It's Bloggin' Time

Life Style of an Expat. Teacher

hammerw — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 02:27:59 +0000

We taught at the International School Manila for four years and decided to return to our home country, Canada. After spending two year in the home that we built, the opportunity to return to Manila arose and after considerable thought and debate, we decided to return to the international scene. One of the main reasons was the superior lifestyle that we could lead compared to life in Canada.

We love our lifestyle in Manila. After a hard day at work, you can return home and really relax and enjoy the abundance of leisure time that is available. This happens because we are able to hire a full-time helper who will take care of all the household chores. Really, back home in Canada, taking care of a home and family is a ‘second’ job that take time and energy.

For those who live a traditional North American or European life, try to imagine coming home from work to a clean house, with the laudry done, the beds made and best of all, a delicious dinner almost ready to be gobbled up. That is our typical day.

We live in an apartment with an infinity pool, so if we get home early enough from school, we might go for a swim before dinner. After dinner, there are no dishes or other chores to do. We take the time to help our kids with their homework, do some of our school work and then we have the rest of the evening to watch tv, read a book or go out to the movies.

It wonderful to be able to have so much time to choose the activities that I want to do. An added bonus is the fact that the cost of living in Manila is extremely reasonable. So, we have the time to do what we want and it doesn’t cost an arm or a leg.

Some of the best quality time is spent during our holidays. When it’s holiday time, the question is not, are you going anywhere, the question is, where are you going this time? We have a week off in October, three weeks at Christmas and and week in March for our holidays. During these breaks, we are either relaxing at a beach resort in the Philippines or immersing ourselves in a different culture in South East Asia. There are also weekend trips that we take throughout the year.

So far, we have experienced life in Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Japan, Australia and Bali. We still have plans to visit other exotic countries. We budget for our travel and can still save a substantial amount of money that will probably go to our retirement account. If you love to travel, you’ll love this lifestyle.

There still a lot more I could tell you but this post is getting a little too long. If you want to know more, just ask. Have a good day! Mabuhay.

Is International Teachng For You?

hammerw — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 15:02:41 +0000

Would you like to teach in a school that provides incredible school/classroom resources, work with dynamic people who have an adventurous nature, or travel and see different parts of the world? If you have answered yes to any one of these questions, international teaching may be for you.

I am an international teacher working in Manila, Philippines. If you told me ten years ago that I would leave my family and friends, give up my job security and move to a third world country, I’d say you were crazy. But the move has been an incredible adventure for my family and we wouldn’t change anything if we could. We find our jobs challenging and fulfilling, we love the people we work with and we are able to travel as much as we want. The quality of life is far superior compared to our life in Canada. You might be wondering how and why we got involved with international teaching and questioning if it’s right for you.

It all started when a colleague told me about a friend who was working in Bali making incredible money teaching in a school with fabulous working conditions. The political climate in the teaching field was quite negative so I mentioned it to my wife. At that point we had two girls under the age of seven and my wife said they were too young. That seemed to make sense so we dropped the idea. When the girls were ten and seven, I brought up the idea again to my surprise, my wife said maybe we should check this out. Just by chance, there was a job fair in Vancouver, B.C.

We registered and went to the job fair, not expecting anything; we just wanted to check things out. If we liked what we saw, we would come back the next year to seriously look for an overseas job. When we arrived at the job fair, we were surprised to see that six schools had requested interviews with us. Teaching couples seem to be popular because schools can save money on housing. To make a long story short, we went to the interviews and at the end of the day, we had a job offer from the International School Manila.

As you might imagine, we were shocked and asked for some time to consider the offer. We first tried to find some information about the Philippines and then considered the impact it would have on our family. After weighing the pros and cons, we decided to accept their offer and join the ranks of international teachers.

So, if you find this at all interesting, maybe you should check it out. I would check out the Internet but if you are really interested, you will have to go to a job fair. Most schools hire at job fairs unless you have previous international experience. Here are three organizations that host job fairs at different times and in different parts of the world. Just click on the name of the organization

The first is the Council of International Schools -

The second is Search Associates -

The third is International School Services -

Check out their website and see if there is a job fair near your home town.

Well, that’s all for now. If there is interest, I will share more about our experience and will answer any questions.

Happy Teaching

Public vs Private

hammerw — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 00:19:31 +0000

It feels good to be back at ISM. There are great people, great kids and a really great school with incredible resources. However, not all schools are as lucky as ISM. Having come back from a public school in British Columbia, Canada, I know that we are extremely lucky to have what we have.

Using technology sounds great and it can connect teachers around the world, but it depends on the level of technology a school has. In my school in Canada, it was often very frustrating trying to use technology in the classroom. We were considered the ‘techology’ school in the district and did have better access to technology compare to other schools, but things did not always work.

We had laptop carts but it sometimes took half the period to get everything working properly. It might be connection problems, taking too long to load a program. We had two computer labs to service over 800 students. Those who were really keen seem to monopolize the labs and those not sure stayed clear.

This is old, on-going discussion but funding still dictates the level of technology that can be implemented in the ‘real’ classroom.

The next question is, “Does web 2.o take some of the funding pressure off schools?”

Web 2.0

hammerw — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 13:54:39 +0000

From my very basic understanding of web 2.0, I think the key is the interactivity of the applications that are available. I think in teaching and learning, both teacher and learner will have opportunites to demonstrate their thinking using different applications. Students will also have opportunities to communicate with people in different parts of the world to find out information first hand. It will make learning ‘real’, possibly providing life experiences so students can learn first hand. I think it will also make learning more interesting and fun.

I want to learn more about web 2.0 over the next couple of months.

How Do People Find My Blog

hammerw — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 13:41:21 +0000

So once I take the time to write a blog, how does the common person find and read it. I know that friends will email their blog address. Whenever they update their blog, they send a quick email so I can go and read what’s new. So if I wanted my students to access my blog, I should just tell them the address. But how would someone who doesn’t know my blog address find me?

Aims for this course

hammerw — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 13:32:00 +0000

Over the years, I have been trying to learn how to use the computer as an effective teaching tool. After attending workshops or inservice sessions, I have picked up bits and pieces and I have a repertoire of activities that I can do with my students. But I still have this feeling that I don’t know enough to really use computers effectively.

Over the next couple of months, I want to learn what is available and learn how to use web 2.0 applications. I want to provide opportunities for my students to use interactive applications that challenge their skills. I would like to give them situations where they are able to choose an application that would be best to demonstrate their understanding. In order to accomplish this, I know that I must become more fluent and confident when using these various applications.

I am looking forward to learning about blogs, wikis, podcast and multi-media. Once I understand how they work, I can start to think of different ways to use them in my class.

Baby Steps

hammerw — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 01:21:55 +0000

Well, I just changed the name and the picture on my blog. It took a few times before I got the picture right, but that’s good because now I will probably how to do it in the future.

dffer

hammerw — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 08:42:02 +0000

http://hamaguchik.wordpress.com/2009/02/09/info-for-me/

Feb 13 b

hammerw — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 08:35:50 +0000

Post by Kris

http://hamaguchik.wordpress.com/2009/02/09/info-for-me/

Feb. 13

hammerw — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 08:30:42 +0000

Will this work?

http://www.netvibes.com/#TechISM_%2709_Blogs_II