the daily grind

I realize I haven't written much about my job, which is really the main reason that I'm here. A fair warning: this is going to be mostly Education-talk...

I'm teaching at the International Christian School of Hong Kong, which is an ACSI school. The school is located on two main campuses (secondary and elementary), but next year we are joining forces into a brand new building, which will be a 10 minute walk from where I live.

At my campus, FoTan, the school is spread out across two buildings and four floors. On the 4rd floor, the school has rented out space for the kids to have a lunchroom. On the 5th floor is where the elementary school is housed, on the 6th floor is where the Admin offices, library, and Mandarin classes are, and on the 7th floor is the Kindergarten. Kids are going up and down escalators all day. It's also in an old shopping mall, so there are a lot of businesses and restaurants all around, too. The other building is the basement of an apartment complex, and it houses some storage, the art and music room, and a small workout room for staff.

I'm the brand-new Special Education teacher, which means I'm the first. It's been interesting to create a program that hasn't been in existence before. I feel supported and well taken care of, but there's a lot of work to do. In some ways, I feel a lot of autonomy and independence in what I do and how I create the program. I like that. No more Pres. Bush (NCLB) policies to worry about. Part of my day is spent doing administrative work and developing policies, procedures, manuals, etc. I also am part of the Admissions Team, so I test and screen kids who are applying and then make recommendations on whether or not they should be accepted into the school. Special Education is an interesting factor when the school has strict academic qualifications for admissions.

Many of the teachers haven't worked with a Special Ed teacher before, as many of them have only been in International schools. There aren't a lot of kids identified, yet, but I think I will have a big job ahead of me in working to identify those students who are struggling, and then figure out how they should best be serviced.

Autism is one of the major disabilities I'm encountering here. Some kids have been identified as having "lead poisoning" or "mercury poisoning", which evidences itself in autistic traits. From what I've learned, this is due to the high levels of fish that people consume here during pregnancy. It's hard to tell about the validity of certain disabilities here, though, because a lot of the doctors aren't really qualified to make such assessments, and the public schools don't really have a clear diagnostic process either.

I'm learning a lot and am having to give myself a crash course in Gifted Education as well, which falls under my job title here. I think I'll like it, but it definitely brings a whole different set of challenges.

Behavior problems aren't really an issue here, or at least in comparison to what I have experienced before. This might be a nice change.

If you aren't in Education and you've stuck with me this long, congratulations. I really do love the job and the opportunities for growth that it provides. It's one of the strongest reasons that I was drawn to coming here, and I think my intuition was right on.