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by PsyGuy
Sun Oct 08, 2023 5:23 am
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: What you wish you knew before going to China?
Replies: 9
Views: 25379

Reply

@cdmxpaisa

In direct reply to your inquiries:

Contact hours are typically 35-40 hrs/wk. Its the time youre required to report until the time youre released for the day. You have to be on campus regardless if its teaching, prep, conference, or open time on your schedule. Of those about half 20-25 instructional periods or hours is reasonable. Some ISs will have higher instructional hours but believe they compensate for it by having shorter contact hrs.

About 5 hours a week, depending on meetings. Some ISs also have weekend ASPs, things like speech/debate, MUN, sports, English corner. These are usually half a day on Saturday. Of course some ASPs require travel with various competition teams.
by PsyGuy
Thu Oct 05, 2023 11:40 pm
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: What you wish you knew before going to China?
Replies: 9
Views: 25379

Response

You dont say where youre going, but there are substantial differences between a major city like Shanghai or Beijing and somewhere smaller and more provincial. In addition what the IS provides on campus can very greatly. Some of them have little shopping centers on campus.

You will either live in an apartment community, which is a group of independent property owners that build in a common community and share management (maintenance) and amenities (store, club room, playground, athletic courts, pool, etc.) or an independent apartment. A complex managed by your IS would likely be better for someone who values convenience over all other factors. Residential apartments for Chinese ISs tend to be utilitarian or very stylish depending on how much coin they put in them and how generous your housing allownce is.
Apartments in China tend to be generous in size and furnishings for foreigners even at modest costs. Its common for a one person apartment to actually have two rooms including a bath, living area, dining area and kitchen (a 1SLDK). Your apartment will have appliances, furniture, entertainment electronics, so at most you will have to buy is some kitchenware (though there may be this in your apartment, the knives wont cut anything) and very likely linens (sheets, pillows, towels).
Attached to your kitchen, there will be a little balcony or patio where the propane gas tanks are or your gas line is, this will also be where washing machine is (assuming you have one) its very unlikely you will have a dryer (VERY unlikely) and you hang your clothes to dry on your balcony. Back by the gas there will also be a box mounted on the wall about the size of a large first aid kit this is the water heater, It will break. There isnt a large water heater that keeps hot water continuously available (too much energy and expensive), instead this little box heats 1-3 liters of water to a VERY hot temperature (close to boiling) it then mixes it with the tap to get the right temperature. Its pretty fast, but many Chinese install the type with a switch that turn the unit on and off, meaning it can take anywhere from 5-15 minutes (about 5 minutes per L) for there to be actual hot water available. Though newer ones can do 3L in about 5min.
Your kitchen may or may not have an oven, you will have 1-2 gas burners (stove tops) a microwave (about 700W) a sink, a drying rack, a small cold box refrigerator.
The cold box may have a small compartment that holds ice trays right next to the condenser unit, but these cold boxes are not ice boxes, or refrigerators. They are not designed for commercial long term storage of food. Many Chinese insist on fresh food, so they will shop at the market daily or every other day, and thats what the cold box is designed for, keeping your drinks cool and your produce crisp, but nothing left in there will last very long. It gets cool but not really cold. You will also find it to be small about 2-3 cubic meters.
You wont have a dish washer, but there will be two things you dont usually find in a kitchen. One is a vacuum flask for drinking water, which is the kind of water cooler you find in an office. There are different models some have only one tap, and some have internal components to both heat and chill the water (so you can make tea from it without a pot, or ice chilled water), some have built in filters, and you can get different brands of water very similar to bottled water such as spring water, distilled water, purified water, and imported water. The cost of the water bottles varies but if you get a local brand and nothing fancy its about 30RMB, and either your IS or your management office can place an order for you. Delivery is typically the same day if made before 1:00pm. Its important to never do anything with the tap water at the sink other than cleaning dishes, you could technically boil it, but why bother. Which brings us to the second appliance in the kitchen which if you are a science teacher you will recognize as the same type of cabinet that safety goggles would be placed in to UV sanitize them, and thats what this does. You wash and dry your dishware and flatware and then place them in here for 10-30 minutes to sanitize them by UV light. If you are VERY lucky you may have a dishwasher.
Your bedroom will likely have a full size bed or larger, though it may likely be a European style, meaning the box spring is nothing more than a box (no coils, etc), and the mattress is likely to be foam (not memory foam). You dont find fitted sheets (and when you do they are expensive, you use a second flay sheet and tuck it under the mattress at the ends. You can of course spend huge amounts of money on high end bedding. You will also have various bureau drawers and armoires. You may or may not have a closet, likely you wont, and if you dont there will be a movable clothing bar to hang clothes on. Some owners are sensitive to foreign needs of a closet and will wall in a small area in the corner of the bedroom as a closet. Your bedroom may or may not have a television (there will be one in the living area).
Air Conditioning is not Central, but is provided through wall units in each room. They are typically the long Mitsubishi type models, that use a remote control. I advise taking a photo of your television, A/C remotes, and washing machine then printing them out and having the IS secretary or someone in the apartment office translate them for you on the print outs.
Your living room will have a sofa, chairs, tables and a television. You dont see audio/stereo systems much anymore. If you are fortunate your IS and the property owner will have the apartment wired for internet and if not you can typically have this done though the cost can be expensive since you have to pay for the entire years of service at the time of installation (about $250USD), depending on the speed.
Television programing will get you some local channels, none of which you will be able to understand, though you may get one English channel. Your property may provide a satellite package and options which they will discuss when you when you move in (When you move in you typically have 4 decisions to make and discuss: Water, Internet, Satellite and Telephone). The typical "foreigner" package is a handful of channels out of Hong Kong that will include BBC and then some western channels that play old seasons of western prime time programing, sometimes you can get HBO. Some properties have very well developed programing, because they have legal systems, but most of the time it s a pirated system and equipment, and your paying the property owner to spit and share what is essentially one programing feed.
That leaves telephone, meaning a land line, which no one uses, and is often offered because it is very expensive, and some owners will quote a price for a new or discounted installation even if the line is already there, and all someone does is connect a box or throw a switch. Everybody uses mobile phones. Internet is getting fast enough to stream over a good VPN connection, and youre going to want to subscribe to a comprehensive VPN service for both home and mobile. I like NORD VPN, you can usually find a special throughout the year of three years for USD$100. While there are access points/WiFi routers that support VPN service. The usual setup is to connect your laptop to the internet connection and then share the internet through your laptops VPN for your streaming sticks and other devices. I use a PC stick.

