Internationally Minded

Hi and welcome to my international teacher blog!

What makes me an international and internationally minded teacher?

An internationally minded teacher is a person who is always aware that an individual's culture and language strongly impacts on thought. Understanding this is vital to teaching and learning in the international context. Embedding international mindedness in the curriculum in not only important to developing global citizens it is vital to overall academic achievement for all students.

Developing relationships with all school stakeholders (students, parents, colleagues) that is based on understanding, respecting and valuing cultural differences and similarities on both academic and social spheres is what being an international teacher is all about.

As the daughter of a migrant parent I learnt early in life that an inability to fully access the language of the majority created difficulties and lack of opportunities in all aspects of life. I believe this is where my sensitivity to learners comes from and my passion in helping all students access the curriculum and develop the critical literacy skills they need to become active participants in school life.

My children are both third-culture and mixed race kids. Holding a passport for a country they identify with but have rarely spent time in. Confusing people with their look ("where are you from again?"). I have seen them grow and develop both as locals in their second country and in the "bubble" that is sometimes expat life.  I think this life has afforded them with amazing opportunities and a wonderful world perspective, however, it also has its own set of challenges.

Finally I have spent nearly half of my life and nearly all of my adult life teaching and living abroad.  Most of this time was spent as a "local". No expat package, a local lifestyle, and thrust into a culture, religion and language which was all unfamiliar. I learnt much in this time to say the least, but have certainly developed a unique understanding of what it means to be "international".

Literacy...it's critical!

While the nature of this blog is to introduce myself for the purposes of gaining employment, recruiters do suggest that you "be yourself" so I am just going to free flow here, this is my passion!

Reading, writing, speaking and listening all combine to make the literacy curriculum.  It continues to astound me that most elementary students think we are learning these things to a)please the teacher b) get good grades c) please our parents, oh dear!  Communication skills, and that's what these are, are life's blood and inspiring my students to be outstanding communicators if what literacy is to me!

Can you share your opinion? Do you understand your perspective? Are you able to respond to to others? How do you defend your point of view, persuade others to your way of thinking? Can you listen and respect other people's ideas? Reading between the lines? Inferring the author's intended message? Accessing relevant information from a variety of sources? This is what literacy is about.

Loving and learning from a great work of fiction. Being excited about researching and self directed learning. Debating an argument or persuading other people to join your school of thought. In short, making language come alive for children, allowing them to use it in authentic contexts and developing their skills and passions all at once are the hallmarks of my classroom.

International mindedness is embedded and over-riding. 
While English is the language of instruction

and indeed what most parent's are paying those school fees for, a child's home language, is still their primary language. Linking language, culture and thought together, a child's first language is WHO he or she is and to the child's detriment if we forget this.  Some cultural groups and parents are outstanding in continuing to develop and support a child's home language, but many parent's are confused by the need to develop English language skills to excel at school and the desire to maintain the child' primary language. Educating parents about the importance of maintaining home languages and VALUING and giving room for expression of these languages in the classroom.  Watching a second grade student flying through a tome of Harry Potter in German whist struggling with his English conjunctions, a girl sing an exquisite Korean traditional song whilst stumbling through her class presentation on habitat loss. This is the balance that must be achieved within the international setting to truly know your students, to maintain confidence, to inspire passion.

I hate math...

At school it was my nemesis! Excelled at English, involved and interested in Science, Math was the dry and boring part of any school day. Not to mention the humiliating part as mental math scores invariably did not go over 60 percent, times tables diligently repeated to my father evaporated and it just got harder and more unfathomable as the years progressed.

As a teacher I also struggled. Not with the ins and outs of third grade math but with making my students not hate math as I did. Inquiry based learning seemed to come naturally to me in all other areas but for many years I struggled to inspire my students in this subject. So about three years ago I resolved to do something about it. Knowledge is power so I decided instead of putting my hand up for every literacy/humanities review or curriculum committee I was going to be involved in Math!

I began with identifying with what I thought was under-represented in our school documentation and identified mental computation skills.  Inspired by a past curriculum leader I developed a handbook to support teachers and parents (and ultimately students) in teaching these skills in a fun and dynamic way. Creating this resource forced me to look at the way I taught these skills and apply a more differentiated and integrated approach in my own classroom.

This snowballed into helping to review the entire math curriculum at my school. Looking at the need for balance between integration and stand alone math units, using the workshop model to ensure all aspects of the math curriculum are covered while allowing time for inquiry. Reviewing assessment techniques and tools, sourcing resources for teaching staff while developing ways to make math relevant and problem solving authentic was a steep learning curve. With support from colleagues and administration, some outstanding professional development workshops, and use of the Common Core my own teaching practices have developed, as has my enthusiasm for teaching math. 

I now feel myself to be a confident and competent math teacher, with the knowledge, skills and resources to inspire and support my students in their mathematical journey.

Inquiry Based

Providing the best learning experience for every child under my care is extremely important to me. Quality education for every child, to me, has many components. Excellent teaching practice allows for a range of backgrounds, abilities, learning styles and personalities. Planning a program that gives children a choice of learning styles, accounts for their prior knowledge and targets their current needs requires hard work and an intimate knowledge of each individual. This is what I strive for in my classroom.

A constructivist curriculum, that truly considers the whole child, is a vital structure to support teachers. I hold strongly to the belief that acknowledging and valuing children's current understandings, providing authentic and concrete inquiry experiences and allowing children to take real action on what they have discovered is the essence of creating life long learners. It also provides an excellent vehicle for helping children develop the attitudes and skills we hope for tomorrow's citizens in an authentic and meaningful manner.

In short, inquiry, that is well planned and well facilitated, allows children to develop much deeper cross disciplinary understandings, not only of key learning areas, but also connections to the greater world around them. In the  digital age, this is a critical tool, when dealing with the ever increasing body of knowledge that will confront our students  in the future. Through acknowledging past experiences and current knowledge the spirit of internationalism is also valued. On a personal level I am excited and inspired to be a teacher that incorporates this educational philosophy for the betterment of my students.