Side Note: Where I'm Teaching Next Year

by Clay Burell · 2009-01-09 08:46:00 UTC
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It's almost midnight in Bangkok. Tomorrow morning I fly to that Thai island (Ko Samui) for that belated honeymoon. I'm zonked, but will let the cat out of the bag: I'm in the middle of a sabbatical year from the classroom - and why k-12 teachers aren't given sabbatical as the norm, like university professors, is a question worth asking, since they work far more hours with far more students - and have spent the last four days interviewing with school leaders from several international (but U.S. curriculum-based, as a rule) schools in China, Japan, Singapore, and Saudi Arabia for my next teaching job. It's been pins and needles all week.

I just signed a contract today to teach Asian history at Singapore American School. And I'm quite excited about that.

a cat in a bagI share this so that a) you know more of my context - and I'll surely argue more in the future, as I've touched on already in past posts, that U.S. educational discourse sorely needs to look beyond U.S. borders for models to adapt or emulate; b) any questions anyone might have about those international models can be popped into comments; and c) the blasted cat will stop that yowling.

Just letting you know.

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Photo by eelviss

Clay Burell
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