Many teachers dream of leaving their home country to be an international teacher. It’s hard to blame them. The class sizes are often astronomically smaller, the pay is better (compared to the new country’s standard of living), and the benefits often include housing, airfare, more time off, and a chance to travel and learn a […]
The International Teacher
Posted inAdult Learning
The Politics and Pedagogy of Immigration Policy
The national debate over the Trump Administration policy of separating children from their parents at the southern border has reached a fever pitch. Images and audio of crying children, traumatized by the removal of their parents to detention facilities while the children are detained in what amounts to cages, have preoccupied the national media and gripped […]
Posted inAdult Learning
American Values In the Classroom and Community: Where do we stand as a nation today?
As a teacher and American citizen, it is difficult to discern what values we stand for as a nation today. It seems that our government has blurred the lines between right and wrong, truth and falsehood, equality and discrimination, and honesty and scandal. In the pendulum swing from the “post-racial” Obama years to the quasi-authoritarian […]
Posted inBook Review
Book Review: The Smartest Kids in the World
The inside cover of Amanda Ripley’s book asks the question, “What’s it like to be a child in the world’s new education superpowers?” – namely South Korea, Poland, and – yes, of course – Finland. To accomplish this, she follows the lives of three separate American teens who serve as foreign exchange students there. In […]
Posted inEnglish Language Learners, ESOL, Languages, Literacy, The International Teacher, Uncategorized
International Mother Language Day-February 21st
By the time you read this article, International Mother Language Day may have or may not have already come and gone, but in case you didn’t even realize it was a day to celebrate, let me enlighten you! Mother languages in a multilingual approach are essential components of quality education, which is itself the foundation for empowering women […]
Posted inFeatured, From the Front Lines, Instructional Strategies, Literacy, Opinion, The International Teacher, The Traveling Teacher
Taiwan English Teaching Assistant: Things I Learned in My First Five Months of Teaching
from Kinmen, Taiwan It is almost time for us to go on our 2 ½ week vacation for Chinese New Year (Spring Festival) and I wanted to share some things I learned in my first few months of teaching English in Taiwan. Think inside the box– In my first month of teaching I felt pressured to […]
Posted inElementary School, English Language Learners, Featured, Instruction & Curriculum, Languages, The International Teacher
Diaries of an English Teaching Assistant in Taiwan: Christmas is Love in Action
During the writing workshop that I facilitated last Friday, a participant shared with me that she’d almost committed suicide, but that one of her best friends had helped her out of depression to find happiness. To this day, Macy (name given to protect her identity) is determined to become a social worker, so that […]
Posted inCurrent Events in Education, Featured, The International Teacher, The Traveling Teacher
Precision is the Key: My Experiences as a Fulbright Teaching Assistant in Taiwan
At JinNing Elementary School, there are no custodians. I arrive on my bike each morning around 8:15 to find students, from pre-school to sixth grade carrying out their daily morning cleaning chores, frolicking throughout the school yard raking leaves, mopping floors, or collecting trash. It’s funny to see the students playing in the sudsy […]