I have been teaching in international schools for the last seven years (which is when I started teaching, so technically, I have always taught in international schools). First in Munich, Germany, and now in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (this is my second year here). I absolutely love living internationally. I love being able to truly experience daily life and culture in a foriegn country. I love meeting people from a different country every day. I love working with such wonderful and wordly students. And, of course, I love the travel opportunities.
However, there is one huge disadvantage to teaching abroad: no real network or collaboration of colleagues outside of the individual school you work in. You see, many international schools are so isolated that they are a world unto themselves. Many of the struggles I have expressed on this blog trying to get teachers on board with tech integration is because these teachers have been international for years. They are not exposed to the constant professional development available in the States, or to the regulations and expectations for use of technology in the classroom like you may find in your home country. And, of course, we have no “district” or “region” to connect with – we are on our own. Occasionally schools in the same city may collaborate, but so far I haven’t seen that happen. What this means is that we often end up teaching in isolation. Especially specialist teachers, like myself, that are the only teacher for their subject at that particular age group (for example, I am the only IT teacher in the middle school).
So, I was thinking the other day, now that we have all these amazing web 2.0 tools at our fingertips, and everything is free and easy, why don’t some of the interested international school teachers start collaborating? You never know who you will be working with (or for!) in the future, so we can all start making some connections now. Maybe this exists already, and please let me know if it does – I want to join! If not, I had 2 concrete ideas (focused on middle school technology, because that’s my subject and grade level, but there’s no reason to stop there) to start with:
1. A common blog where we can share ideas, experiences and resources among ourselves, but more importantly with the teachers we work with. I know it can be a challenge to get teachers on board with technology projects, but imagine if you had a website with stories of different projects, how they started, what they looked like when they were finished, and how they were implemented. What an amazing resource!
2. A common wiki where we can post links and resources to support those various projects. A place to link all of the projects we have done. A place for all international school teachers to share their work with technology in the classroom. Can you imagine how much easier it would be to transition to a new school if you knew this resource was always available?
Last week I created the Tech in the Middle blog and wiki as a starting point for these ideas. If you are interested, or know anyone, anywhere, who might be interested, please let me know. I am imagining my transition to my next job with these resources in hand and I am in awe of the limitless possibilities if we all work together!
Looking forward to working with you!
Wow–this is such a cool idea…I have a rather empty forum for international school teachers where I could post information…if that would help. http://isteach.proboards27.com
I am not an international school teacher yet, but I went to international schools all my life and plan to teach exclusively in international schools after I finish my MA, so I am very interested in this idea.
Hi! You recently commented on my blog and I was just exploring your blogs (very interesting!) when I came across this post. I am a soon to be Masters of Library Science student and my major area of interest is equitable access to information – especially using web 2.0 to increase accessibility. I just wanted to say that this is a great idea and I really admire your work! I am an international school alumnus (American School of Kuwait) and so I always have a great respect for IS teachers (and Mac users!).
Hi Preya and Heather,
Welcome! I’m so excited to hear from others in the international school world. Thank you so much for your positive feedback. I am absolutely loving the interconnectedness of web 2.0! Please feel free to join the wikispace and share your experience with us! The more the merrier :)
Sounds interesting and I am interested maybe we can come up with something? We have been blogging here for a while and I am starting to look at Wiki use in the second semester. My wife has been using a blog as a portfolio of student work and is looking at expanding into another blog to start an online book conference. I think we will have a few other teachers liik more closely at blogging as well in the second semester.
Hi Gary,
Excellent! I would be happy to add you to the wiki if you would like to add your two cents. Web 2.0 apps have made a huge impact on our teaching and learning in just one semester here, it’s amazing! Please feel free to pass on this URL to any teachers that might also be interested.
Anything you are doing with this I would be interested in getting my students involved with. Did you start a wiki? If so please send me the link. I am the ES tech facilitator at the Carol Morgan School in Santo Domingo, DR. Sounds like a great idea. We also have a videoconferencing capabilities here at school and I am always looking for classes/schools to connect my 3-5th grade classes with.
Cheers.
Hello,
I really like your ideas.
I am looking for teachers all over the world to start a history/politics project.
I teach 12th graders in a High School in the U.S.
The idea is to work on a curriculum together, so that students can share and debate issues such as globalization and the Iranian nuclear program.
If you know of anyone interested or a website I should go to find teachers, let me know.
Thank you
@Jeff,
Yikes! Hadn’t realized I never bothered to respond here! Glad we’ve connected in other ways over the past two years :)
@Kader,
I think there are a few good places to start: check out some of the education-related Nings (Classroom 2.0, The Global Education Collaborative, etc), there’s also the International Edublogger Directory, and of course, what you’re already doing – connecting with individual bloggers by leaving comments. At this point, I’m working with elementary students so this kind of project wouldn’t work for me, but I’m sure you can find a number of eager participants on any one of those platforms I’ve listed. Good luck!