It’s not often we toot our own horn but lately we’ve been receiving some very encouraging compliments about ISR and it feels like it’s time to just let her rip.
Most of all we’re proud to be of service to the international teaching community and wish to thank our readers and members. After all, it’s your words that populate our pages and credit should be given where credit is due. So when we say we’re tooting our horn, we’re really tooting for YOU!!!
Over the years we’ve survived some strong opposition. But thanks to our supporters, both teachers and school directors, the ISR Blog & Forum have become well-frequented meeting places for international educators to freely share ideas on pertinent topics. Our flagship School Reviews section now hosts over 7000 reviews of international schools, with most schools having multiple reviews, giving teachers ample information to make an informed career move.
We’d like to share with you why we’re feeling so encouraged. Here’s a few comments we recently received. They’re the result of your postings to the web site:
| • ISR clearly provides an invaluable service for teachers by warning them about dangerous, threatening & frankly criminal circumstances into which they might blunder. |
| • There are so many international schools that are “for profit” now. Teachers need to be careful. This web site is invaluable for that. |
| •I am a school Director and I love this site. I encourage my newer teachers to check it out. It is highly informative! |
| • Let the chips fall where they may. ISR is the only tool I am aware of that provides teachers with this kind of important information. |
| • I like ISR and refer to it often. I like to know something more about the school a prospective teacher is coming from, and if I was job seeking I would read ALL reviews with an eager eye. |
| I truly enjoy your site. The reviews provide a nice school snapshot and I’ve gained so much information from the Forum and Blog section. |
| • If it hadn’t been for the reviews on ISR I would have accepted the job and simultaneously committed career suicide! Thanks ISR for what you do. |
| As you can see, the staff at ISR have much to feel good about. We’ve come a long way and plan to continue evolving into an ever more useful tool for the International Teaching Community. |
ISR Discussion Boards 
I love ISR! I’ve been a member for several years now, and rely on the information to help me plan. The information on living conditions is sometimes just as valuable as the information on schools. Thank you!
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ISR rocks! You’re doing a fantastic job, saving jobs and money – so thank you!!
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I, too, have come to rely on ISR for information and perspective. It definitely has helped me understand the lay of the land with regard to many different facets of international teaching. Thank you! Topic suggestion: Finding last minute teaching positions.
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Yours is the most balanced statement I have ever seen on ISR. Thank you.
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I have been a member of ISR since I began overseas teaching 6 years ago. I have found it to be a valuable resource but do not use it as the sole source to determine my future.
There might be a few more negative reviews than positive ones but I think that might be because of human nature. I find that often those who are miserable like to share their woes with others … That is where “misery loves company” came from. It is good to get both sides of how a school is to work for and I make sure I write a review once I have left a school so that I can help to provide the balance that this valuable site offers.
It was my idea to include Principal reviews a year or so ago because I really don’t have much interaction with a Director once I am in the classroom. I do, however, work VERY closely with my Principal so I asked ISR if they could provide some information on them and they said ‘YES’ emphatically and quickly went to work on creating a form for that. I appreciated that they listened and acted and I am noticing that there are starting to be quite a few Principal reviews now. Thanks to all who have taken the time to fill them out.
In my experience teaching in 3 schools, all of them have been very good, There are always a few areas of frustration but I have yet to have the perfect job in any industry where I couldn’t find somewhere to complain about some issue. I have had people in the same building, same atmosphere with the same leaders in administration, who have had an absolutely horrible time there. I cannot speak to why they were experiencing such a different situation. I know that some of their complaints were warranted and then again I thought that some of them should have stayed home as they had expectations that things would be the same as they were in the US and when you are overseas, they just aren’t. That is why I came overseas, personally. I thought that the schools in the US that I had worked in had some problems, mostly the way they handled discipline and parents micro-managing things.
Each of us looks for different things when we go into a school. My best advice is to like what you get instead of setting up desires which could end up causing you to suffer. When you decide to be OK with what is, you can’t really have a bad time. Acceptance is the key to happiness and it has always worked for me.
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Good, bad, but definitely not indifferent, ISR is what it is–a collection of views from the international schools community online. It’s not exhaustive or comprehensive, but rather a voluntary effort of those interested and willing to contribute. Teachers and school directors all need to keep in mind that the views expressed are private, and often not thought through (kinda like the disclaimer for the Daily Show). For those who express misgivings about any lack of objectivity, well… We have met the enemy and they are us… All that being said, ISR provides a well needed and well appreciated forum and I hope it continues unabated. If we all use our professional discretion and judgement, but also keep our collective commitment to tell it like it is, then ISR will serve us well in as a limited set of snapshots about what some of us are thinking, feeling, and experiencing. Not sure where I was going with this, but there you go. Case in point.
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I think your comment is valid, however, as teachers, we teach our students to be reflective. We should do the same.
Often, when I am vexed about something, I will write a scathing rampage of an email and then erase it and do it a second time with a bit more control and self discipline.
Also, before I hit the ‘post comment’ button, I re-read my entry. I wish all teachers would do the same. I am often shocked at the ‘tone’, spelling errors, and other errors that show up on the reviews.
Sometimes it is so obvious that people are venting. I think taking your time and approaching the review with class and decorum would go a long way. Do you agree?
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Invaluable and insightful. I have always gained so much from ISR. My only complaint relates to international standards. Why can’t we have an international body monitoring schools globally in an effort to have some best practice and accountability? Other disciplines have international standards in place but are educators not professionals too? Thank goodness for ISR.
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ISR is the effing bomb, and I wish it was more universally embraced as a forum for dialogue and knowledge about schools near and far. Perhaps at this moment of congratulations and reflection I will make an earnest plea that the site be redesigned asap. It is one of the few sites I value that still functions as Web 1.0.
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I think ISR is great. I wish that there was a way to encourage all international teachers to leave a review at the end of their contract. I think we’d have more balanced reviews as well as more information to work with. My school had no reviews when I accepted the position, although there are some now. I was able to find some information on the forum, which was helpful. I would also like to see ISR make the recruiting fair portal more user-friendly. It’s almost hidden now and people aren’t really utilizing it.
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ISR has saved my hide countless times. They do a great service to teachers, and to schools who are willing to accept criticism and learn from it.
I agree that ISR could use more balanced reviews. Unfortunately, bad news travels much faster than good. I wonder if the ISR gurus can find more ways to promote positive reviews from happy teachers; this will no doubt be a great service, helping teachers and recruiters meet their ideal matches.
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ISR is a very useful tool for alerting teachers of schools and school directors that are not supportive of their staff, allow teachers to be bullied by parents and students and by the directors themselves, Kudos to ISR
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Why don’t you print some of the negative statements about the bias that is shown and encouraged by ISR? Tooting your own horn is biased unless both sides of issues are shown.
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My advice to any teacher considering a new school is to get all the imformation you can on the school and the director. ISR is the most imformative site I know.
Thank you ISR!
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I completely concur with many of the thoughts posted. Thank you, ISR.
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Outstanding!!! I”m really happy to see ISR is growing and doing well. I don’t know what I’d do without you.
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ISR is a very valuable site and I have been a member for many years
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