Mobile phone service in China is basically prepaid. You go to a Kiosk typically in a shopping center and buy a SIM card for about 50-100 RMB that gets you the SIM card a phone number and some starter time. You can buy buckets of data as well. The agent will install your SIM card, activate it and then call herself, and then using the caller ID save the number in your phone. After that you buy prepaid scratch cards with values from 10-100RMB scratch of the silver area, call the number on the back of the phone (there is an English option int he instructions) and tap int he code, a few moments later the value is added to the card. Calls and SMS (texts) cost about .1-.3RMB./min/txt. You can also get data service now where you buy a bucket of data in 100MB/1GB increments and add it much like any other phone card. As a foreigner you cant really get a contract plan, what you can do is set up automatic billing to a credit card that refills your account when it reaches a certain threshold. Youre IS maybe able to arrange for you to get a contract plan, but be weary of this because it will be their contract. This can get very expensive, since there is no "unlimited" anything, most Chinese are diligent about turning off mobile data when WiFi is available. There are essentially two types of mobile service plans. One you pay for every minute and text sent and received but can be used while roaming. The other type you pay for calls and texts sent, but incoming texts and calls are free (not billed against your balance) but only can be used locally. I recommend the local free incoming type plans (there is actually a version where the first minute only of the incoming call is free and a version where the whole incoming call is free). You can get a variety of handsets in China, Huawei is a very popular local brand, or you can use an unlocked GSM phone from home. Many kiosks will "cut" a SIM card to fit an iPhone but they typically have them available. You can also buy various IDD long distance cards and you can use IP Mobile phone to make cheaper long distance calls. Most ITs use Skype, or Google Meet or Zoom or another IP communication service. You will also find a lot of internet cafes. Some of them look a lot like Starbucks with a computer room and some of them are just a room with a few rows of computers (much like a school computer lab). Many Chinese do not have in home internet outside of their phones (mobile computing) so when they want to use a computer they either go to a school (such as a university) or they use an internet cafe. Costs vary depending on the quality of the hardware.
Electrical current in China is 220V meaning you will need a converter for US appliances if they arent dual voltage (such as a laptop). Most outlets use the flat two prong type, though China does have a flat 3 prong "Y" type of plug as well.

