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Internationalisation means more than just teaching in English
Many East Asian universities have been remarkably successful in their internationalisation efforts over the past decade.
There are now 14 universities from the region included in the world’s top 100, according to the latest THE rankings. One significant factor has been the use of English in teaching, which has facilitated the recruitment of overseas students and staff, as well as the expansion of student exchange activities with international partners.
The target of Japan’s Top Global University Project to enrol 300,000 foreign students was achieved a year ahead of the 2020 deadline. A similarly ambitious plan in Taiwan aims to make English the medium of instruction in 50 per cent of undergraduate courses and 70 per cent of master’s programmes, in accord with the Bilingual Nation 2030 policy.
Exiled from my old life by Covid, I quit my job and now have two books coming out
For the last year, I’ve been walking around the same five square kilometres of Nova Scotia. I also got burned out, quit my job and wrote a second book. This was after the first book was put on hold because of the pandemic.
Let me give you some background to all that. I live here in Halifax but grew up in Tralee, Co Kerry. In the 1980s my family moved to Chicago, where I went to high school. You could say I got the lust for travel early, although, at the time, I missed Ireland terribly. I came back for college to UCD but went teaching English in Japan after that.
When I returned in the mid-1990s, the place was completely changed, the Celtic Tiger in full roar. I did an IT conversion course and became a computer programmer.
I feel alive when I am abroad,’ says Wright State alumna
Teaching English has given Teresa Troyer a magic carpet ride to more than a few foreign countries.
The Wright State University double-degree alumna has taught English to university students and professors in China, Indonesia and Turkey, to teens and K-12 teachers in Honduras, and to teachers in Colombia. She also taught in Slovakia.
“I feel alive when I am abroad,” said Troyer, adding that her favorite experience was the year she spent in Colombia. “Being able to take our children, who were 9 and 11, to live in Bogota for a year — much of which consisted of flying around the country to conduct workshops for English teachers — was something I dreamed of doing as a young person.”
English teachers trained as unofficial Israel ambassadors
Twenty-six teachers who volunteered to come to Israel and teach English attended a special workshop of the Israel-is organization, held this week at the social hub at Tel Aviv’s Atarim Square, with the goal of teaching them how to defend Israel abroad as unofficial ambassadors.
Israel-is operates in the beachfront structure that formerly housed the Pussycat strip club. The organization has trained several goodwill ambassadors in the past, mainly young people going on their post-army trip across the world.
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Yale was a top producer of Fulbright awardees during 2020-2021 cycle
The U.S Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs released a ranking last month of higher education institutions that produced the most 2020-2021 Fulbright students. With rankings disclosed in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Yale placed fifth among research institutions — 10 places higher than the 2019-2020 cycle.
An international exchange program operated by the U.S government, Fulbright supports travel to over 140 countries to study, research or teach English. Students find faculty mentors affiliated with the University and work with their mentor to design a project relevant to their interests. Despite travel difficulties posed by the pandemic, 32 Yale students and alumni were offered awards in the most recent cycle.
Brand Affiliates 101: What Is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate marketing is a departure from traditional marketing and has become popular because of its flexibility and profitability. Many brands and marketers alike have found that it is effective for driving sales and generating impressive revenue online. If you’re interested in getting started as a content creator or brand vendor, this article will tell you what you need to know about affiliate marketing.
Turn your dream of travelling into Career
When you’re used to the standard 9-5 working day, you might find your mind wandering towards faraway destinations in those inevitable moments of boredom. Not many of us have the money or the time to drop everything and travel the world.
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How to add the Google Drive app to your desktop on a PC and sync all of your files easily
Google Drive is popular for its free programs, ease of access, and compatibility with Gmail and other Google products.
You can download Google Drive to your PC desktop as well, enabling your computer to sync your files with Google Drive automatically.
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University deferrals behind surge in young people training to teach English abroad
Recent school leavers put off enrolling for university this academic year have been driving the rise in TEFL purchases since March
Teaching English classes for kids in China from a farmhouse in West Cork
The sudden, total switch from our normal worklives to most people working from home has brought challenges – but also opportunities.
Some believe it could change the future for rural Ireland, allowing people to pursue full-time careers while being able to live relatively cheaply in some of the most isolated but attractive communities in Ireland.
For Molly Dillion, the Covid-19 crisis has allowed her to spend a summer enjoying wild West Cork, while still working hard and earning a living.
She tells us about her summer so far, on the old farmstead close by Barleycove Beach and Crookhaven in far west Cork.
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School openings across globe suggest ways to keep coronavirus at bay, despite outbreaks
Science’s COVID-19 reporting is supported by the Pulitzer Center.
Early this spring, school gates around the world slammed shut. By early April, an astonishing 1.5 billion young people were staying home as part of broader shutdowns to protect people from the novel coronavirus. The drastic measures worked in many places, dramatically slowing the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
However, as weeks turned into months, pediatricians and educators began to voice concern that school closures were doing more harm than good, especially as evidence mounted that children rarely develop severe symptoms from COVID-19. (An inflammatory condition first recognized in April, which seems to follow infection in some children, appears uncommon and generally treatable, although scientists continue to study the virus’ effect on youngsters.)
