Changchun American International School
Changchun American International School
I have an interview with them tomorrow. Northeastern China...gonna be coooooold. Anyone know anything about them?
-
weathervane
- Posts: 1
- Joined: Mon Aug 03, 2009 5:33 am
I'm working there now. It's still cold. What would you like to know?
The Principal lets nothing happen without her direct involvement and cannot delegate as she is threatened by anyone with expertise in their field. She tends to reduce all issues that she cannot deal with to personalities. Two members of staff have left this year (one Math, one English) and another resigned but changed his mind. Morale is very low, not helped by middle managers who do not have a single teaching qualification between them. The DP Coordinator is moving on, the MYP Coordinator works hard to compensate and they do both at least respect the professionalism of their teachers. PYP is a mess, 'led' by a TEFL teacher whose only experience of elementary is that he once attended one. All the teachers recently asked for him to be replaced, but he remains in place having demanded that they sign retractions of their complaints. This is China after all!
There are pockets of excellence in Business, German, Psychology, some PYP where individual teachers do the best they can for students.
For the time being, until the management changes, I would steer clear.
The Principal lets nothing happen without her direct involvement and cannot delegate as she is threatened by anyone with expertise in their field. She tends to reduce all issues that she cannot deal with to personalities. Two members of staff have left this year (one Math, one English) and another resigned but changed his mind. Morale is very low, not helped by middle managers who do not have a single teaching qualification between them. The DP Coordinator is moving on, the MYP Coordinator works hard to compensate and they do both at least respect the professionalism of their teachers. PYP is a mess, 'led' by a TEFL teacher whose only experience of elementary is that he once attended one. All the teachers recently asked for him to be replaced, but he remains in place having demanded that they sign retractions of their complaints. This is China after all!
There are pockets of excellence in Business, German, Psychology, some PYP where individual teachers do the best they can for students.
For the time being, until the management changes, I would steer clear.
Thank you for your reply! They offered me the job but they wanted me to start in April which just wasn't possible for me. From reading the paid portion of this site it seems like most international schools have their problems. No school will be perfect. I'm relatively new to IB - I'm only trained in the current DP; no experience yet so I can't really be too picky. I still told them I'd be interested in an August start.
I just signed up for this forum after doing a search online about our school and reading this. Like you say durianfan, most international schools have their problems, but I don't think our school is anything like as bad as weathervane said. This school has a lot of really committed people who are doing their best every day to make it a better and better place, including the principal, other teachers besides those that weathervane mentioned and the coordinators. The school has been growing a lot over the last year and I can say that the school gets better and better every year that I work here.
Moral has been low with some people, but a big part of that has been a few really negative people who have criticized and gossiped about other teachers so that they do not focus on their work. I think those people will all be gone at the end of this year and the people who are staying are great to work with.
I guess it is easy to point out bad things about any place you work, but after reading what weathervane wrote I thought it was only fair that all the good people at the school and the good work they do have someone to stick up for them too. There are a lot of good things about working here.
Zoro :D
Moral has been low with some people, but a big part of that has been a few really negative people who have criticized and gossiped about other teachers so that they do not focus on their work. I think those people will all be gone at the end of this year and the people who are staying are great to work with.
I guess it is easy to point out bad things about any place you work, but after reading what weathervane wrote I thought it was only fair that all the good people at the school and the good work they do have someone to stick up for them too. There are a lot of good things about working here.
Zoro :D
I interviewed with them and they offered me a position but I turned it down because I was offered another job in China with a much better pay. There are few very good things about this school: they do IB, have a lot of tech resources, housing, etc. They do seem a bit cheap - they pay you your summer salary in September when you return the second year, and do not pay it at all in the end of 2nd year if you decide no to renew. As for multiple openings they are expanding.
On a whim I checked their site and the position was still listed as vacant so I shot them an email. I have an interview with them tomorrow. At this point in the season most of the jobs are long gone, so even though it's freezing cold up there, I think it still seems like a good place to stay for a few years, especially since they do IB.
I doubt at this point I can snag anything else unless I want to go to someplace like Syria or Saudi. I'd take northern China over those two places any day.
I doubt at this point I can snag anything else unless I want to go to someplace like Syria or Saudi. I'd take northern China over those two places any day.