A School Recess

The entryway, first thing you see as you walk
in the school.  There is currently a picture of
HM the queen in celebration of her birthday
this upcoming Tuesday.

Let's take a brief moment to talk about this school for which I work.

This school is positively amazing.

I've gone through the orientation and training here and feel like I grasp the beginnings of the school culture and the main focus of the school.  It was enlightening to listen to Khun Varnnee talk on Monday morning; she is the founder and director of the school, the main person in charge.  She's such an incredible human, and my first impression of her was how put together she was in every way.

She started the school a few years ago, in 2001, because she wanted to create in the next generation a group of students who were intelligent, global, compassionate, and courageous.  She talked about her history.  She was an investment banker, someone who worked with large sums of money on a daily basis.  She was working in this field about the time that bankers made some decisions for themselves and not their customers.  I watched a documentary about this recently, about the housing market and the collapse of everything.  It wasn't a collapse created with just a single decision; it was compounded with a multitude of selfish decisions and bankers thinking about their bottom line before they thought of the customers.  Khun Varnnee worked in this and saw the things taking place, and recognized a need for morality in the schools.  Perhaps if there would have been moral education in the schools of these bankers, after all, this crisis wouldn't have destroyed so much of the economic market.

The gap between one of the old buildings and the newer
wing for the high school students.

And so, Concordian was borne.  It's been quite the journey from what I understand as well, but here are a few fun facts about the school.

It is the only English, Thai, and Chinese IB school in the world, and from what I understand, it is also one of the very few that provides immersion in two languages beyond the native language.

Our school provides more money for professional development than any school in the Asia Pacific region.

We serve about 700 kids with about 150 teachers.

One of the main things we focused on throughout the orientation was the mission statement:

Concordian International School promotes academic excellence while nurturing young people to become moral and intellectual leaders, people of dignity, integrity and compassion, who want to make a difference in the world.

We work with an affluent population, children of men and women in Bangkok that have substantial funds at their disposal.  The moral and intellectual leaders is meant to transform these children into people who won't misuse or abuse power and who will treat others with respect.  There is a huge push in the school to work with service and offer activities that help the students grow as humans.

It's really incredible.

Overlooking the play area and the courtyard between all the
buildings.

What I've gathered as I've worked with the teachers this first week is that the school is incredibly supportive of everything that they do.  The admin mentioned more than a few times how they want to take care of things that are within their control: schedules and the like, so that it doesn't stress out the teachers.  They want teachers to feel confident in their subject area and take every measure to make that happen.  They ensure that teachers are supported in as many ways as possible.  It's been somewhat shocking to feel this much support.  I've felt supported in some schools, sure, but this takes it to a whole new level.  Especially compared to my last school, this is night and day, and it really shows in the faculty.

They work very hard because they feel so valued.

We had a really wonderful welcome party on Wednesday evening, the first night for the returning teachers.  It was a blast, and included many a bottle of Prosecco, wine, sushi, hor d'oeuvres, and a great little slideshow.  I met a ton of cool people.

The guy teaching drama is hilarious, and I think we will get on quite well.  There's a 76-year-old teacher from Spain who has stories from every minute of her life.  I'm eager to know her more.  My fellow librarian is very nice, and I sense that we will work together with maximum efficiency.

All in all, I'm very excited.  This is going to be an excellent place to work.