Your IS will arrange for a passbook banking account at a local bank. Either your salary will be deposited into this account or you will get an envelope of cash. Its called a passbook account because it comes with a small bankbook about the size of your passport. When you make a transaction at the bank you fill out the transaction slip and hand it to the teller with your passport and passbook. They will record the transaction and balance by machine. This is your statement, you will not get monthly statement mailed to you. You can also go in and have your passbook updated with your ATM transactions when you want. When your passbook is full you get a new one. Your account will also come with an ATM bank card, which you can use at ATM machines (cost is 2 RMB per currency transaction) or at POS terminals in various stores. Your bank may offer you a V/MC credit card as well.
Get used to using cash. In western regions credit and debit cards are the preferred form of currency, in China its still cash, and many businesses still do not have card readers for credit cards or ATM terminals. Nor will international or non-Chinese credit cards work in most places (but this depends on the city to a large extent).

At the end
Transportation is very economical at about 1-2RMB per ride by bus. Light rail is becoming increasingly more available in major cities. In addition taxis are plentiful and relatively cheap at about 6 RMB for the first 2 km and 2 RMB/km after. You IS is likely to also provide a daily shuttle between the IS and your apartment community. If you find a driver you like you can get their mobile number and have essentially an on demand car service, just SMS them your location for a pickup. Buying a bike is also an option and bikes are widely available for purchase.
I would not drive in China, sorry I dont have the stones for that. Chinese tend to have two speeds "go" and "go fast". Traffic signals and signs are more suggestions than regulations, and as a foreigner any accident is going to be your fault. Learn early how to cross the street in China its less about traffic signals and going with the flow which requires establishing eye contact with drivers and communicating intent. I would advise just following others for your first couple of weeks, until you get the hang of it.

Markets are pretty easy, there are lots of convenience stores that sell all kinds of things from paying bills to pharmacies. Its easier to buy a stamp and envelope from the conbini then going to the post office. The meat department will have VERY fresh food, while you can get your choice of meat cuts you will find a big wading pool with customers using little baskets to fish out live shrimp. You will also find tanks with fish, turtles, eels, clams (Albion) which is often served in place of beef fillett at dinner parties, as well as on high end dining menus. You will also not find large bulk sizes of many products. Many people take a bus, or a bike or a taxi, so small portable sizes of items are more commonly available, such as tissue paper (toilet) will often be available in only single rolls or 4 packs. Another option is delivery, its not uncommon to talk with the manager and arrange for delivery of a large quantity of items (Alibaba and Amazon are also options). You do not find coupons or shopping memberships, instead various manufactures will set up displays attended by some young pretty girl with discounted products, and stores will advertise special prices all the time.
You can find just about anything in China, so while their are lots of options there is little variety within a particular product. If you are brand or label loyal, it is very likely there will only be a few options, and most of them will be local brands. You will likely only find one international recognized brand of things such as shampoo and shaving cream for example on the shelves.
It is appropriate to bargain with street vendors and shops, but not "markets" where there are fixed prices. A lot of goods are available at specialty shops, that specialize in one or only a few type of products. So while you can buy towels at a market store (there is a Walmart) there is a towel linen shop somewhere that sells just towels at very low prices.
It is a very good idea to build a relationship with the local hotels. They are a wealth of information and services. Need your favorite cereal a hotel is likely to have it or can get it. Need to send an international fax hotel can make it happen. Need directions or a reservation, a referral or recommendation, no problem. Hotels provide lots of convenience with English speakers.

Your IS probably has a local clinic or a contract with a local clinic for minor ailments (or they may have an onsite nurse/health center) and a hospital for major medical problems. You will pay for your care and treatment and then apply for reimbursement, you will hopefully get some of it back. ISs are loath to advance any type of payment for medical care especially at the hospital since the probability of you returning home means the IS is going to have to pay the bill. It is important to otherwise take care of yourself. Your contract says (its standard) that if you are absent for more than 30 days your contract is cancelled. Medication is much less controlled in China and pharmacists can diagnose and treat many minor maladays such as the cold etc and prescribe antibiotics, etc. The cost of these consultations and medication is very very cheap. Narcotics and abusable medications are the ones you need a doctors prescription for and they are often dispensed at the hospital and the tendency is that all westerners are drug addicts and to give you the weakest pain medication to treat your condition. medical care is very good in China, if it is very clinical and technical. You need to be specific and detailed, understand that title inflation is very common in China. A doctor is likely really a nurse (just as the Assistant Manager is just customer service, everyone is an assistant manager).

