2-Year Exit Plan for BC Offshore School Teaching

Today's weather:  High = 28 Low = 22

Partly Cloudy

 

As mentioned in a few conversations with friends and colleagues, I'm looking at two more years of teaching math/science in the BC Offshore system, then making my exit and doing something else entirely.  This is actually the best year I've had so far doing the job, and the last 3 years have seen steady improvement, but conversations have indicated it's getting time to move on.

 

By the end of two years, including this current one, my masters degree program  (MMT - masters of math for teachers) should be complete and I will have gotten two years of AP experience under my belt.  There are no plans to leave Shanghai during those two years and quite possibly I'll stay here longer.

 

But come June 2013, whe that school year is done, I want to make my exit from the BC system.  The reasons for this are rather complicated to get into, biut an in-depth conversation with the English teacher at our school who's had nearly 10 years of experience at Dalian (before he came here) has revealed a lot of interesting stuff.  To put it simply, there are many good things about the offshore system but it's getting time to move on. 

 

What is most likely going to happen is that I would teach math at universities, prep colleges, or A-level international schools in Shanghai, that is ones which use the IB curriculum or some other international accrediation.  Other options are to go into curriculum development.

 

The general idea is to stay in Asia of course, but even if I did return to North Amerca I would stay clear of the BC system.  Offshore or not, the BC high school education system is going down the tubes, and the latest thing has been the dumbing down of the math curriculum to include "Pre-Calculus" 10, 11, 12 which really has very little to do with pre-calculus.  Also, the provincial exams have all been dumped entirely, except for Engish 12.  Now schools are reporting the ever-inflated "school marks" which students use to apply to universities.  It is not fair as there are different standards for different teachers, and they can make up whatever exam they want now --- or choose not to even bother with an exam.

 

In a nutshell, the education system is become a lot less rigorous and standardized in the name of being more "student centered" and there is no way anymore that kids in BC could hope to compete with their Asian counterparts in math -- if they ever had a chance in the first place.

 

I'd rather go for the universities in future where I'm sure there are opportunities in Asia, and a masters degree would help.

 

However, before doing any career changes I'm going to take a year off and ride a bicycle around the world, getting the money from other sources of income besides work.  Stay tuned to this blog for more information.  All these mini-trips to Thailand over the years have proved to be of much use, and I've met scores of characters over there who have given me ideas on how to make alternative income sources and travel on the cheap in Thailand.  As a general rule of thumb, I don't travel unless I'm somehow getting an income at the same time, and there are many creative ways to do so as I have been learning.