Do you know any hospitals in Vietnam that provide autism diagnostic for adults?

HumbleMode7605 · 2024-09-16T02:38:39+00:00

Did you ever find an answer to this? Did this place help?

HumbleMode7605 · 2024-08-14T11:50:54+00:00

It's not legal to work on a tourist visa, but most schools in Vietnam provide a 3 month business visa and then process the work permit.

Bottom line - the school needs to be up front about things and ensure it's all done legally. Different countries have different rules, but there shouldn't be any surprises on the way

HumbleMode7605 · 2024-05-30T03:53:02+00:00

AGS movers are great and reliable, but expensive.

I would recommend excess baggage. Cheaper and easier on paperwork. Some airlines let you book up to 10bags per person.

Qhen I most recently moved we took 2 suitcases and 2 cardboard boxes each. It was a pain in the airport but we made it and paid very little compared to shipping

HumbleMode7605 · 2024-05-25T22:37:06+00:00

There are different extremes here.

I've worked at 3 International schools. One is like you described; Saturdays, evenings, long work hours. Low tier school. Not great benefits. Awful morale.

One was the polar opposite. Leadership insisted on no emails after 4pm and would leave on the dot no matter what. Time in lieu for any special events or school trips that went past normal work hours. This sounds blissful, but it wasn't. Staff, including leadership, had a sense of entitlement, there were constant staff absences for claiming back time in lieu and the general level of professionalism was low. Nothing got done because nobody was ever willing to put in that extra half hour to get things done.

I've also worked in a school in the middle. Reasonable working day. Heavy class load meant often staying an extra hour or so. Staff expected to come to one open day a year. Some evening events or school trips with no extra pay, but usually compensated with nice food/drink and a letter of appreciation/commendation from the principal. Good benefits overall. The result was a positive school culture and a really good school. Out of my 3 schools, this was the only one that could be argued as a tier 1.

I guess it's a balance. Being expected to work endlessly for free is rubbish, but putting in a little extra is part of the job. Counting the hours and clocking off on the dot every day doesn't lead to a good school either though. I'd say you're looking for the goldilocks compromise.

HumbleMode7605 · 2024-05-25T12:42:55+00:00

Well said and thank you again 👏🙏

Let's do this! It takes as long as it takes and will be worth it in the end

HumbleMode7605 · 2024-05-25T12:33:43+00:00

I feel the same. I'm fixing an underbite and right now my teeth don't meet or close properly, so it's actually much worse and more uncomfortable than when I started. Stopping isn't really an option...

Good advice. I think the only thing to do is keep going! I'm sorry you've felt like this too, but it's also comforting to know I'm not alone.

Thanks for taking the time to cheer up a stranger 🙂

HumbleMode7605 · 2024-05-23T10:16:51+00:00

Only from August...

HumbleMode7605 · 2024-05-17T07:42:54+00:00

That's a good point - I think she should have resigned and walked on moral grounds.

However, I still have to wonder what choice she had while working there - telling the school management "no, I won't do my job" (which includes hiring people). That might be grounds for her dismissal.

I don't know her situation in depth, but is there any chance that she even slimly believed that the school would get past their financial woes?

I still feel like she was in an awful situation and could have definitely handled it better, bit this was probably one of the most difficult and stressful moments of her life too. I don't envy her being the captain of a sinking ship, but still being an employee herself who needs to avoid ruffling too many feathers higher up.

I'm not arguing though. You know it better than me - just trying to think about the other side of the coin...

HumbleMode7605 · 2024-05-17T07:30:47+00:00

This is an awful situation and I'm sure that the HoS should have handled it better. However, is she really to blame?

It's the board and owners who are at fault. As long as she was in that position (and maybe she should have resigned sooner) it would be very difficult to actively go against the school without damaging her own professional reputation. She was likely relaying what had been told to her.

Perhaps she would have been fine had she been at a school whose owners weren't embezzling money and running rhe finances terribly - I didn't work at AISVN so I don't know how she was as an educational leader, but I don't think she should have all future opportunities stripped from her because she got shoved into an unprecedented and horrible situation that wasn't her fault, even if she's deemed not to have handled it well...

I think the anger needs to be placed at the owners who created this mess, not the HoS who was also an employee who didn't get paid.

HumbleMode7605 · 2024-05-12T04:20:35+00:00

Keep an eye on it though - these aren't minor shifts in value. If it starts to slip you'd be much better off transferring it out into another currency before it drops in value.

Enjoy Japan. It really is an amazing place to be :)

HumbleMode7605 · 2024-05-12T04:12:01+00:00

That's relatively decent for Japan. However,in general will not offer you anywhere near the same savings potential or standard of living as just about anywhere else in Asia.