In direct reply to your inquiries:

1) It depends on the IS. Usually theres new staff orientation and then all staff orientation. All staff orientation usually starts the week before students return, with some ITs who have been there longer being excused from parts of it. New IT orientation is usually a week or more before. It depends what you have to do. Mainly the activities will revolve around: Getting your medical exam, registering with the PSB, banking, phone, and if needed finding an apartment (if youre in temporary accommodations). Those are the main activities with the rest of the day being filled with seminars and presentations. The IS might also give you a tour of the local area and usually an evening or two take the staff out for dinner (usually once for new staff and once for returning staff). If you plan on an extensive apartment search you might arrive a few days earlier to visit properties with a property agent.

2) Contrary to previous contributors, teaching nomad does have an authentication and visa procurement service. They can take care of the whole process from authentication to visa or just parts of it. Really though its what your IS wants you to do. They may already be working with a particular contact or provider. What you need to do is follow this one rule: ALWAYS DO WHAT THE IS SAYS. The reason being if you do and something happens you have deniability. If you go rogue because you think you know better A) You may not get reimbursed. ISs dont send you coin to pay for all of these services in advanced. You pay for them and then submit receipts and forms to get reimbursed. If you do what the IS says youre much more likely to get back more if not all of your expenses reimbursed. If you dont you may get back less or none at all. B) If something goes wrong its your fault for not following directions which can result in the IS withdrawing the offer.
So really this is a conversation to have with your ISs HR department. They will likely send you an email with instructions for the process. Just follow them.

In reply to earlier contributors.

1) It is critical to understand your IS and where it fits in the hierarchy of ISs nationally, regionally, and locally.
The category of "Quasai International School" needs some clarification. Its not like youre going to find ISs where the student population is really split evenly. With the exception of ITs kids, its going to be nearly exclusively one demographic of students. You get a few exceptions but they are a small minority.

2) In China you see a lot more of the leadership scheme where there is a western academic leader and then in the shadows or the background a Chinese 'center' leader. What this really means is that in most cases the center leader is superior to the academic leader. The academic leader is still an executive leader in that they can direct your actions, assign others to supervise and direct you and can appoint and dismiss you but the center leader is the one controlling the strings. What this means is that there are going to be instances where the western academic leader has no power and cant do anything. They are the messenger and its their job in those instances to get the staff on board with whatever the issue is. Complaining to them is futile because they werent the decision maker.
As you go lower in tiers its very common for your ISs leadership to look and feel more and more like a locally run Chinese DS.

3) Absolutely get a VPN BEFORE you arrive in China. Once inside China you will be behind the great firewall and doing it will be an order of magnitude more difficult.
As far as what you want in a VPN. Price really does indicate quality. You really want a VPN that you are paying for. About USD$20/mth is typical because you want a VPN with high uptime and a large number of redundant servers to improve speed and reduce down time. Free VPNs either suck or they are simply monetizing your data.

4) The member forum requires paying a yearly membership fee.

5) Didi doesnt work in China anymore. WeChat in China becomes a super app doing most everything from shopping to banking to transportation. You can download it outside of China but gets super powered once inside China and properly registered. You can attach a foreign visa credit or debit card but I would make it a card with a very small balance, and one with no foreign transaction fees or very small fees. I just wouldnt do it and would stick with 2 domestic bank accounts and replenish the coin attached to Wechat as needed rather than open access to your entire bank balance.

6) As above your IS either gives you an envelope of currency or deposits your salary in a local bank. Some banks are better than others, but regardless of whatever bank your IS uses. You can open an account at a different bank thats better at whatever it is you want out of a bank. Some ISs will deposit into a foreign account but you want to see what bank they are using to make that transaction and what currency conversion they are using. Most of them are using a dynamic conversion rate that is poorer than what you could get doing the transaction yourself.
Unless you have outside financial obligations or your financial obligations are few (once or twice a year) this may not even be an issue for you, and may even cost you more moving coin from China out and then moving it back in again because all your real expenses are local.
More important to ask or better to investigate is how to fund whatever your investment portfolio (and you should have an investment strategy).
Your IS should provide you a bank day. Its a time once a month reserved for going to the bank, doctor/dentist, the tasks that can only be completed only during normal daytime business hours. Its not a full day but anywhere from a few hours to half a day usually scheduled around back to back prep/conf periods, where you normally would have to sign out you dont have to and its expected you will be off campus. If you have nothing to do you can usually just sleep in or end the day early.

