The International Schools Review Forum

Why are there only two divisions to the forum index?
What are the two divisions to the forum index?
Every part of this forum is a gem of knowledge, and useful too.
But I'm just sayin'.....
Is this a professional site, or not?. (I did pay ISR for the reviews, but this forum is free, right?)
Thank you for your kind attentions.

I'd love to hear your plan for a revamp of the forum. If you would be so kind as to present it here your input would be much appreciated. Yes, the form is free to all.

Forum Admin.

Given that both of these forums can move like treacle, I would have thought it better to combine the two into one to make it a bit more vibrant. It certainly doesn't need subdividing any more.

I belong to and post on a couple of hobby forums. As an example, car enthusiast (mine is a Civic Si).
Break it down by subject.
Science teaching
English teaching... etc
How 'bout Geography?
Asia, ME, South America, etc....
Experienced teachers
New teachers
Salary, benefits
Moving advice
Tax laws in host countries
Lesson planning to non-english speakers
Primary School teachers
Secondary School teachers
If all of this seems superfluous with the search function then just put all into one. Will having broader topics help teachers searching the web find this site?
Just a suggestion.

One reason why this place is so underutilised at the moment is because it is so badly organised. When I first got here I found there were only two areas, and one was completely useless, being the second - the topics listed in it have absolutely NOTHING to do with its heading. Seems nobody really knows what it is for, including me. Make it more relevant, and easier to navigate, and people will use it properly.

So, how about this:
International Schools - Questions about specific schools and what they are doing/what they are involved in/what they are like to work for.
Search Associates, ISS, and other Agencies - reviews, experiences, hints and suggestions for fairs.
Conditions/Packages/Comparisons - Offerings of packages and inclusions from different schools, and comparisons of each. What are expectations, and/or experiences?
Living Overseas - Information about locations where people are teaching, what is good/bad about them. Questions about locations, costs of living, etc. Things that really aren't associated with teaching, but living in general.
Open Chat - The forum for open chat, with nothing to do with any of the above. Any topic you like, within reason, to chat with your colleagues.

That's my 2c worth.

:D

Your input and efforts are well appreciated. Thanks very much. It would be simple to add the categories and I will bring this up at Monday's meeting.

Best,

Forum Admin

I like Suddenpaws' ideas. I would like to add a comment, too. I have asked questions in the Forum that you rejected and sent to the "Over 50's" page. Since the majority of the people visit the Forum page, it would make sense to let all topics appear on this page. Even the younger teachers need to know what stumbling blocks they need to be prepared for when they get a little older. Also, it is a hassle to have to go back and forth between sites.
While I am at it, could you please ask teachers who are writing reviews to comment on whether or not there are teachers in their schools who are 60 or older? Even if the teachers in overseas schools don't know the exact ages of their colleagues, they can guesstimate. It sure would be helpful.
International Schools Review is good, but it could be great!

I like Suddenpaws ideas too! I have always appreciated this forum, considering we had nothing like this before. Thank you ISR for even creating this!!! As far as finding anything on the forum, I just used the search feature and was able to find what I was looking for. It wasn't the most convenient; however, I was always thankful to at least have a forum to search. As with anything, there is always room for change and updating. As you do this, remember that your efforts thus far are GREATLY appreciated.

[quote="admin"]Your input and efforts are well appreciated. Thanks very much. It would be simple to add the categories and I will bring this up at Monday's meeting.

Best,

Forum Admin[/quote]

I also agree with the suggested changes. More people might post here if it were better organized. I would really love it if people would feel more welcome to come here and share information, and seek information.

To my knowledge, their is only one other forum like this and that is TES. TES have one forum and no categories and it flows much better than this forum. It certainly has more posters than this forum and would have many more if they didn't have the ridiculous log-in procedure.

I believe splitting an already slow forum into multiple categories will just make it even slower (I've seen this happen on other forums).

When I come to the ISR forum I generally only click on forum 1, because the other one barely moves.

You just need one forum, a decent search function and email notification when someone posts. Being able to PM someone would also be helpful.

I'll jump on the request bandwagon and put one in for an rss feed for the forums. Unless I'm missing it somewhere, it would be nice to pull in a feed into a news reader and access posts on my iphone.

I would like to say that I REALLY appreciate this site and it has been absolutely invaluable to us. THANK YOU!!!

As far as improvements go, the search engine could be better, as it has often not brought up posts on a subject that I later found through searching manually. Also, I like the idea of subdividing. Perhaps there could be one forum page that opens immediately and you see all new and updated posts. Then there could be categories that could be easily browsed.

It might be complicated, but could there be an option on the bottom of a new post where you flag it as a specific subject? There could be drop down menus for countries and other info. For example, if I were posting about a package in China in relation to workload and how it relates to my daily life, I could flag it as China, packages, and general school info.

If this were done you could have one large forum that you first see as one when you enter. Then you could check boxes that say 'Show me posts about: packages, Asia, administrators, etc.'. It would be more effective as far as searching and less general but not-too-specific browsing goes.