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21 UofL students and alumni win prestigious international fellowship offers
The University of Louisville continues its strong showing in national and international scholarships and fellowships with 21 students receiving offers to attend prestigious programs around the globe.
This year’s batch includes 11 Cardinals selected for the U.S. Student Fulbright Program, the third year in a row UofL has racked up Fulbright offers in the double digits.
“I continue to be amazed at the number of prestigious scholars produced by this university each and every year,” said UofL President Neeli Bendapudi. “Nothing makes me more proud than seeing our students achieve such great honors and knowing that our faculty and staff are so supportive of their efforts.”
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The World needs almost 69 million new teachers to reach the 2030 Education goals
The international education community has pledged to achieve universal primary and secondary education by 2030 as part of Sustainable Ddevelopment Goal4(SDG 4). However, about 263 millionchildren and youth are out of school, according to recent UIS data. This includes25 million children of primary school age who will probably never set foot in a classroom, while just 14% of youth complete upper secondary education in low-income countries. Clearly, SDG 4 demands a seismic shift in theprovision and quality of education and teachers.
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5 things I learned teaching overseas for a decade
International education can be a life-changing experience if you go in with your eyes open, find the right school, the right team and have the right motivation.
I left the UK in 2010 on the advice of a deputy head who told me I should give it a whirl before settling in the UK.
Soon I had ditched my 5am cycle in the freezing cold and swapped my shared house in Brixton for an international school in Chile with a beautiful view of the mountains and free coffee in the staffroom.
It was a huge change and one I’ve thoroughly enjoyed. The past 10 years have taught me a lot about international teaching that others considering the sector may benefit from knowing.
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Reopened schools in Europe and Asia have largely avoided coronavirus outbreaks. They have lessons for the U.S.
BRUSSELS — Many countries around the world are pushing ahead with plans for full-time, full-capacity, in-person classes, after having largely avoided coronavirus outbreaks linked to schools during more tentative reopenings in the spring.
From Belgium to Japan, schools are abandoning certain social distancing measures, such as alternate-day schedules or extra space between desks. They have decided that part-time or voluntary school attendance, supplemented by distance learning, is not enough — that full classrooms are preferable to leaving kids at home.
Those experiences and conclusions may offer hopeful guidance to societies still weighing how to get students and teachers back into primary and secondary classrooms.
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Greensboro woman overseas during pandemic experiences lockdown in Philippines
GREENSBORO, N.C. — A Greensboro woman on a backpacking trip through Asia found herself stuck on lockdown and is now struggling to get back to the Triad.
From a young age, Lauren Rhodes loved to travel.
“I had the plan to go to China and then the Philippines and Vietnam,” Rhodes said.
She started that excursion in mid-January, never worrying about a health crisis taking over the world.
“When I was leaving the US, there was maybe one article about the coronavirus that had come out, but I was like there’s no way I’m going to stop my trip for this potential virus,” Rhodes explained.
She spent 10 days in China.
“My best friend who I grew up with, she was teaching English in China,” Rhodes said.
Days after leaving and hopping on a plane to the Philippines, China was put on lockdown.
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Six things to know about teaching English abroad
Durban – Teaching English as a foreign language has become a popular way to spend a gap year for many young South Africans.
It presents an opportunity to live and work in almost any country in the world, while earning and saving money. With so much information available on the internet, it’s hard to know where to start.
TEFL Academy managing director, Rhyan O’Sullivan said moving to a tropical island off the coast of Thailand to teach English was an exciting prospect for anyone.
“Once you start getting into the details, it can be overwhelming,” he said.
O’Sullivan offers six top tips to those who have set their sights on teaching abroad:
Get the right qualification – while a university degree is not essential to getting a teaching job overseas, a TEFL qualification, the globally accepted qualification to teach English abroad, is always required. Not only is it a prerequisite for most schools, it also teaches important skills like lesson planning and managing a classroom.
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Online Education: Redefining the roles of Educators
The coronavirus pandemic has completely disrupted the Education system across most parts of the world. Since March 2020, schools and colleges had to literally overnight shift to the online platform, to ensure classes are delivered virtually, for completing the curriculum for the academic year.
Online classes, hence have seen a surge, and have gained traction across the world. This mode of teaching has enabled institutes to conduct classes as well as End Semester/Trimester/Year examinations. Nearly 1.3 million students in India have been affected, due to ‘the brick and mortar campuses’ being shut.
While students were also significantly impacted, due to coronavirus, teachers found themselves at crossroads. They had to quickly adapt to using Advanced Technology or become redundant.
The sudden shift to online classroom-based instruction, have compelled educators. To realise the need for up-skilling and being updated with the shifting sands of the education eco-system.
Consequently, there has been an exponential demand for Professors, who have quickly adapted to the changes which include redefining teaching pedagogy, lesson plans, and teaching styles, to support the online mode of student engagement.
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Rania Lampou: Greek teacher named “Best Teacher in the World” at the 2020 Global Teacher Awards
Ourania (Rania) Lampou, a Greek neuroscience researcher and elementary school teacher from Athens, has been distinguished internationally for her achievements as an educator, by winning the “Best Teacher Award” at the 2020 Global Teacher Awards.