7) It should just be generally expected that you will have ASPs. More importantly is asking about before you agree to the contract what the contract hours and what the instructional hours are. What the ISs holidays are (and which ones are paid and which arent, including the end of year/summer holiday, and how that effects your housing/housing allowance). Those are more important than ASPs, unless your IS has a weekend ASP requirement.

8) All the rent a name ISs are bad, at least compared to their foreign partners DS experience.

9) TIC. This Is China. It will explain a lot of bureaucratic idiocies. Chinas approach to a work welfare system is simply to give people jobs even if the job is stupid. That stupid job gives someone and often a whole lot of someones a living. So usually what in an inconvenience or an annoyance is someone doing their job.

10) To go further than the original contributor, most of the parents and people you will have contact with are likely more educated than you (yes even with an M.Ed). You would be surprised how many Chinese housewives are highly educated.
There is still a very real rural part of China that see foreigners as a curiosity. No one in Beijing or Shanghai, or Guangzhou is going to look twice at a gwailou foreigner is awe or even with much interest. That said having gwailou friends is usually seen as a status boost by Chinese, so they can be very friendly once getting to know you.
In critical situations that might involve possible conflict you might consider introducing yourself as CAN if from the US or AUS if from the UK. I wouldnt do so with anyone you remotely have any form of continuing or long term contact with, they will simply find out and then you have trust issue problems.

11) I can see how generally the further down the scale you get the worse and less common English is, but there are a lot of low level secretaries, receptionists and office workers who have very strong English skills better than their superiors in many cases (and a contributing factor for why they were hired).
I wouldnt say the students at top tier ISs have better English abilities than their native English speaking equals. I can tell, and I dont know anyone with a professional background in English edu who wouldnt.

12) You should have your work permit before you arrive in China. Its an ePermit most likely but its a requirement to get your Z visa. China implemented a new system that has been dismal but you want your residence card before you leave China, and if you dont have one you cant leave China during holiday. Youre likely to have been in China around golden week for 4-6 weeks so youre unlikely to have seen the Pandas, the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, maybe do those. Dalian is a popular beach destination within China but it will be crowded, and not in a good way.

13) Even more so than most avoid conversations of politics and religion with Chinese. Only broach those subjects with other foreigners in private. Never in the IS even if you think you have privacy.
by PsyGuy
Thu Oct 05, 2023 9:33 pm
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: How Desirable Am I
Replies: 6
Views: 22093

Response

The problem I have with the advice of @Thames Pirate is that its really not advice at all and isnt really helpful. Its part of their whole TPF approach that nothing matters because it doent come from ISs or leadership and overly embraces both the randomness in IE, while also inflating the probability of events that are more in the tails than those opportunities sequestered around the mean or median. Sure anything can happen, someone also wins the lottery eventually, but when members post inquiries they are more searching for applicable information rather than a pat on the back and a meme for go out there and find out.
The only value in such advise is that given the almost trivial cost in resources of applying, it is like playing the lottery where the cost of a ticket is almost zero. Unless you really need the whole minute it takes to send off an email or hit the apply button its not a meaningful expenditure of resources.

