I've taught in a variety of situations in my musical teaching career. A teacher learns something new from every group of students that they teach. Beyond the curriculum that is to be dealt with, the students teach the teacher, especially about social and economic realities of a particular locale.
My first assignment was in southern Oregon in a suburban-rural setting. The students in that school were considerably different from the environment that I had experienced where I lived in Ashland, Oregon. Ashland, at that time, had 85% of its adult population college graduates. That was a different situation from the surrounding cities and towns.
From this teaching situation I moved to Guam in 1990 and found myself in the southern part of the island. Even on this little tropical island there were differences the student personalities due to sociology-economic differences. The southern part of the island was quite rural and surprised me and other statesiders because people rarely left their villages. In fact on a field trip that first year on Guam, although only 5 miles away from the more urban settings of mid-island left most of my choir students little lost as to how to act properly because they had never really been there before.
In 1994 I got a new job on Guam. I became the music teacher of an elite school whose makeup was quite different than the school in the southern part of the island. This school was primarily made up of students of upper middle to upper income business people. The ethnic makeup of this school was also quite different. Many Koreans, Japanese, Chinese, as well as some US mainland Caucasians and Filipinos made up the student population. I was to learn the ins and outs of dealing with students whose parent language might not be English. I would also use patience beyond what I'd dealt with in the past because of communication differences.
Now when I arrived in Suzhou, the students were sons and daughters of people who worked in SIP. Suzhou Industrial Park
These parents were the factory executives of companies like Bosch, Samsung, Gucci, etc, etc, etc. The working stays of these parents could be a two year stint, or longer depending upon the parent company and the benefits that they might receive while working in China. The children knew that they were in Suzhou for a limited time and of course that affected their thinking. Added to that was the parallel thinking of the administration and faculty.
Something that I found very unusual at SSIS was the department established in the elementary wing by the German corporation Bosch. This was a German department who had its own German teaching staff and separate German curriculum. I had these Deutsche kinder twice a week, two combination classes, and I had found myself using my high school German for the first time in my teaching career. These children really appreciated the fact that I was of German descent and they liked hearing my family's history of coming to the United States from Germany in the 19th century.
It took a bit of time for me to understand and incorporate the PYP methodology, but I finally began to see that these students were thoroughly indoctrinated in this style of teaching and responded easily to its methods and they were used to all the teachers tying their knowledge together and making a cohesion that wouldn't have occurred in other methodologies. So, I was beginning to see the advantage of this overall method to educate with a consistency that I'd never seen before.
One thing that could be said for this school and other international schools is the way discipline occurs. For one thing the ability to go to another school is very limited. So, if there is ever a discipline problem with any student, parents really do enter into the discussion to straighten the child or they will find themselves without a school at all for their child to attend. That has its definite advantage over other situations where I'd taught.
I was now beginning to assimilate into this new school and its curriculum. A good year was ahead of me.
My first assignment was in southern Oregon in a suburban-rural setting. The students in that school were considerably different from the environment that I had experienced where I lived in Ashland, Oregon. Ashland, at that time, had 85% of its adult population college graduates. That was a different situation from the surrounding cities and towns.
From this teaching situation I moved to Guam in 1990 and found myself in the southern part of the island. Even on this little tropical island there were differences the student personalities due to sociology-economic differences. The southern part of the island was quite rural and surprised me and other statesiders because people rarely left their villages. In fact on a field trip that first year on Guam, although only 5 miles away from the more urban settings of mid-island left most of my choir students little lost as to how to act properly because they had never really been there before.
In 1994 I got a new job on Guam. I became the music teacher of an elite school whose makeup was quite different than the school in the southern part of the island. This school was primarily made up of students of upper middle to upper income business people. The ethnic makeup of this school was also quite different. Many Koreans, Japanese, Chinese, as well as some US mainland Caucasians and Filipinos made up the student population. I was to learn the ins and outs of dealing with students whose parent language might not be English. I would also use patience beyond what I'd dealt with in the past because of communication differences.
Now when I arrived in Suzhou, the students were sons and daughters of people who worked in SIP. Suzhou Industrial Park
These parents were the factory executives of companies like Bosch, Samsung, Gucci, etc, etc, etc. The working stays of these parents could be a two year stint, or longer depending upon the parent company and the benefits that they might receive while working in China. The children knew that they were in Suzhou for a limited time and of course that affected their thinking. Added to that was the parallel thinking of the administration and faculty.
Something that I found very unusual at SSIS was the department established in the elementary wing by the German corporation Bosch. This was a German department who had its own German teaching staff and separate German curriculum. I had these Deutsche kinder twice a week, two combination classes, and I had found myself using my high school German for the first time in my teaching career. These children really appreciated the fact that I was of German descent and they liked hearing my family's history of coming to the United States from Germany in the 19th century.
It took a bit of time for me to understand and incorporate the PYP methodology, but I finally began to see that these students were thoroughly indoctrinated in this style of teaching and responded easily to its methods and they were used to all the teachers tying their knowledge together and making a cohesion that wouldn't have occurred in other methodologies. So, I was beginning to see the advantage of this overall method to educate with a consistency that I'd never seen before.
One thing that could be said for this school and other international schools is the way discipline occurs. For one thing the ability to go to another school is very limited. So, if there is ever a discipline problem with any student, parents really do enter into the discussion to straighten the child or they will find themselves without a school at all for their child to attend. That has its definite advantage over other situations where I'd taught.
I was now beginning to assimilate into this new school and its curriculum. A good year was ahead of me.
No comments:
Post a Comment
All comments will be reviewed prior to posting