the other. The must successful schools place equal value in both the MYP and the DP and clearly build upon the alignments in both programmes. The MYP is a simply a framework and the teachers can get as content heavy as they'd like to adequately prepare for the DP.

It all comes down to one's perspective. The MYP spans 5 grade levels and the DP spans 2 grade levels. When looking for jobs in the future there are more grade level options with the MYP. That being said I do think if you have experience teaching both that can be the most marketable.

A MYP and DP coordinator's job description should be available to the community stakeholders. It can be helpful when it is detailed enough so that new employees know what type of support to expect from the coordinator. If you do not ask for the coordinator's job description definitely ask what types of supports are in place for new teachers to receive guidance from the coordinator.

Hello skybluesky,

The pro of teaching both within the MYP and the DP is that you will see what the end goal is within the continuum of an IB education. The con is that you may not be able to teach at your optimal level because time will be tight.

Administrators who actually understand the conceptual-based nature of MYP units understand that the units take time to develop. To provide quality learning opportunities for students to explore the key and related concepts, the global context and the statement of inquiry takes time. Not to mention the creation of criterion-based summative assessments and the development plan of ATL skills. I review many MYP units from around the world and one of the biggest issues I see is that teachers do not truly understand the conceptual nature of the units. Some teachers are fitting how they use to teach into the MYP unit planner and calling it a day. When you truly use the concepts and contexts as inspiration for the unit, it is obvious and changes your approach to topics you teach.

Yes, teaching MYP years 1-3 and a DP course is going to be a lot in your first year of getting acquainted with the IB standards and practices. Keep in mind that the MYP Language acquisition guide is double the amount of pages as the other MYP subject guides. The pro of that is that it is very specific in terms of the amount of written and spoken words that are expected from students at each phase.

Since Language acquisition courses are taught within the "phase model" with 6 discrete phases existing, find out what phase the current teachers are using in these MYP years. A total of 2 phases are allowed with one classroom situation - i.e. Phases 1-2 in one class and Phases 3-4 in another class. For example, if students in MYP year 1 are all in Phase 1 and students in year 2-3 are in Phases 2-3 it might not be that terrible.

A few questions to ask your future administrators:

1) Can I see the Language acquisition horizontal/vertical planners from the school?
2) Will there be another teacher teaching the same course? (If so, your summative assessments will match due to standardization so this might be a time-saver)
3) Can I see the DP and MYP coordinator's job description? (If the coordinators have little release time you will not receive the support you need)
4) What MYP Language acquisition workshop will you be sending me to? What DP workshop?

A few MYP documents to familiarize yourself with:

1) IB standards and practices (2014)
2) MYP: From principles into practice (2014)
3) MYP Language acquisition guide (2014)
4) IB position paper: Conceptual-based teaching and learning by Lynn Erickson (2012)

If the administrators appear to not know what they are doing I would definitely ask to teach only the MYP your first year because you may not receive the support you need. If you feel the administrators have a good handle on things go for teaching both - it has been done before, just expect to spend a lot of time in your first year reading and developing your lessons.

Hope this helps a bit and good luck! I hope you find the IB road rewarding and inspiring.

Hello Nutella,

I lived and worked (not teaching at that point) in a stable country in West Africa for 4 years. I have also traveled extensively around the region - Togo, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Mali, Ghana, Senegal, Nigeria, Niger, Mauritania. There is a very clear distinction between the "expat life" and the "village life." I was in an organization that required us to live in the village. My friends who lived a 20 hour bus ride away in the capital city and led the "expat" life, led a near opposite lifestyle to my "village" lifestyle. However in many ways, we were all subject to the same things when it came to health and safety.

In terms of malaria, it always surprises me how some people (who have never had it) act like it is not that big of a deal. The organization I worked for provided us with a weekly Mefloquine pill. Mefloquine can have intense side effects - bad dreams, anxiety, etc. After about a year of taking Mefloquine I decided to not take any anti-malaria medication because I slept with a mosquito net and wore long sleeves so I was going to be OK, right? Wrong. There were four types of malaria where I lived and when I got malaria, it was absolutely horrible. I will save you from the details but it was so not pretty. I continued to try to go anti-malaria medication free for a few months, but after having malaria episodes about three times I decided to take another anti-malaria medication which had less side effects but that you needed to take daily. A friend ended up with cerebral malaria and needed to be medevaced to his home country because he got quite ill. It is thought that Sickle Cell Anemia actually makes some West Africans less prone to the effects of malaria. I did not have this advantage.

Additionally, even when drinking what you think is "safe" water and eating as clean as possible, you do get stomach bugs and digestive issues. Giardia, though not terrible, not fun at all... when is frothy gross poop with belly aches ever fun? Guinea worm is becoming less common, but is still around parts of Africa. Knowing how worried we get as parents when our kids have high fevers, I just do not want my kids to encounter this type of stuff at such a young age. There is a reason why many locals want sponsorship to live abroad, life is rough in many places.

I did have a few really dangerous things happen to me while with friends (locals) on public transport and with a taxi driver - they all involved guns being pointed at my head and all of my possessions and money being taken from me. Having guns pointed against your head does change you for life, and it is not something I want my children to experience. I never traveled with any extra flashy items and pretty much dressed like the locals.

I loved my time in West Africa so very much, and I made lasting friendships with Africans whom I will know for life. However that is not what I've chosen to discuss because I do want to shed light on the realities of living in many places in Africa. Would I bring my young children to a place where malaria, giardia, Guinea-worm, cholera, etc are a possibility? Absolutely not because I've experienced some of them as an adult, and it was absolutely horrible.

I do think it is up to a family if they'd like to bring their children to this environment, and I would never judge them for this decision as everyone has a different life path. Talk to as many people as you can who have lived in Africa before deciding on a region. I was in one small region on a very vast continent.

Thank you for all of the suggestions. I always planned on being truthful regarding the dual citizenship of my spouse. The nationalities of my spouse are already in his online recruiting portal. Though I am not sure that the partner's online information always gets looked at in detail when it is the spouse applying for the job. I was just not sure if it is important to state right away in the cover letter/introduction email. This route seems like the most direct approach, and possibly the best time-saver for all parties.

Believe it or not, this is definitely a Tier 1 school as it is consistently ranked as one on all lists I have seen in circulation. I always found it surprising that "local hires" who were not really "local hires" where important to a school of this ranking. As others posted, this may just be a school policy that the HOS and principals have no control over.

Thank you for stressing that the items need to be "awesome." Yes, I will keep it exciting. No snooze-fests over here. Quality over quantity will be the mantra.