We can start by looking at the PASS.
PASS (PsyGuy Applicant Scoring System):
1) 1 pt / 2 years Experience (Max 10 Years)
2) 1 pt - Advance Degree (Masters)
3) 1 pt - Cross Certified (Must be schedule-able)
4) 1 pt - Curriculum Experience (IB, AP, IGCSE)
5) 1 pt - Logistical Hire (Single +.5 pt, Couple +1 pt)
6) .5 pt - Previous International School Experience (standard 2 year contract)
7) .5 pt - Leadership Experience/Role (+.25 HOD, +.5 Coordinator)
8) .5 pt - Extra Curricular (Must be schedule-able)
9) .25 pt - Special Populations (Must be qualified)
10) .25 pt - Special Skill Set (Must be documentable AND marketable)
IT CLASSES:
1) INTERN ITs have a score around 0
2) ENTRY ITs have a score around 2
3) CAREER ITs have a score around 4
4) PROFESSIONAL ITs have a score around 6
5) MASTER ITs have a score around 8
The PASS works best when comparing an IT against an actual job specification, as many of the categories are situational (a half point for Extra Curricular is only valid if the IS needs an IT with a specific ASP such as a sport, or MUN, etc. because everyone does ASPs if the IS provides them).
The scoring looks as follows:
1) 5 pts. Experience (10+ years)
2) 1 pts. Advanced Degree (M.Ed)
3) *.25 pts. Previous IE Experience (Maybe. it was only a year contract and while thats all they offered its still only one year)
4) .5 pts. Logistical Hire (Single, no dependents etc.).
5) *.25 pts. Cross Certified (maybe applicable as youve taught lower secondary science but your not credentialed in it, you probably could be if it was required)
Math is usually in high demand but your experience is only up through lower secondary which basically says you maybe can teach algebra.You also dont say what your bachelors/first degree is in, if its in Mathematics that changes things. In a large IS where the IS can specifically appoint for only a lower secondary position this is fine but there are going to be ISs, and not a small number of them who are going to want to hire a maths IT who can do it all through SLL which is including calculus. Again not an issue if you have a degree in maths and you can probably get credentialed in all level or all secondary level maths then, but if not your not going to be as marketable an IT for those such positions.
This leaves us with a PASS score of around 6.5, closer to a 7 if everything is aligned, and closer to a flat 6 if upper secondary maths is part of the position. This correlates to a professional class IT, with a marketable resume for second tier ISs, especially in hardship regions.
Tier one isnt unreasonable, the main challenge as far as the metrics go, is going to be that your in a pool of applicants with similar candidates who can confidently claim ability and success in teaching upper secondary maths, or who have cross curricular value in upper secondary sciences and/or ICT. Why hire you when they can hire them. The answer to that is youre either a better fit, which youre going to need an interview to showcase, or they really want an IT who exclusively and specifically works well with the lower secondary population. Thats just a smaller pool of available vacancies than the more generalized all level maths IT.
by PsyGuy
Sat Sep 30, 2023 9:59 pm
Forum: Forum 2. Ask Recruiting Questions, Share Information. What's on Your Mind?
Topic: International Debate Competition for Schools
Replies: 6
Views: 37820

Comment

More easily ignored TPF. CRT is certainly taught in SHS and controversial topics have are and can be detrimental to ITs.
by PsyGuy
Thu Sep 21, 2023 1:37 am
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: COVID Vaccination requirements in Thailand, Singapore, & SE Asia
Replies: 4
Views: 13675

Inquiry

Are you specifically interested in SG and TH or do you really want someone to do all the research for all of Asia for you?

Not that theres anything wrong with that. I firmly support the method. One of the easiest ways to get the internet to do my work for me is to make a stupid post online, something like AI will soon replace edus in the classroom, as edus are relegated to monitor roles and training the AI. Then wait for all the exposition, argument, and data showing thats wrong and stupid to come pouring in. Then paste that into ChatGPT or Bard, put it in a binder, and done.

Just looking for clarification.
by PsyGuy
Thu Sep 21, 2023 1:18 am
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: Staff Representative / Communications
Replies: 11
Views: 61506

Reply

@expatscot

Maybe back once upon a time, when the DT/IT was only a handful of a communities formerly and higher educated members, when such a position carried with it a much greater degree of respect and actual admiration. Not anymore, now DTs//ITs are the help, servants compensated for performing a task, they arent rare or valued specialists of esoteric KSA's to be heard and heeded to. The house master and the task masker want execution of their plan and their ideas, they dont want to hear what the servant thinks, feels or believes. The bride wants the cake she wants, she isnt looking so much for the bakers input. When the bakery is looking for a baker they want someone who is going to be on time, work hard, long and well, not be a nuisance or annoy the other staff, follow the recipe and dont make mistakes, and when you do make mistakes make cheap ones.