Although this is one of the biggest honours that any teacher can receive, it is one of the many awards that Ms. Lampou has won over the last few years for her teaching in physics.
Her innovative methods and practices, that emphasize on the combination of theoretical and practical experiments, even for students of a very young age, have attracted the interest of educators from around the world.
“The teacher’s job is not easy. Many may think that it is limited to teaching hours in the classroom, but every teaching hour in the classroom hides behind it many hours of preparation and lesson planning, as well as training at home.
“The truth is that in many cases, teachers go beyond themselves, creating teaching tools that take the lesson to the next level and give the information to the students in a playful way, which makes it easier for them to absorb it. This is what I also strive to do with my students,” Ms. Lampou stated.
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Times have changed. Teachers should, too.
Albert Einstein’s observation above, made decades ago, radiates an essence that holds the same significance for our faculty today, if not more. It is not arguable that teachers play a major role in creating a strong human resource base for a nation’s future. And now this role is about to evolve further in a new world of distance learning influenced by Covid-19.
There is a growing belief that “human quality” in Bangladesh has been steadily deteriorating over the years. Employers use every opportunity to make this point, holding the education sector largely responsible for this lamentable situation. Arguments supporting this contention are as follows: There are about 57 public and around 105 private universities in Bangladesh. But whenever a global ranking scorecard of universities is published, we often start checking from the bottom of the list. For some ranking systems, not even a single university makes it into the list. The defence offered by the authority against this is that the rankings are biased and not credible.
It is no secret that faculty development gets very little attention in the higher education institutions of our country. Unlike the top-ranked universities overseas, there is no pressure to learn new pedagogies or produce original research work in our universities. Embarrassing news about plagiarised work of some faculty members pop up every now and then. Teaching also gets a bad rap if you ask a student to assess their teachers. Here are two examples of what some students think:
“Laughably poor standards of pedagogy. The focus of the institution is neither on its students nor on research,” one said.
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Coronavirus Live: Israelis Returning From Abroad Will No Longer Quarantine in Gov’t Facilities
Authorities in Israel, as well as the West Bank and Gaza, are grappling with the current increase in coronavirus cases, which has prompted directives to curb its spread but also an effort to mitigate the economic consequences of the crisis.
Israel has entered a third nationwide lockdown, and has severely limited the entry of foreigners into the country as cases continue to spike. Israelis returning from abroad are obligated to go into quarantine for 14 days – or 10 days if they twice test negative for COVID-19.
Israel currently has 40,929 active cases; 3,292 people have died. In the West Bank, there are 12,972 active cases and 1,120 deaths, and in Gaza 10,729 active cases and 340 deaths.
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3:45 P.M. International arrivals will no longer quarantine in government facilities, health minister says
Israelis returning from abroad will no longer have to quarantine in government-run facilities, Health Minister Yuli Edelstein said Tuesday. Anyone arriving from abroad will be required to immediately get a coronavirus test and quarantine at home for two weeks, or 10 days if another test is taken on the ninth day, he announced. Authorities announced last week that arrivals would have to quarantine in these facilities in light of the new coronavirus strain initially identified in the United Kingdom. (Haaretz)
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Education Groups Urge CDC to Prioritize Teachers, School Staff for Coronavirus Vaccine
AN ALLIANCE OF LABOR organizations and trade groups representing teachers, principals and support staff is pressuring the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to prioritize access to a coronavirus vaccine for the country’s 5 million public school employees as the first approved immunizations hit the market in the U.S.
[ SEE: The Latest News on the Coronavirus Outbreak ]
With the majority of the country’s schools closed for in-person learning or offering limited in-person instruction through a hybrid model – and as the number of districts forced to go all virtual climbs amid an uncontrollable surge in coronavirus infections – the heads of the powerful education groups are offering a compelling argument: If you want to open schools, vaccinate us first.
“I’m a big believer that educators should have priority after health care workers,” says Randi Weingarten, president of the 1.7 million member American Federation of Teachers. “But coming right after that, those in schools that are reopening in person or have reopened in person, should be a very close second priority.”
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Police, firefighters, teachers will be next in line for COVID-19 vaccine
Police, firefighters, teachers and grocery workers will be among those next in line for a COVID-19 vaccine, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory panel decided Sunday.
The committee voted 13-1 to recommend that Phase 1b include people 75 and older and front-line essential workers. Phase 1c will include people 65 to 74 and people 16 to 64 who have high-risk medical conditions, along with other essential workers.
“My hope is that these short-term recommendations will support efficiency and equity in every phase of vaccination until we can get to the time when all individuals have access to safe and effective vaccines in the U.S. and worldwide,” said Dr. Grace Lee, a professor of pediatrics at Stanford University School of Medicine and committee member.
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices began its deliberations Sunday morning and spent the day discussing who would follow front-line health care workers and people in long-term care facilities in receiving vaccines, a second phase that could begin in February. The committee is responsible for recommending who gets what vaccines when.
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