If you were to continue along the sidewalk on the lower right side of the photo, you'd walk past about 5 blocks of businesses catering mostly to expats and well-off Chinese, everything from spas to pet shops to apartment rental agencies. Several of these have closed within the few months that we've been here. Almost immediately workmen have shown up to begin overhauling the space for a new venture--but there are no transformations as dramatic as the shopping mall-to-school.
This school was founded 20-some years ago by oil companies for American employees' families. Right now there are 230 middle and high school students enrolled here, hardly any of them American. The majority are from South Korea. It's by far the most expensive American international school in our part of the city: annual tuition is $22-23K for secondary students.
Late last Sunday night I got a call from a secretary at this school, asking if I could be there at 8:00 the next morning to sub for a math teacher who'd just called in sick. Since there are so few students at this school and there's a list of 20 substitutes, I felt fortunate to finally get a foot in the door. I felt really fortunate to end up working there every day last week, and to get asked back for 4 days this coming week.
As is the case at the middle school where I've substituted here, working at this school is very different from working in the urban public schools at home. The atmosphere is...pleasant. It's bustling, it's serious, but absent is the pervasive tension and exhaustion that come from teachers and staff working so hard to educate so many kids, many of whom are dealing with challenging circumstances of one kind or another. Not that some of these kids don't have their own challenges, one of which is extreme pressure to be the best. Another difference is in the daily schedule. Just as at Leah's school, students here have 4 classes a day, each 80-90 minutes long, and they go to each class every other day. Teachers see 35-45 students a day at most. High school students each have their own laptop they bring to each class, purchased on a rent-to-own plan through the school, and they're required to use them often, both to access curriculum and to deliver their daily work and projects. In addition, students can use their laptops to take a wide variety of Virtual High School classes that a small school like this can't offer. Seniors at this school who need to take Calculus 2 would take it as a VHS class, for example. One other difference is that the students were respectful and friendly toward me from the first day. I'm used to having to work for awhile with a group of students to earn that.
This school was founded 20-some years ago by oil companies for American employees' families. Right now there are 230 middle and high school students enrolled here, hardly any of them American. The majority are from South Korea. It's by far the most expensive American international school in our part of the city: annual tuition is $22-23K for secondary students.
Late last Sunday night I got a call from a secretary at this school, asking if I could be there at 8:00 the next morning to sub for a math teacher who'd just called in sick. Since there are so few students at this school and there's a list of 20 substitutes, I felt fortunate to finally get a foot in the door. I felt really fortunate to end up working there every day last week, and to get asked back for 4 days this coming week.
As is the case at the middle school where I've substituted here, working at this school is very different from working in the urban public schools at home. The atmosphere is...pleasant. It's bustling, it's serious, but absent is the pervasive tension and exhaustion that come from teachers and staff working so hard to educate so many kids, many of whom are dealing with challenging circumstances of one kind or another. Not that some of these kids don't have their own challenges, one of which is extreme pressure to be the best. Another difference is in the daily schedule. Just as at Leah's school, students here have 4 classes a day, each 80-90 minutes long, and they go to each class every other day. Teachers see 35-45 students a day at most. High school students each have their own laptop they bring to each class, purchased on a rent-to-own plan through the school, and they're required to use them often, both to access curriculum and to deliver their daily work and projects. In addition, students can use their laptops to take a wide variety of Virtual High School classes that a small school like this can't offer. Seniors at this school who need to take Calculus 2 would take it as a VHS class, for example. One other difference is that the students were respectful and friendly toward me from the first day. I'm used to having to work for awhile with a group of students to earn that.
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