teacher tan wrote:
> You can expect questions on the following:
> 1. teaching vs. managing faculty
> 2. Addressing parental complaints about one of your teachers
> 3. Supporting new and struggling teachers
> 4. Your organizational skills
> 5. Delegating work, bringing people together, and dealing with rebels
> 6. Scheduling and explaining rationale behind assigning subjects to teachers
> 7. Curriculum - horizontal and vertical alignment, establishing cross-curricular
> links, trans-disciplinary skills, knowledge vs. skills debate etc.
> 8. Strategies for the department transition from good to great
> 9. Plan B- when things don't work as planned
> 10. Safety issues, technician training if you are a science department head
>
> P.S. Been HoD at two elite schools for a decade.

Thank you Teacher Tan - this is good stuff.

The school I'm going to next year wants to interview me for the HOD position, which is a completely new experience.

Any ideas on what questions they might ask me?

wrldtrvlr123 wrote:
> PsyGuy wrote:
> >> @WT123
> >
> > @Doctor made an observation, thats anecdotal data. Its anecdotal, but its data.
>
> ===================
> It now makes sense why so many of your posts about data make no sense (and what you
> really mean when you say, "Only data matters"). Good to know.

PsyGuy is correct - it's anecdotal evidence and that too counts as data.

If I had ask "the best and worst disciplined students in the world" I'm guessing the majority would agree the worst disciplined students would be in the ME and the best disciplined would be in Asia. This would be based on anecdotal evidence, I can't imagine anyone disputing it and I doubt I would be flagged as a racist for asking the question. Probably people would just assume that I wanted to know which countries to avoid if I wanted to avoid classroom management problems.

mamava wrote:
> I worked in China for 5 years and Chinese students were very hardworking--they pushed
> themselves hard and their parents pushed harder. There wasn't a lot of room to
> be a slacker.
> Not sure why the question was asked, or why it matters categorizing students by race
> or ethnicity.

The question was asked because the perception of Chinese students is that of what you have just described - hardworking with parents that push and yes, that's what I saw in Taiwan and Hong Kong. I'm just not seeing it here on the Mainland. I'm seeing students that do as little as possible and parents that see the teacher as the problem.

This is a bilingual school for rich kids so that may have something to do with it but when I asked my mainland Chinese wife she said no - Chinese students are not Gods gift to mankind as they are represented in the States.

I don't appreciate veiled accusations of racism. I've seen plenty of posts that characterize ME students as lazy and self-entitled with no real pushback so it is possible that going from one culture to another, we see different attitudes toward learning. What I'm seeing, and I am speaking from experience, is that mainland Chinese students are fairly lazy compared to Hong Kong, Taiwanese and Japanese students and I don't think that it is a racist comment. It's an observation that my mainland Chinese wife thinks is probably true.

I've taught in all three Chinas, Japan, Thailand, Cambodia and I've had several Korean students over the years.
In my experience, hands down the Mainland Chinese are the laziest and most unmotivated students that I have ever encountered in Asia; in fact they seem lazier and less motivated than many of the public school students I had in the USA. In fact, their only saving grace is that they are well behaved for the most part, respectful and in general quite pleasant. But my God are mainland Chinese students lazy!

Anyone else find this to be true?

I'm going from China to Brazil and the visa process is turning into a nightmare. It will probably be worse for China to Europe.

base5555 wrote:
> @Doctor, So did you ever receive your signed contract?? I am kinda in the same situation.
> I was offered the position at the interview, the director seemed excited to have
> me join, and then they sent me the contract a few days later to look over with my
> family. Anyways, I signed a contract a week and a half ago, and still waiting for
> a signed and stamped contract. Now I know they were checking out my references,
> which should be on the up and up, but wondering how long this process takes for
> most people. Also of note, my position (same posting date) is still advertised
> on their site. Perhaps they haven't had the time to take it down, but they have
> added more to their list of jobs since my interview.

You know I still haven't actually received a signed contract but they are no longer hiring online so I guess its all good. If I don't get something back by February, I'll say something.

rake wrote:
> Worked a bit with this over the past couple of years. A lot of schools that
> have adopted it are using it to provide some focus to MYP, rather than use
> it as a curriculum in lieu of MYP. As a standalone curriculum, it is
> lacking; rather it is designed to support and clarify curriculums that
> already exist along those values.
>
> The workshops are really hit or miss, though. My experience is after the
> big picture ideas (which are interesting), we were provided with a lot of
> warmed-over activities and practices that weren't really novel (a PD
> experience everyone has had, I'm sure).

The activities may not be novel but how they are assessed and the weighting of assessment would change tremendously with common ground.

