From Morocco to Manila: Life Update

So it's been a while since my last blog post... almost a year in fact and while I apologize for disappearing for so long a lot of life has happened in those 10 months or so. In October of 2023 I was accepted a teaching position at the International School of Manila, heading back to Asia after 8 years living in other corners of the planet. I was very excited to be offered a position for IBDP Biology & ESS at a school with such an impressive IB history and since accepting the job my life became very busy very quickly.

One thing that you may not know is that in the international teaching world during transition years (those when you are changing schools) you are living in an in-between state... working hard to do your job well at your current school (mine was Rabat American School in Morocco) while preparing for your new job. The preparations for the new job include things like paperwork for visa applications, meetings about housing and benefits packages, contributing to the order for the new school, meetings with your new colleagues as well as actually planning the move (flights, shipping etc.) and this was my first move with a partner and a pet in tow making things even more complex (so many trip to the vet & various government offices). We also had a substantial amount of paperwork and administrative tasks to close out our life in Morocco, selling most of our belongings, cancelling our utilities and passing over materials and digital resource alike to the "new me" in Morocco so that the courses I taught could continue and our hard-earned vertical alignment could be maintained.

One of the most exciting things that came out of this move was that my partner trax and I got married! We were surprised to discover that finding a way for us to get married quickly, relatively inexpensively and that would provide the appropriate paperwork for our visas in time was a remarkably complex. We ended up tying the knot in New York City on July 2, 2024 with my parents as the witnesses. We are planning a "real wedding" with family and friends next summer. Many international teachers end up in intercultural relationships and they bring so much joy to our lives, but also a lot of paperwork. ;

After arriving in Manila with our dog Kooga we began to settle into this giant city of almost 15 million people (and the worst traffic I have every seen). There is nothing quite like the move to a new country, a new school and a new culture! This excitement is a big part of why I have chosen this lifestyle, although I have to admit moving feels more exhausting than it used to... maybe I'm getting old. ;) Luckily there are many amazing places to visit in the Philippines and I have been able to take up scuba diving once more and we have already visited 10 different islands in this archipelago of over 7500.

My first semester at ISM brought many joys and challenges, I am teaching Year 1 IBDP HL ESS as well as Year 1 IBDP SL ESS and Grade 10 Biology and for the first time I have colleagues for my IB classes to collaborate with! While this is my third IB school they have always been small schools and so I was always the only IBDP Biology/ESS teacher. We are proud to have 5 sections of the new IBDP ESS course this year (3 SL classes & 2 HL classes) and I have learned so much about this new syllabus. Since this is a very large school there are many clubs, activities and traditions which I am enjoying learning about. You can see images of my classroom below, which I spent many days working on when I first arrived as it used to be a Chemistry classroom.

Now that I have one semester under my belt and our new home is a little more established I have the time to get back to my blog and making resources for teachers. You can keep an eye out on more ESS and Biology posts and resources coming your way soon! It's good to be back!

Thanks for reading teachers, travellers and curious souls of all kinds.

The Roaming Scientist