No, thats not better, for a number of reasons but primarily because happiness and contentment in the DS/IS environment is not self sustaining, and secondly its a fools errand thinking that even keeping the majority happy and content at the cost of the minority is a sound strategy. Id rather have 95%+ of the faculty rate leadership and the work environment a 5 (on a scale of 1 to 10 rather than 60% rate an 8 and the remaining 40% rate a 2 (or even 75%:25%, for that matter). Leadership is always about managing the discontent and aggrieved, putting out fires, pivoting when you have to, staying firm in the face of adversity, and knowing the difference aof which situation youre in and when youre in it. The challenge isnt making the unhappy happy or making the unhappy less unhappy, its keeping them quiet and executing on task. Most leaders in my experience really dont care about staff, they just want the machine to run with as few interruptions and headache as possible. Youre never going to make everyone happy all the time, and I dont hear you advocating for that as a possibility at all, but general or majority contentment is just as much an illusion, everything is always fine, until it isnt.
96% of the problems are caused by 4% of the minority (I made that up, but Im making a point not citing data for reference). I hate using politics as an example, but from the US to the UK and all places beyond and in-between, it really counts all for nothing the 98% of the job that whatever legislative or parliamentary leader did well when its the 2% of the job that keeps you from doing the other 98% and that 2% is all anyone will remember and its what they will judge you by for time immemorial. Its not keeping faculty happy or content that keeps leaders up at night (its the teething 2 year old in the nursery), but what the damage and slow down is going to be when the unhappy make noise or worse make moves. They just want to keep the machine running, with as little work and attention as possible.

The image of continuing development and growth is great for the textbooks and the Socratic classroom but its really disconnected from the cold practice of reality. As edus, DTs/ITs we behave and practice our craft using autocratic methods all the time, most of the time, the vast majority of the time. Isnt that the whole point of the DTs/ITs job in the first place to keep the classroom from becoming a rendition of Lord of the Flies. Every lesson plan I review and look at is 90% plus dictation and prescription, and right at the top in blocked off text under objectives "the student will", and you know how many times one of those was worded to the effect of "consult with the students on what they would like to learn, how they would like to learn it, how they would like to determine how well they learned it, how much fun they would like to have in the process, and also what will make them happy".
Ive gotten those in the past and when I do I send them back to the campus leaders designee with a note to resubmit. I already know what the students want, the boys want to play video games and the girls want to be on social media. You want chaos, anarchy, more drama in your life ask 11 year olds to contribute to lesson design and planning. We need ITs like that though because the mocking makes the other mediocre ITs look better in comparison. Nothing is an easier value add to performance appraisals than a recent ITs dumpster fire/train wreck of a lesson gone horribly astray. A rising tide really does raise all ships, except the ones that sink.

Lastly, why would leaders need to listen to other edus they already know everything. I know that sounds flippant but what is there really to learn. Edu as a science and a field is done. This isnt physics where theres unanswered questions, or mysteries to be discovered. Edu is alchemy, the secrets are known, its just parsing them out in such a way, at such a rate to keep the coin moving to the consultants. Thats the magic, give the entry level practitioners just enough to keep their head above water in water they can touch the bottom, and increase the depth while parsing out little tidbits of observation cloaked as experience with slivers of technique that can be packaged as innovative, and research driven. Theres nothing new, the state of the art in T&L is just a Canva presentation of social science from 50's and 60's, the only thing new is the technology. Canva is cooler than PowerPoint, but its still just Piaget, Erickson, and Vygotsky, and their ilk, and their progeny. Its all just recycled Pop.Ed that gets shelved until the next iteration of packaging, marketing and sales. Even direct teaching is making a resurgence with the gaining popularity of AI. Its not about knowing something anymore its about knowing something when you need to know it and knowing when that moment is, and direct teach has efficiency going for it (at the cost of efficacy). Which is just throwing a curtain over what the real future step is, we dont need DTs/ITs to teach the students anymore, we need monitor to watch the students while the AI teaches the students. AI is new, what the AI will be doing will not be, and nothing every edu is doing in any classroom or learning environment is novel enough to not have already been done. The only thing new is the bad ideas of times past that someone rescued from the bin and thought "maybe time to give this a try".
Dont confuse new with forgotten.

