Job Discussion Forums

[aku_tonpa]

Malu, you have hit the nail on the head.

[sherlock]

Yes, I got his point. I just think that the situation that was being described is actually quite normal. In my years teaching back home and at Intl schools here, I have always had to do this. In fact, we have been actively discouraged from relying too much on one text.

I counted that Tonpa had about two hours of prep time a day. Quite normal for proper schools if you ask me.

[malu]

I work for a proper school and I get more prep time and fewer contact hours than that. Heck, I even get time to read this forum!

[aku_tonpa]

Two hours prep time a day works out as 30 contact hours a week and I have not seen many jobs requiring that of teachers. Two hours seems sufficient time, but finding resources is only part of a teachers workload. Those two hours often disappear due to other responsibilities.
I agree you shouldn't rely on one text. However, there wasn't any text at all.

[extradross]

If you work at an IB school, maybe it's a fully legit acredited school, more than likely [in Indonesia currently] it's an 'under consideration' outfit-which may or may not be academically motivated in attaining the acreditation. [We all need to be international now you know!]Either way the school will have the curriculum and [at least some] of the syllabus in place. What if the school has nothing in place? The preparation then goes way beyond finding resources/material to use in class. Design and implementation from 'scratch' is what we are talking about here with regards to Highscope.....how far can you stretch two hours of prep time?

[extradross]

New teachers at Highscope should also be aware of the fact that they may be 'screwed' out of their final pay. And for those hired from 'overseas'-make sure that you also get the flight money out of the country when contract is completed. I believe this is Indonesian law, but Highscope's HRD have chosen to ignore this and it has disappeared from their employment contracts. By the way, all 'bule' teachers, and there were quite a few of them, quit at the end of the year......

[Zorobabel]

Sounds like a great operation.

[hippocampus]

Avoid HighScope at all cost. I knew an Indonesian who worked there. He had three kids, needed a job badly and despite this just walked out one afternoon. The place is totally disorganized. Overwork and under pay. You are 'free' to develop your own material, but have little 'free' time to do it. Traffic is horrendous in that part of town, floods are frequent and paydays may are may not come off on time. Don't go there.Don't go there.Don't go there.

P.S. And what does that name even mean? How can a scope be high? Wide maybe, even deep perhaps, but high? As a rule, distrust a school whose name is an illiteracy.

[hippocampus]

Also, properly called it is High/Scope. So what is with the slash? Does it mean 'high or scope'? Why, that makes even less sense than just plain 'HighScope'.

[Pale]

I always thought 'Highscope' was an acronym for Hope In God's Hell Someone Can't Observe Poo Emanating.

I could be wrong.

[hippocampus]

You're close. It's excreting, not emanating. Good work.

[Pale]

Now that makes sense!

[carnage_of_death]

If you do not mind being sold into slavery and working long days or giving up on the hope that you might actually help students learn then working at highscope is up your alley.

I worked there for 2 years they do not help you with housing assistance or provide housing for you. The housing allowance which is part of the base pay means you make about as much as you would at a language school since you need to purchase housing. If you have a family 18,000,000 rupiah probably will not.

It is better if you are single and can find a job at wall street with even shared housing include to take that job. I am sure you work less hours and will feel far better.

The Principals at highscope especially in middle grades and the overall K-9 principal at some point will make your life a living hell. The school promotes student centered learning but the students don't wish to learn nor to they have the available knowledge for their grade levels. If you wish to be on auto play grading will be simple just pass them along and act like you are doing an justice to the students instead of an injustice since that is also what parents want from the school a place for their children to do minimal learning and get good grades and passed along.

You will also be required to learn an irrelevant language if you are a foreign teacher. When I agreed to work at highscope and was in a foreign country there was no requirement that I would need to speak or learn Indonesian. My family is Indonesian but we converse in English and we do not go out a lot. My only conversation with Indonesian is possibly with the school staff. Most of the teachers are not trained teachers nor do they have a lot of training being teachers other than the 2 months of required initial teacher training. The owner of the school was good enough to buy a vast assortment of educational reference materials which if you are willing to read is a great start to improve your curriculum and teaching to advance yourself career wise later on down the road. It is also less than likely you will find career advancement in education beyond the assigned teaching level you start at.

I would say if you are going to work there at your own risk to being paid especially when you leave you are most likely to take a pay cut and learn they have no respect for anyone who has played hard and worked hard to help improve their school they do not share in the philosophy of kindness to those who are leaving them.

When I first started there the requirements for some of the foreign teachers was quite low they only needed to have a high school diplomas now that the school has achieved WASC accreditation they must high BA and above teachers to maintain status quote.

Now you have some more details good luck!

[LinkH]

If it's the one I'm thinking of, I used to drive past it a lot when I worked in Pondok Indah. I can't say much about the school, but it is not too far from the Pondok Indah Mall and that other big shopping center. That's also a kind of ritzy part of town as far as housing goes. Ciputat Tangerang isn't too far away. I lived there in the Kampung Hutan area, but those houses sure weren't cheap. If you do live out there, if they still have that Padang place kind of across from the Islamic University, do try it. It's cheap and the food is good.

If you are single and you can find a kost in that area, the housing allowance might work. If you want to rent a house for a year (which means paying up front) that doesn't sound like a very good gig.

[rayman]

CITOS (Cilandak Town Square) would be the closest mall, almost directly across the road. You could get a kost in Cilandak and then also be close to Kemang.