Albanian College? Anyone?

[Basmad6]

Applied for and will interview with the director of the new school Albanian College in Durres Albania. Anyone have any info about the school/location/country?

[darwin]

New school with a beautiful campus. The director is well known in the IB DP History world. He writes some the IB History textbooks. I am guessing that the school will be growing quickly and seeking IB accreditation at all three levels. Albania is definitely a developing country but Durres is supposed to be more of a resort town. Intriguing new school that I would consider.

[nikkor]

I travelled in Albania some time around 2005. Tons of old pill box forts from the Tito days, and everyone drove Mercedes Benz automobiles! It was really off the beaten path. We couldn't drink the water or drive at night, bandits would string chains across the roads. I would love to go back. I'm sure plenty has changed.

[PsyGuy]

Well its in Albania which should be a huge clue, and their a new school, which is a business venture and essentially privately owned, regardless what their tax status reports. If you had nothing else going for you, being a new school an entry level teacher could make some mistakes and spin it as developmental growing issues with the school. Will likely spend a lot of time rushing to wait, and doing mindless amounts of meetings and development tasks as the school endeavors to get the binders ready for authorization.

Did I mention its in ALBANIA?

[Trojan]

True, but as Coach from "Cheers" taught us: "It borders on the Adriatic!"

[PsyGuy]

@Trojan

Id rather be in the Adriatic than Albania.

[Basmad6]

Thanks everyone. Great tip about the director. I had been digging around and found that he had been in the IB world for a while and to be brought into this very expensive project I thought he had to be sought after.

Being part of a new school could also bring rewarding challenges. It is something I've wanted to be part of for a while so I'm not shying away from learning more about the school. It's not for everyone, but my previous field was all about similar intense projects. It's not for the faint of heart Thats for sure.

Any country and region of the world has their challenges psy guy. Must assume every poster here knows nothing about the world.

[PsyGuy]

@Basmad6

Not really, you dont hear about the really bad admins, and most of the not bad admins out there are really very indistinguishable from one another. Its not the admin or HOS that ruins a schools, its ownership. You can have a great admin, and if you have bad ownership, hat ties the admins hands, makes them a sock puppet, or is always micro managing you can wreck a school, and theres nothing that the admin team can do about it really.

Yes, we generally assume that most of our readership is inexperienced. I know Americans that have never left their state and think Hawaii is a foreign country you need a passport for. I've met many British people who never left the island, and Londoners who have never left London.

Yes every country has its problems, but the problems of living in Britain, Europe, and a MANY MANY other regions are much less significant then the problems of living in Albania. This isnt a state function of the presence or absence of "problems" its the degree and identification of those problems. Syria, has problems, Egypt has problems, those arent on the same order of magnitude as Switzerlands problems.

[MizMorton]

My husband and I draw the line at machetes. If a country has a reputation for using them on people, they're out. We call them Machete Countries.

For me, that would be the difference between, say, Syria's and Switzerland's problems. Spotty electricity and Internet in a place like Albania? Fine. Possibility of machete hacking? Not fine.

[PsyGuy]

::giggle::

Id actually prefer some machete countries than spotty internet, or other more benign issues. The machete countries with some exceptions like ISIS dont use them on foreigners, they use them on their own people. Where as some other countries in the ME while they wont execute you will throw you in jail for saying the wrong thing to a student. Make an oft handed comment about the Crown in Thailand and some student who wants to get back at you can have you thrown in jail for La Majesty, and actually they could just make it up. On a day to day basis reliable internet is more an issue and problem than being beheaded with a machete.

[julierob25]

I lived in Albania many years and had a good experience. Traffic is terrible but not the only place that has traffic problems. Certain areas are dirty and trashed but this is getting better with time. Albania is definitely developing and is going through some positive changes. There is some crime such as pickpockets, curruption, ect. but I have never heard of anything with machetes.

[PsyGuy]

If there were machette problems would we really hear about it? One of the issues with the genocide in Darfur was that the victims of the atrocities had no voice.

[NRW_IT]

Does anyone know if race is a major issue there? Like uncomfortably dangerous issue? I'm not Caucasion...and have brown skin. But, I'm very interested in this school and area.

[PsyGuy]

@NRW_IT

I know of know racial discrimination issue in Albania for ITs. Understand though that in IE it really is a very predominately Anglo profession.

[reisgio]

How bad must your current situation be to want to go to Albania? I had a maid who went to Greece to get out of Albania. Greece, where they hate Albanians and just elected true Marxists because they are in depression and about to go back to the drachma. Yet, this is still better than Albania.