Search found 2138 matches

by shadowjack
Thu Mar 17, 2022 1:01 pm
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: UWCSEA Workload with young kids?
Replies: 16
Views: 16043

Re: UWCSEA Workload with young kids?

@PG - how long since you worked at UWCSEA or in Singapore?
by shadowjack
Thu Mar 17, 2022 1:00 pm
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: Years of IB Experience for Top Tier Schools
Replies: 50
Views: 87886

Re: Years of IB Experience for Top Tier Schools

You are spot on, fine dude. Except it is fun watching certain folk consulate their logic like a pretzel until up is down and black is white - or close to it. Or instead of up and down the topic switches to black and white. :-)
by shadowjack
Sun Mar 13, 2022 9:52 am
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: Years of IB Experience for Top Tier Schools
Replies: 50
Views: 87886

Re: Years of IB Experience for Top Tier Schools

"I used to get excited when I would see a topic with so many posts. I would click looking forward to a diversity of thoughts and ideas. Now I realize that it's consistently a few people hurling insults. Oh well. Time to move on."

Or, Fortuna, you could make popcorn and get comfy... ;-)
by shadowjack
Mon Feb 14, 2022 2:07 pm
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: Teaching in the UK
Replies: 18
Views: 21139

Re: Teaching in the UK

@PG - when used as an assessment tool for UK students in a UK school, they are meaningless and students want their predicted standards-based grade. It's what they know. Your stating that they "understand percentages" is disingenuous - because the UK system does not use percentages as a grade.
by shadowjack
Wed Feb 09, 2022 6:46 am
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: Teaching in the UK
Replies: 18
Views: 21139

Re: Teaching in the UK

Wait for it... wait for it.... THERE IT IS! The goalposts in this intellectual game of footie have been moved again, shifting from "percentages might not be very useful" (they are useless in the context of a UK student, as UK teachers understand) to "they have a conceptual understanding of percentages" (which are still useless to a UK student).

Relevant and meaningful are absolute drivel when it comes to percentages in the UK school system.
by shadowjack
Wed Feb 09, 2022 6:43 am
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: Years of IB Experience for Top Tier Schools
Replies: 50
Views: 87886

Re: Years of IB Experience for Top Tier Schools

Buttered popcorn, anyone? I read the script, my mind makes the movie...
by shadowjack
Tue Feb 08, 2022 1:50 pm
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: Teaching in the UK
Replies: 18
Views: 21139

Re: Teaching in the UK

@PG - I can assure you that for UK students, percentages are meaningless. They have ZERO relevance to any marks they are used to. Been there done that, got the badge to prove it.

Any UK teacher who showed up to a new class and at the start of the year gave a percentage grade on the first assignment is going to be looked at very strangely and the students will be quite perplexed. The percentage bears no relevant reference to any grading system they have been part of.
by shadowjack
Fri Feb 04, 2022 2:24 pm
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: Update From a Recuirter Regarding China
Replies: 22
Views: 37565

Re: Update From a Recuirter Regarding China

But yet over the past two years I personally know 4 families who have gotten into China. One is still in the process, but the other 3 went in with children from 2020 to now...

I am also talking 3 different schools in 3 different cities. I suspect it depends more on the positions hired for, the school's guangxi (sp?) and the location. And agreed, it IS harder, so maybe schools now want to avoid the hassle.
by shadowjack
Tue Feb 01, 2022 2:33 pm
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: Teaching in the UK
Replies: 18
Views: 21139

Re: Teaching in the UK

Popgirl - you are right. I crossed KS3 with KS4.

That said, as a new UK teacher the very first assignment I returned to a class had students shaking their heads and going, "Eh sir, what's this?" 73% is meaningless to a UK student, just as a 5 would be meaningless to a North American non-IB student. The paradigm for arriving at those grades is also quite different - in North America, a question from the text might have 3 facts, 1 descriptive element, and 1 explanative element. At 1 for each fact, 2 for the descriptive, and 3 for the explanative, that question would be worth 8 marks. 5 questions like that would be 40 marks, out of an assignment bin weighted for 40% of the students total mark for the course. Contrast that with a standards based assignment in the UK - it's cats and dogs, as I learned. Not every teacher can wrap their head around it. I know it took me awhile.
by shadowjack
Mon Jan 31, 2022 10:16 am
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: Teaching in the UK
Replies: 18
Views: 21139

Re: Teaching in the UK

I taught in the UK. It was a paradigm shift to get my head around. If you are teaching KS 1, 2, or 3, actual marks really mean nothing. All that matters is predicted grades. That's the standard.

If Secondary, your school may stream into sets - with set 1 being the top students in a year/subject, and set 5 being the bargepole students who are hellish unless you can connect with them and win them on to your side.

Where the rubber hits the road is Key Stage 3 (KS3), corresponding to grade 9 and 10, where students take a range of GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education) subjects . These exams are like IB eAssessment in grade 10, or IB final exams in grade 12. There are a range of agencies that offer GCSE courses and evaluations - EdExcel, AQSA, and more. Being able to transition from percentage grade levels to standards based grade levels and rubric based GCSE assessment is key.

If you teach grade 11 and 12 subjects/students, then you are at A* or A level courses. These are like GCSE's but they are deeper and narrower in many regards than a North American grade 11/12 curriculum, and that includes AP. I think even with IBDP - the A levels are just that much more focused. That's only my opinion however. I did teach both GCSE and A level during my time in the UK and it was a valuable experience

If you are a flexible, student-centred teacher whose discipline methodology does not involve allowing students to wind you up to where you are yelling at them, you can do well. Just understand that as a non-Brit, you might not get the choicest classes.
by shadowjack
Wed Jan 26, 2022 1:14 pm
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: Flight for Non-Accompanying Spouse
Replies: 21
Views: 19190

Re: Flight for Non-Accompanying Spouse

Justlooking:

1. If you are not on campus in the US, why do you assume you would automatically be on campus overseas? If that is what is holding you back?

2. If you are working in the US, but getting the benefits of a spouse living in the country my school is in, as a trailing, or dependent, spouse, but were never there, we would definitely be looking into it. Although PG talks about entitlement - you are only entitled if you are really a dependent, trailing spouse, which you are clearly not.

Just my two halalas
by shadowjack
Fri Jan 21, 2022 2:08 pm
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: Myanmar Yangon
Replies: 1
Views: 4153

Re: Myanmar Yangon

Friends were hired for this year - not been to Myanmar yet. Will teachers get in this August? Who knows?

How long is that model sustainable for the school? Who knows?
by shadowjack
Fri Jan 21, 2022 2:07 pm
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: Years of IB Experience for Top Tier Schools
Replies: 50
Views: 87886

Re: Years of IB Experience for Top Tier Schools

I second Heliotrope's point about having experience in a similar school in the region.

Having experience in a similar type of location or country, in a different region, and being there for more than two years, is also a benefit when seeking a job :-)