Walter wrote:

> In the meantime, for the more intelligent of our readers, please understand that
> no serious school is interested in "tourist teachers" or "hoppers". Doubtless, Dave
> will try to turn this advice into "admin-fear-mongering"; this is his standard riposte

Two years is not a tourist,unless I've misunderstood the term all these years. I thought by tourist teacher, one meant like 3 - 6 months and then a runner. Two years is in fact a solid investment.

mamava wrote:
> Most teachers I work with who hand back tests like that scan them before handing
> them back. That way, if a student tries to change anything, there is a scanned
> copy of the original test.
>
> Penalizing the whole class would of course cause problems. Deal with the students
> who are at issue and leave the rest alone.

Of course I won't do it like this again but I thought I had kept a fairly close eye on them.
My thoughts exactly on moving forward, just deal with the students who confessed.

My G1 students took their internal exam this week and I am in charge of grading the exams for both sections of G1, mine and another teachers section. Yesterday I had my G1 section clear their desks of everything and put all writing materials away and I gave them their ungraded G1 paper and went through it with them. I was keeping a really close watch on them and I didn't see anyone with a pen or pencil out. Anyway this was obviously not a wise move on my part but live and learn.

Anyway, today 3 students went to their tutor and told her they had changed answers and wanted to change their answers back. The tutor went to my HOD, who blew his stack, and now wants both sections of G1 to resit the exam on Monday. I think this create more problems then solutions.

Any suggestions on how to solve this issue?

By the way, the 3 students who "confessed" want to change wrong answers they claim to have written down yesterday back to the right answers they had initially written down during the exam. These three kids are low achievers across all their classes and I don't believe them. I think they just see an opportunity to earn a few extra points.

secondplace wrote:
> As a school if we were looking at two candidates that were very equal in terms of
> experience, references, 'fit' for our school etc. and one had completed four year
> stints at two schools, and the other two year stints at four schools, I would lean
> strongly towards the teacher who had stayed longer.
>
> Why? Because their previous experience would suggest they are more likely to do the
> same and we would be building stability for the school.
>
> Obviously this isn't guaranteed, but it would influence my preference.

I never have a problem getting jobs. Maybe I'm missing out on jobs at tier 1 schools and elite tier schools but that isn't my career goal. Two year contracts at a string of well paying tier 2 schools from one end of the planet to the other is a more attractive career goal for me then maximizing my earning potential and benefits at a tier 1 school.

Really how much better can the overall package be at a tier 1 school compared to a well paying tier 2 school? At the end of the day, it's a teachers salary. Teaching isn't a money profession and I have yet to meet a teacher who became one to get rich.

shadowjack wrote:
> If you've been at 5 schools (minimum) in the last 12 years, you're doing it wrong.
> 2 and done is the kiss of death internationally. Try the hotel business, but if
> it isn't for you, look to start subbing in a GOOD local school, break your butt,
> then use that as either a springboard to a local hire contract (functions booked
> at the hotel, school visitors etc) or a contract elsewhere...

My longest stretch at any one school has been 5 years and I honestly regret having stayed that long. My next longest posting is my current one, which has been 3 years. For the other 20 odd years, they have ALL been "2 and done" or less. A few were less than a year.

Why is this wrong? The main perk of IST IMHO is the potential for so much and such varied travel.

On the other hand, pursuing a career as an international school teacher seems to be gaining momentum. More and more teachers seem to want to do it and if that trend out paces new school openings, there could be a glut of teachers on the market.

A symptom of the big ego - they never shut up and trying to get a word in edge wise is not worth the effort because they won't hear what you have to say anyway. Another symptom is their teacher centered sage on stage approach to education. It must be hard for an egotist who can't his mouth shut to quietly adopt a guide on the side approach to education.

On the other hand, they can be entertaining and it is easy for a student to just kick back and "take notes" and let a confident and well spoken know it all take center stage.

I'm going through the checkout procedure at my current school and I'm missing some textbooks assigned to me 3 years ago. This is China and textbooks are expensive but the missing books are 3 years old and in used condition and they only issue new textbooks to students.

How much of the original cost do you think it is fair to agree to pay? Given that they only issue new textbooks to students, I'm thinking I'll offer 25% of the original cost and 0% of shipping related costs.

Does that sound reasonable?

I've noticed it and just assumed it's because rich people are different but apparently it's a whole thing:

https://www.ibblaw.co.uk/insights/blog/ ... al-effects

I used this guy and it worked for me: luis@apostille.net
I was able to send scanned documents and he got them all apostillized in a few days.

It wasn't cheap though!

monkeycat wrote:
> 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.

Well I'm not complaining, I was just considering it and looking into the procedure for doing so but don't think that the lighter work-load comes without a price. For one, every teacher knows that I was removed and that's a humiliation. For another, whenever I see one of G2 students they start to snicker and that's also a humiliation.

By the way, the mock results were published and my G2 section was statistically indistinguishable from the other G2 section so the students in my group were just as well prepared for the exam as the other group.

I agree with both Sid and Wrld Traveler and I actually like the Head; the tuition here is so high and it is a strictly tuition driven school that the parents have tremendous power and definitely use it.

But it's like that line in Blood Simple - "The more I think about, the more irritated I get."

I did TeacherReady and as far as coursework being evaluated, as I recall the last module requires you to plan and teach a lesson with a mentor evaluating your performance - that's like an assessment. Also don't forget the exams you'll need to pass, which is another three assessments.

I can't speak to QTS but I did use my Florida state license to teach in Indiana for a year, albeit on an emergency license. Mostly I did the course to get a license to register with UNI and Search Associates and it worked just fine for that.

IMHO TeacherReady was definitely worth the time and money.

I posted back in August, 2018 that the school I'm at took away my A-level classes even though my A-level results were the best. I felt it compromised as a teacher, made the decision then and there to grin and bear it and started a job search for the 2019/2020 school. I found a job for next year that I'm really happy with.

Well the same thing basically happened again. My G2 students complained and parents got on the Head to replace me with a teacher they like better. That's exactly what the Head did. The reason given was that they did not think I was preparing my G2 students well enough for external exams. I pointed out that

a. Last year, 80% of my G2/G12 received A*, 10% received A and 10% received B
b. My mock exam results this year were 1% less than the mock results for the other G2 teacher

The Head decided to cave to parental demands (which is a real pattern at this school) was very apologetic and is not reassigning me to any other classes. For the next four months, I have the same pay, same benefits - same everything - just a much lighter schedule, 25% lighter in fact.

I know I should just sit back and enjoy it but for the second time in a year, I feel like I've been humiliated. Legally speaking, I feel "my reputation has been irreparably" damaged and I want to file a complaint. The school is part of a network and is owned by a multi-billion dollar investment group also based in China and they have a confidential complaint procedure in place. I filed the complaint but the procedure dictates that I start with the Head of School, the very person I'm complaining about. I'm starting to think it might backfire.

Has anyone ever filed a complaint against a school in China?
I'd love to hear about it.

Just for shits and giggles, and because we are in the middle of mocks and I have lots of time on my hands, I averaged the Academic and Disciplinary support for schools in China and Egypt. My thinking is that for well behaved students this number would be higher than for poorly behaved students and I predicted before averaging that this number would be higher for the Chinese.

Sure enough, the average for China is 7.7 and for Egypt its 4.2.

What kind of data is this?
More importantly, would it be anti-Semitic to say Arab students are horrible compared to Chinese students?