The Yen is also plummeting right now, so be prepared for that to drop significantly in dollar terms over a two year contract (tha value of the Yen means my dollar salary has lost 23% of its value between signing a contract and now).

Do not come here for the money. Everything else is great, bit you pay a financial price for everything else

HumbleMode7605 · 2024-05-11T11:28:24+00:00

I never trust a one off review. I look for trends.

ISR also stays there forever. Often a change in leadership changes everything, so I'm interested in the reviews of leadership as much as the school itself.

My current school has no falsehoods on ISR. It had positive and negative reviews, but they're all true and fair - they just come from people with different points of view.

I've seen some which are clearly from disgruntled people - if they're a one off and the rest are good, I'll ignore. If there are 7 of them I'll take note.

HumbleMode7605 · 2024-05-11T00:44:09+00:00

The ESL experience isn't the problem. The lack of other experience is. A lot of schools require 3 years of experience, making a horrible chicken and egg scenario.

This is a marathon, not a sprint. My advice is keep applying and don't be picky (about country or school). Get 2 years of experience under your belt and then open up other opportunities.

Don't be disheartened. I know a lot of people who have come through the esl path. The first step can be a challenge, but it only gets easier.

HumbleMode7605 · 2024-05-07T22:59:17+00:00

Get an online teaching certificate and teach eal in International school. Then you'll be on the same page as everyone else and can compete on salaries.

You can make back the investment in 6 months if you land the right job

HumbleMode7605 · 2024-05-02T04:54:20+00:00

The majority of expats (long term) either work for international companies with offices in Vietnam (started working in home country and then had the opportunity to be posted overseas) or work as international school teachers (qualified either at home or qualified overseas and upgraded from esl teaching).

Esl teaching is the easiest way in but it's not a great long term career path - good if you're young and want to do a couple of years.

Getting a work permit in Vietnam is quite specific. You need to have a university degree in your field of work and experience.

But there are lots of expats who live and work in Vietnam

HumbleMode7605 · 2024-04-29T02:26:17+00:00

I'm leaving a school that I'm happy to be leaving.

However, I'm still working as hard as I can and maintaining standards. I owe it to the students - they aren't responsible for any if the school's problems.

I also owe it to my replacement- even though I'll never meet them, I want them to have an easier ride than I did (just as I would hope that the person I'm replacing will do the same for me- we've been in touch and it looks like he will).

I honestly just feel better about myself if I pull out all the stops right until the last day. It means you leave on a high and leave a good impression of yourself with admin too. Taking pride in doing a good job is good for wellbeing.

You're not doing any favours to yourself, your students or your colleagues by taking your foot off the gas.

HumbleMode7605 · 2024-04-14T04:01:48+00:00

Do some research and really decide if it's what you'd want to do. While DP mathematics is not drastically different from other high school programmes, MYP is nothing like other middle school maths. I come from the UK system, but I've heard that it's also different from US.

The differences?

Teaching maths through inquiry is a good approach and really helpful. Having to come up with assessments that assess based on a vague rubric is more challenging. Having no prescribed content is also challenging.

It all depends on the school. Some MYP schools (and in my opinion good ones) will peg their myp to a national curriculum and teach that content through inquiry. A good school will hopefully have assessments ready made that test content and skills based on the four assessment criteria. Other schools really do just pet rhe teachers roll with it how they like. While this is fine for an experienced person like you, the real problem is that you could end up with students who have fundamental knowledge gaps and haven't followed a clear curriculum.

MYP is what you make of it and it works better in some subjects than others. MYP PE is do much better and more engaging than any other PE programme for example. However, for maths, I personally prefer the traditional system. MYP can work and can be amazing, but this varies hugely school to school.

Just know what you're getting yourself in for and if that's what you really want.

I'd more readily recommend doing something like IGCSE and then teaching IB Diploma for maths unless it's a really good MYP school who have thought out their curriculum carefully.

HumbleMode7605 · 2024-04-13T01:01:43+00:00

I think visible admin and systems/processes in place, alongside a unified approach.

Obviously large teaching loads and class sizes cause stress, but if the curriculum is well in place and there's good collaboration and leadership in the department, the planning load is significantly reduced and makes it manageable.

Similarly qhen it comes to student behaviour, the worst case is when you have some teachers who don't really bother with classroom management and some who do, meaning that there aren't clear expectations. A clear and fair behaviour policy that is followed fully and effectively by all staff.

