It is such a treat to reconnect with a former student and to discover where their life has led them. In this episode, we reconnected with Claire Gaul, a student from our Saudi days. Claire and her husband, Jamel, teach at their third international post, a school in China. They shared so many great insights that you might have to listen to the episode twice to take them all in!
Claire is originally from California, and Jamel was raised in Alsace in a Tunisian/Algerian family. They enjoy traveling, grilling, and being outdoors. They have 9-year-old twins (Luke and Leia) who are in 4th grade. Luke loves animals, electronics, mixed tapes, and researching how to be prepared for worst-case scenarios. Leia loves reading, cats, macaroons, and drawing comics.
The guiding question for this episode was, “What are some common experiences for international teaching families?”
Jamel and Claire covered many topics, including:
- Teachers should be ready for their preconceptions and generalizations regarding host countries to be mistaken.
- Consider healthcare and how well the school can support your children, especially if there are special needs.
- Infrastructure, including transportation, government services, and ease of travel should also be considered.
- Benefits for kids include smaller classes, the potential for more individualized support, co-curricular programming, diversity of friends, exposure to new languages, and growing social and geopolitical awareness.
- Benefits for parents include working with teachers from other cultures and connecting with other expats, who may also be parents.
- Struggles can come from language barriers, differences in cultural understanding, feelings of loss with respect to the previous location.
- Part of what makes the new school and community work comes from parental modeling of positive attitudes and commitment to personal growth.
- Claire and Jamel offered recruiting strategies for couples with children.
- One recommendation is to balance career opportunities with schools that meet your children’s needs while keeping your options wide open. Also, be prepared for some schools on your wish list not to be the best fit for your family.
This episode was recorded on December 9, 2023.
Contact Information: Claire on LinkedIn and Jamel on LinkedIn
Resources Mentioned in the Episode: IB Diploma Programme Design Technology Teachers Facebook Group
Categories: School Life | Recruiting | Transitions | Finances | Travel | Family
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Music: YouTube. (2022). Acoustic Guitar | Folk | No copyright | 2022❤️. YouTube. Retrieved October 11, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOEmg_6i7jA.
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