PsyGuy wrote:
> @Doctor
>
> Im familiar with CGC ... Its not a curriculum though, its a system that takes a curriculum
> and applies their meds/peds/asst to it. I can take the CGC curriculum and apply
> a confucian imperial rote learning system to it, and its still the same curriculum.
>
You can misapply any system. I guess this goes to a mission or vision statement that does NOT emphasize rote learning.
>
> I disagree with your characterization of non-progressive programs heavily weighted
> towards knowledge and understanding. There are a lot of subject fields that require
> a great deal of knowledge and understating in the form of knowing X happened at
> Y and what the definition of X is and how X applies to doing Z. Students need to
> know how to factor a polynomial for algebra and what the hypotenuses is and how
> thats relevant to sine/cosine/tan and knowing that and understanding that is the
> primary goal, there isnt anything progressive to it. Biology students need to know
> how to do a X^2 test in genetics, how they feel about global warming and rising
> oceans is a nice lesson for a different place and time, but the statistics just
> have to be known how to do it and understand when its appropriate.
>
Students need to know how to factor a polynomia; I'm not saying that shouldn't be assessed. Students also need to communicate all this to an audience and tailor the process of factoring to an application, like in projectile motion they could factor a polynomial as an application in math class. But this isn't know and understanding; this is more like communication and reflection.

> We dont have progressive work environments,

I've heard google is a progressive work environment with flex schedules, exercise machines, a barista - these are all possible assessment criteria.

PsyGuy wrote:
> Progressive education isnt about curriculum its pedagogy and methodology. You can
> do the same curriculum vie rote learning or do it by inquiry (or PBL, eXp, GDi,
> SC, montessori, etc.). That said its really just pop.ed for whatever modern ideology,
> ethos, concept, strategy the IS or leadership wants to say it is. There are plenty
> of ISs and DSs in both IE and DE that claim to be progressive that are anything
> but. If you want an easy indicator look at how much the IS spends on classroom resources,
> the more resources available the more progressive its likely to be, you need to
> have 'stuff' for students to engage actively and meaningfully. ISs with a lot of
> chalk talk push and pull, and paper resources tend to be the most dated and least
> engaging (passive learning).
>

I disagree that isn't about curriculum. For example, the common ground curriculum is a progressive curriculum (https://commongroundcollaborative.org/). As far as identifying if a school is progressive or not, start by looking at their assessment policy. If it's heavily weighted toward knowledge and understanding, it's not progressive.

Thames Pirate wrote:
> If someone asks you how you incorporate being a risk taker or being an inquirer in
> your physics class, it's an easy question. They don't expect you to talk about all
> of them. If you were asked about differentiation or teaching self-management skills
> in math, again it's an easy question. Pick the two or three of each that apply most
> easily or maybe prepare an answer for the most surprising ones ("here's how I teach
> being balanced in physics" or "here's how I develop my teaching in a local and global
> context in maths") to show that you take them seriously. You don't need to talk
> about all 10 traits or 11 ATLs. If you can throw in some additional IB jargon or
> acronyms or name all of the traits/ATL, you get bonus points on this one.

Very useful answer. And you are right come to think of it - ATL skills do go to differentiation.

@Heilotrope
"Perfectly valid questions for an IB school, while I agree with @chilagringa that MYP needs lots of improvements."

Can you suggest some answers for my stack of index cars?

Most frequent questions:
1. What would I see if I walked into your class or describe a typical class.
2. How would your students/coworkers/headmasters describe you?
3. Questions about differentiation.
4. Questions about classroom management.

I could go on but it's to boring; I have a stack of index cards with answers to questions I've been asked.
I was stumped once though. A recruiter asked me two questions I totally flubbed:

1. How do you integrate ATLs in your MYP math classroom?
2. How do you integrate IB learner profile traits in your DP physics classroom?

I sent the signed contract but haven't received a signed contract back but I am in touch with the principal and she's suggested a few resort areas closeby if I go to Egypt early; she's provided info on the hotel new teachers will stay at.

I think it's more or less what psyguy said - it's just early yet. I'm certainly not going to contact any teachers their or ask for contact info but I would like a signed contract. I'll follow-up on this after Christmas break but I feel more or less confident that its all for real, mostly because the principal is in touch.

I just read an interesting review of a school in Egypt and in it, a general comment about Egypt is made:

"You will generally be judged, whether a particular school agrees and admits to this point or not, on the grades that you as a teacher are able to produce at the end of any given assessment period – not your students. Despite their lack of interest, motivation and unwillingness to do well, knowing full well that a career has been secured for them regardless of their results, you will be held responsible and accountable and will have to answer for the results. Although this generally seems unfair; welcome to the teaching profession (and unfortunately one of the reasons many of us decide to leave this career)."

As I just accepted a job in Egypt and I may be facing a similar situation, my first thought was, why not just give them the grades they want? In a situation like this, if the reviewers description is accurate, grade inflation seems like an ethical decision if a man has bills to pay, kids to feed and of course tries his hardest.

He also goes on to talk about safety issues. I've been to Egypt four times on holiday and I always felt safe and I really loved the country. Generally speaking, what is like to teach in Egypt?