Musings from an International Teacher

I am an international teacher and have been teaching overseas for 9 years now. I am currently working as a Grade 2 teacher at the International School of Kuala Lumpur. I have been an advocate for technology integration so far there. I have been working on various projects at the school including grade level wikis, class blogs and podcasts and working on digital tools for school wide communication. Next year, I will be a IT teacher in the elementary school.

I have a masters degree in Multidisciplinary studies from SUNY, a BEd from Queen’s in Outdoor and Experiential Education and a BSc in Neuroscience and International Development Studies. I guess I enjoyed studying everything in school which is probably why I became a teacher. All my life, I thought I was going to study medicine but at the last second before I sent in my application, I found this incredible Outdoor and Experiential Education program and applied there instead. It’s funny how little decisions in life can take you down a different path in life.

After having so much passion for the outdoors and adventure sports, it seems paradoxical that I ended up with a passion for technology. There are more actually a lot of similarities to experiential education and web 2.0 then you probably haven’t imagined. Both require risk-taking, passion, collaboration and communication.

Before KL, I taught for 4 years at the Western Academy of Beijing as a Grade 3 teacher. I was very fortunate in that I had the opportunity to work on a number of projects integrating ICT within the PYP curriculum. The school had a 1:1 Apple laptop program from grades 3-12 and several computer labs to supplement. I worked on developing digital portfolios for students as well as creating grade level portals and web pages.

I have also taught at the Columbus School in Medellin, Colombia as a Grade 4 homeroom teacher. Living in Latin America was a great place to start my teaching career. It was also a great place to learn spanish and salsa dancing. Colombia is still one of my favorite countries in the world!

Please note: The views expressed here are those of the author and in no way represent the views of the employer.