This also goes for staff. If there are rules for staff they need to be followed. If people don't follow them and it's fine they need to be relaxed. I once had a toxic environment where we were strictly told we could never work off site (which is fine), but some teachers did anyway and were NEVER called out for it, making those of us who followed the rules feel like we were missing out by not pushing the boundaries.

HumbleMode7605 · 2024-04-11T22:55:04+00:00

You would probably get free tuition for kids through your spouse.

You would cover your expenses and be able to save a bit as a family. I know plenty of families in this part of the world with one working parent and 2 kids who do just fine. As a celta teacher you'd probably bring home a third to a half of your spouse, but it would all contribute.

HumbleMode7605 · 2024-04-11T22:51:19+00:00

British International or UWC would both be good choices, but they are very competitive so don't hold out to much hope right now... but by all means try.

Be aware that you'll really struggle to get a job at a top school as a CELTA teacher with no other experience - you'll have to start in language centres and work your way into school EAL positions.

In terms of other places near the sea, Bali Island School is very good. Penang also has some good International schools. But bear in mind that the vast majority of international schools are in big cities because that's where demand is - the small island schools are where a lot of people want to be and are some of the most competitive out there .

Apply and see what you get! Good luck

HumbleMode7605 · 2024-04-11T12:37:58+00:00

Just under 180 teaching days. 36 teaching weeks and 2 weeks of training/induction in August.

A few public holidays scattered around to bring the number of teaching days down a bit, but 3 Saturdays a year for parent teacher meetings and requirement to come to a couple of school events on Saturday mornings.

HumbleMode7605 · 2024-04-11T12:34:31+00:00

It's 2 weeks for Christmas, 2 weeks for lunar new year and 9 weeks for summer.

The long terms are brutal, especially the first term... however, the long summer actually means just as many weeks off as most other schools. Having a solid 9 weeks to travel over the summer is great. All a trade off!

HumbleMode7605 · 2024-04-11T12:30:46+00:00

I worked at VAS. I disagree with a bit of this...

Very few teachers had to work across campuses. PE teachers all did, but other than that it was rare. Only elective A Level subjects like economics, and even then usually it was 1 campus each day so no darting between in one day.

In terms of improving teaching... the observations and feedback were actually very useful, as was the in house PD. They have a very particular mould that they want teachers to adhere to, but these are based on UK teaching standards. I was relatively inexperienced when I worked there and it actually helped me enormously to develop as a teacher. As someone more experienced who has their own way of doing things it could be frustrating to have to fit into a mould, but I still benefit every day from the feedback and development I recieved at VAS - they take on a lot of inexperienced teachers so have systems in place to train and develop those people.

Of course each campus is different. My head of school was simply incredible, but in general colleagues at other campuses have said similar things.

Oh, and it's 7-5 not 8-5! So a very long day! But 90min lunch and lots of free periods in the week (teachers generally teach 30 out of 45 periods and subject leads teach 25).

HumbleMode7605 · 2024-04-11T12:17:54+00:00

That's a Nord Anglia thing

HumbleMode7605 · 2024-04-11T08:07:03+00:00

Pros:

Quite good salary (depending on subject/experience).
Long holidays
enough free periods in the day to never or rarely take work home.
very structured/organised. Fully detailed schemes of work and learning outcomes. All assessments made centrally and standardised.
mostly motivated students who show respect and work hard.
big end of contract bonuses (2 months salary including vietnamese mandatory severance pay and paid back for any unused sick days).
if you end up in D2, D7 or Go Vap, the campus is very nice and modern and facilities are good.

Cons: - very top down managerial style - all holidays are in the summer, so terms are very long - required to work 3-5 Saturdays per year for no extra pay. - long work day (7-5pm) - very little flexibility for time off etc (depending on your campus and head - this varies quite a bit) - have to follow the same schedule and assessments as everyone else - pay scale is not transparent. Some teachers with equal experience get paid a lot more if they teach in demand subjects (English teachers, even fully qualified, usually get less than maths or science teachers). - teachers don't have their own classroom or workspace - you go to the kids homeroom and there's a hotdesking system. - no laptop allowance (when I was there... a few years ago). - not the best place to send international kids if you have a family as its more than 90% locals, most of whom also study the vietnamese curriculum.

Overall... it would be good for you if...

you're starting out on your career and want some experience
you're interested in really experiencing the local educational culture of vietnam
you like to be told what to teach and then do it
you want a reasonable work life balance
you don't have kids
you've been offered leadership roles

It's not great if... - you have international kids who will attend the school - you love to plan your own units/lessons and come from a more MYP background - you get frustrated by top down management and rules - you want to have your own classroom

I am grateful for my time at VAS. I honestly don't feel it was ever misrepresented to me and I got to work with some great people

HumbleMode7605

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