The International Schools Review Forum

Is there any chance we could merge the two ISR forums into one ISR forum? I've never understood the difference between the two. While it's a small inconvenience to navigate between the two forums, it is an inconvenience, and for no reason that I can figure out.
Or maybe I'm a bit dim. If there is a good reason to have two forums, please tell me.

As you haven't had any replies, perhaps you should post on the other forum? :D

I imagine it is an historical thing - one section for Search, another for ISS.

Bottom line is - if u want your post to be read, post it in this section.

There was a thread on here a while back where a bunch of teachers wanted to split the forum into about half a dozen new ones. I thought is was ridiculous at the current set up runs like treacle. I'm all for one forum. Get rid of the other one.

Trash Forum 1. Perhaps a Wordpress platform and new image content while we're at it?

My understanding was forum one was traditionally about Search and "general posts" and forum two was about ISS and ISR "suggestions".

Since this topic is a comment/suggestion about ISR, maybe it actually should be in Forum 2 though?

I agree that one forum would be better than what we have now.

Has anyone considered having two forums? One, where people post anonymous posts and comments, and things that are sensitive. And a second forum where we can have real profiles, network, share resources, share professional development opportunities, etc. This is a small community, and this would be a really nice added value for all of us. Plus the level of professionalism might go up a little bit at times.

I wonder if admins/recruiters would consider just being a member of ISR as a deal breaker, and if having your real profile even affiliated with the site could have consequences?

bye

[quote="vaellteacher"]There might be something to PsyGuy's post about having consequences if you did not remain anonymous.[/quote]

I'm not sure how many admins are going to give us consequences for talking on ISR... unless you say something that would piss them off, and it has your name attached to it. The admin that I work with sometimes talks with me about things that are on here. As a whole, I feel like most admins could really care less about ISR. On top of that, every teacher I know who recruited this year accessed the site in some way. So all of us would have to be in trouble in the end.

bye

Some of you may find this link to be instructive - http://www.academyish.org/_membersonly/ ... osting.pdf

I did not engage in any subterfuge to get it. Just googled international schools review posting administrator response (or something like that - did this a while ago).

The admin are responding to a situation where they find out a teacher has written a bad review about the school. Most take a fairly hardline response - sack them! - as you will read.

Having said that, if I was in their position and I found out that one of my teachers had run down the school, I'm not sure what I'd do. Esp. if the posting was completely unjustified.

I thought the posting of Michael Matthew (who I think used to be the Head of the Int Community School in Zurich) was the most even handed. He did make an interesting comment about how the heads had had recent discussions about the need for admin to be brutally honest when writing confidential references. He was arguing that isn't this what posters on ISR do.

[quote="hallier"]Some of you may find this link to be instructive - ----://www.academyish.org/_membersonly/Resourc ... osting.pdf

I did not engage in any subterfuge to get it. Just googled international schools review posting administrator response (or something like that - did this a while ago).

The admin are responding to a situation where they find out a teacher has written a bad review about the school. Most take a fairly hardline response - sack them! - as you will read.

Having said that, if I was in their position and I found out that one of my teachers had run down the school, I'm not sure what I'd do. Esp. if the posting was completely unjustified.

I thought the posting of Michael Matthew (who I think used to be the Head of the Int Community School in Zurich) was the most even handed. He did make an interesting comment about how the heads had had recent discussions about the need for admin to be brutally honest when writing confidential references. He was arguing that isn't this what posters on ISR do.[/quote]

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Interesting. Thanks for that. I think that is the problem. Honesty should be easy to define and agree upon (i.e. factual, objective, rational).

Unfortunately, in many cases, perception is reality. If a teacher writes a very negative review, they are hopefully writing their perception of reality and not making things up to make the school seem even worse. If they would stick to the facts (e.g. I was/was not paid late, was/was not asked to inflate grades etc, was fired for no professional reason) then the site would have more credibility.

As for admin being brutally honest in confidential references, that is also fine, if they stick to the facts (e.g was/was not reliable, was/was not competent in their subject etc).

Unfortunately, many of the potential negatives are very much in the eye of the beholder in some cases. Are you not a team player if you simply did not get on (or somehow p1ssed off) someone with the ear of the admin, or were not in the favoured clique?

Or even (and have heard of this being done) writing a negative judgement on someone's teaching ability based on skuttlebut, hearsay, one parent's complaint or the grumbling from a favoured teacher that simply does not like the person in question (when the admin had never done a formal observation of the teacher).

I believe (or hope) that the majority of admin take the job of writing references seriously, since it greatly influences someone's livelihood and the quality of life of the teacher and the family. Teachers writing a review should do the same and stick to the facts as they know them.

I wasnt really surprised, but appreciate the time and effort to actually locate a source... Even the most even and balance minded professional would have a hard time not having an emotional response to negative comments and criticism. We dont like being told we are not seen in the same view as we see our selves. We BELIEVE what we do is good and right and true, because it IS good and right and true. Few professionals (there are always exceptions), whether admins or faculty plan to do something that is wrong, bad, or false.

What i found the most disturbing, was that "loyalty" should/could be bought/contracted, and in the absence of, punished. Loyalty is earned, loyalty is what keeps teachers from doing what they feel they should do (writing negative reviews) because the admin and school have earned a measure of trust. If you have to ask/demand someones trust, then you really dont have it anyway.

[quote="PsyGuy"]I wasnt really surprised, but appreciate the time and effort to actually locate a source... Even the most even and balance minded professional would have a hard time not having an emotional response to negative comments and criticism. We dont like being told we are not seen in the same view as we see our selves. We BELIEVE what we do is good and right and true, because it IS good and right and true. Few professionals (there are always exceptions), whether admins or faculty plan to do something that is wrong, bad, or false.

What i found the most disturbing, was that "loyalty" should/could be bought/contracted, and in the absence of, punished. Loyalty is earned, loyalty is what keeps teachers from doing what they feel they should do (writing negative reviews) because the admin and school have earned a measure of trust. If you have to ass/demand someones trust, then you really dont have it anyway.[/quote]

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I'm not sure what "ass/demand" is, but I'm very sure I would have to trust someone a WHOLE lot to go there (with a VERY nice gratuity thrown in). :D