TLDR: No.
by PsyGuy
Tue Sep 19, 2023 9:49 pm
Forum: Forum 2. Ask Recruiting Questions, Share Information. What's on Your Mind?
Topic: International Debate Competition for Schools
Replies: 6
Views: 37820

Inquiry

Will these topics be woke focused, such as the inclusion/exclusion of CRT (Critical Race Theory) in classrooms or will they be more apolitical such as the release of coolant water from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant?
I can see the latter receiving better reception and participation by ITs than the former.
by PsyGuy
Tue Sep 19, 2023 9:40 pm
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: South African teachers
Replies: 1
Views: 9722

Response

Nothing, or more accurately in no meaningful way. The preference is still for colonial American or British accents. Thats theres an uptick in S.African recruiting is:

1) Pop.Ed/Fad. (such as an attempt at keeping white faces on staff but being more global).
2) An outcome of acute temporary symptoms due to changes and conditions in current affairs whether political or economic.
3) Short term fiscal strategy. I've seen some ISs in third tier ISs that have a different (lower) comp and salary schedule for S.African ITs.
4) Stop gap measures for unplanned or unforeseen changes in enrollment or staffing (those S.African ITs are viewed as temporary or short term hires).
by PsyGuy
Tue Sep 19, 2023 9:29 pm
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: Staff Representative / Communications
Replies: 11
Views: 61506

Reply

@expatscot

Thats your definition of good leadership, thats not everyones and its not what all ownership is looking for. There are leaders on and off circuit that specifically have niche skill sets like walking into an IS and gutting the faculty. From some POVs thats "good" leadership.

Well they are trained in management its just like everything else though, thats too little jam smeared over too much bread. Ed/Ld programs cant include everything youd want and need in so far of academics in edu and T&L and be even a generalized MBA program. What happens is you get more of some and less of other disciplines but its all rather superficial. Ive heard edu leadership professors in programs blink and advised to fix those deficiencies by hiring good back office staff to do the business, HR, etc. tasks and focus on the communication, sales/marketing/advertising, and academics, because thats what parents see and theyre the customer.

How is that any different than the rest of edu prep, the vast majority of ITs teach the way they were taught as students or the way they were taught to teach, the rest they got from mimicking other DTs/ITs.

Whats wrong with dictatorships? Lots of organizations (militarys for example) are very effectively run autocratically or as dictatorships. Many professional soldiers are still professionals despite taking, following, and executing orders. Leaders need to say do this, and have it done, and it doesnt matter the field its in whether a military organization, the director directing the cast of a film production of a classroom. It shouldnt even be that alien to an IT, we do the same with students all the time. From the leadership perspective its not autocratic leadership styles thats the issue, its ITs who want more autonomy than leadership and by extension what ownership is comfortable with, thats a 'you' problem, not a 'them' problem.
by PsyGuy
Thu Sep 14, 2023 4:00 pm
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: Gender and Management Style
Replies: 6
Views: 21085

Discussion

All else being equal Id rather work for a male leader, unless I can be part of the female leaders clique.
by PsyGuy
Thu Sep 14, 2023 3:57 pm
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: Staff Representative / Communications
Replies: 11
Views: 61506

Discussion

Concur with @buffalofan, most of the issues and concerns that really matter to ITs are ones that cost coin. All too often leaders take any conversation that appears suggestive as criticism. Even the good leaders (they do exist) see it as criticism, constructive criticism or non-personal criticism but still criticism, because if we are being honest thats what it is. The current system, practice, idea, thing is less effective or efficient than the system, practice, idea, thing I have in mind, which when you collapse down to its salient qualities is a critique, the root of all criticism.Thats what edus do we attempt to transfer KSAs and we critique that process and assign cause and effect (hopefully with a valid identification process/system), but thats what edus do.
by PsyGuy
Thu Sep 14, 2023 3:49 pm
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: Internationally-minded American school districts/systems?
Replies: 16
Views: 97967

Discussion

I would concur with @Heliotrope, posting on a bigger message board such as Reddit or FB groups or the like with a bigger audience will garner you more responses. If you want another smallish board you may want to try the chat boards at Teachers.net
https://teachers.net/mentors/
by PsyGuy
Thu Sep 14, 2023 3:43 pm
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: GRC now for profit?
Replies: 4
Views: 23993

Response

There isnt any change for ITs. Craig could have continued running it, but it was a rather thankless job that did use resources. Its all cloud based so its very mobile.
Its still essentially non-profit and further that management isnt intending to make any coin going into anyones pocket off of it, but its a business its going to have costs.
by PsyGuy
Wed Sep 06, 2023 11:07 am
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: Tuition Paid Out of Pocket
Replies: 22
Views: 92819

Reply

@Coimbra

No, Its of great relevance, being dismissive doesnt change its relevance.
I only post from experience and from reliable and trusted sources, the proportion of ISs that offer 2 waivers/places is closer to 50% and not 80%.