Teaching in Shanghai, China, is eye opening, inspiring, exhausting and, most of all, rewarding. The lessons and knowledge gained in the summer institute, from Asian history, to film resources, to web design, materially benefited this teacher's transition from an American high school pedagogue to an international school instructor.

My wife works for Hewlett Packard, and two years ago she was offered a "local hire" contract in return for the opportunity to live in China. I searched the web for possible job postings in Shanghai, applied for the two open jobs that I found, and received offers. A miracle, I believe, but this is how I ended up in Shanghai. Now I teach at a school that averages 79% 4-5 scores on AP tests, has its own cafe with room service, equips every student with a laptop, and insists on research-proven pedagogical techniques. It is exhausting, thrilling, and the best job I believe I will ever have. To tell the truth, I just feel lucky to be here. I try to earn my stripes every day, and am pushing myself to learn and do more. There is no such thing as resting on one's laurels here, but the reward of working with these students, and along side these colleagues, makes the effort more than worth it.

Not an IB school, we focus on AP courses, and the AP International Diploma. We teach a US-based curriculum, though we have flexibility as a small private school to determine how we will teach it. For example, I team teach a Humanities 9th grade course encompassing ancient history, literature, and world religions that simply brings me joy. With class sizes that max out at 22, and average 16, there actually is individualized instruction. We used Gardner's intelligences as a guide in determining how students best learn, and craft some assignments to play to the students' strengths. Imagine combining two classes for a 60-minute block of instruction in which the total class size is 30-33 students, and two teachers with 30 years of experience between them are able to interact with the students in small groups or one-on-one. What is more, these students understand the importance of education. They come to class every day with their intellectual candles ready to be lit. honestly, the challenge is in being creative, and honoring their potential and passion with a double portion of enthusiasm and challenge. I am living a dream.

The students themselves are foreign passport holders. By Chinese law, we cannot teach Chinese citizens, though we would love to, and we receive several inquiries every year toward this end. Perhaps 60% of students are US citizens, with Korean, Canadian, Taiwanese, Hong-Kong ren (yes, a special status), Singaporeans, Indonesians, Filipinos, and a few students from other countries making up the mix. Most of these students are of Asian ethnicities, though more than a few students are blond haired midwesterners. All of them are impressive in some way. The amount of talent contained in this student body is stunning. Can you tell I love this job?

Now, back to preping for my APUSH class tomorrow [Edit by="ccarter on Sep 2, 7:02:39 AM"][/Edit]
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