ITP - 141: 25 Years of International Teaching Stories

JP: Hey folks, welcome to another episode of the International Teacher Podcast. I am Jacqueline from JP Mint Consulting and I'm joined by Greg the Single Guy. Hey, Greg.

Greg: Hi, how you doing, JP? I got some news. Before we introduce our guest, I just have to plug this because it's so new for me. We just did an episode—by the time you've listened to this, we're airing one tonight. Rita Bateson was on our show before and she told us all about AI. People should really listen to it. It officially aired on November 15th, but we recorded it back in August.

JP: I know what it is.

Greg: And here's my point and then we'll get to you, Karen. I wanted to share this because it's brand new for me. I made an app for teachers. It's for teachers that don't know names of students, so you can basically do a test flight, a beta test for me. Any of our listeners can try it for free right now.

Caryn Pelletier: Wow.

Greg: My goal is to give all the beta testers the app for free anyway. It's only going to be like $3, but everybody wants something free and useful. What you can do is you can upload a list or add students yourself. Take pictures if you want. It's all locally on your phone. And then if you want to add your own, that's fine. You can upload a whole class from a list from your IT department, and then you can modify those lists.

Greg: Once you have the students in there or you add more, you can play name games like name that student or match the picture to the name. And it's amazing. There’s some logic in there. As you learn the game and get more students correct, they're taken out of the lineup. So there’s a pool of students that you don’t know, and as you get to know them, it takes them out of that pool. But it still asks you once in a while just to keep you sharp.

JP: But you do need photos, otherwise how are you figuring out the name?

Greg: Absolutely. There are several ways to add photos. You can upload files, go into your phone photos, or take pictures of students after you've added them.

JP: All right, so you're going to put all that information in the show notes.

Greg: Yeah. It's called Who’s That Student. I wanted something a little more sassy, but that’s what I went with. I never do this on the show, Karen, but I had to plug it. I’ve spent weeks on it.

JP: I had a feeling because I saw you posting everywhere. Greg never posts on LinkedIn—I saw a LinkedIn post. He never posts on Facebook—I saw a Facebook post.

Greg: I am excited. I need feedback. It’s free right now, so the more people who use it, the better. We’ll put the link in there. I’m done.

JP: I didn’t download it because I had to download TestFlight and then your app, but now you’ve convinced me. I’m going to use it for the dogs in my neighborhood because I can never remember their names.

Greg: You don’t have to be a teacher to use it. I made it because I needed to learn 650 student names. I used AI to help build it, but I still had to guide the process.

Greg: And we’re going to start with Caryn Pelletier. Did I say your name right?

Caryn Pelletier: It depends where you’re from. In francophone places they say Peltier. Otherwise people try all sorts of variations. I go with Pelletier.

Greg: Karen, thanks for being patient. Let’s jump in. Give us the elevator version of your journey.

Caryn Pelletier: I used to work in high finance and startup companies. I was working for a startup and the CEO developed a crush on me. He was married with children and started stalking me.

Greg: Total dog.

Caryn Pelletier: I sued him and won. I used that money to take time and figure out what I wanted to do next. I took a job as an EdTech at a Title I school in Maine and fell in love with it. I hadn’t considered teaching before, but I loved working with those kids.

Caryn Pelletier: I finished out the school year and decided to go back to school to get my teaching certification. While I was doing that, I had mornings free, so I joined a water aerobics class at the university. It was mostly retirees.

Caryn Pelletier: One gentleman had retired from a Department of Defense school in Japan. He started telling me about this whole world where you could live abroad and teach. It completely opened my eyes.

Caryn Pelletier: I started researching, applied to DoDEA, and then someone pointed me toward Search Associates. I went to a job fair in Maryland in June.

JP: You thought you were right on time.

Caryn Pelletier: Exactly. I didn’t realize how late that was. I walked up to tables, handed over my CV, and within an hour I had three job offers.

Caryn Pelletier: I chose Egypt. I had visited before and loved it. I worked at the American International School of Egypt on the Heliopolis campus.

Caryn Pelletier: That’s also where I met my husband. He was on the orientation team. We didn’t get together right away—I had to pursue him.

JP: So he was already there.

Caryn Pelletier: Yes, he was a high school math teacher. After a year, we moved to Ghana.

Caryn Pelletier: Ghana had amazing students, but life was challenging. We had checkpoint stops where police would ask for money. One time we got a call from friends ahead of us saying, just give them snacks. So everyone started digging through their bags for granola bars and crackers.

Greg: Snack checkpoint.

Caryn Pelletier: Exactly. In our apartment, we had huge cockroaches, water pressure issues pulling sand through the pipes, and electricity you had to prepay. The building owner often didn’t top it up, so we’d lose power.

Caryn Pelletier: One night, the water tank on the roof started leaking and looked like it might collapse. Another day, I smelled something burning and realized the wall wiring was literally on fire because too many appliances were on one circuit.

Greg: The wall’s burning.

Caryn Pelletier: They had twisted wires together and taped them. We were lucky we caught it before leaving for a trip.

Caryn Pelletier: After Ghana, we moved to Italy, to Genoa. It was beautiful, but incredibly bureaucratic and expensive. We could barely afford anything and lived off happy hour buffets.

Caryn Pelletier: Getting my visa involved going to the consulate where one man handled everything. If you were missing anything, you had to come back another day.

Caryn Pelletier: We were there during the Winter Olympics and ended up getting free tickets to a hockey game through people we met.

Caryn Pelletier: Heating was also controlled by local authorities. The heat would turn off just as students arrived, so we were teaching in coats and gloves.

Caryn Pelletier: After Italy, we moved to Tanzania. It was incredible. Wildlife everywhere, safaris, Zanzibar trips.

Caryn Pelletier: On my first safari, we were told there were no lions. Then I spotted a lioness at sunrise. Suddenly more lions appeared—males, females, cubs—the entire pride right near our vehicle.

JP: That’s amazing.

Caryn Pelletier: It was unforgettable. They were playing just meters from us.

Caryn Pelletier: After Tanzania, we moved to Qatar. We had to get married to live together, so we got married in Tanzania.

Caryn Pelletier: The clerk told my husband there were three types of marriage: monogamous, polygamous, or potentially polygamous. He kept pushing for the last one and even asked if I had sisters.

Greg: Oh my God.

Caryn Pelletier: We chose monogamous. We came back 30 days later with flowers and got married.

Caryn Pelletier: After Qatar, we returned to Egypt for two years. Then we moved to Vietnam.

Caryn Pelletier: Ho Chi Minh City was amazing. We drove scooters, learned how to cross the street in traffic, and built strong friendships.

Caryn Pelletier: My husband had a weekly board game group that even continued online during COVID.

Caryn Pelletier: Then we moved to Nigeria. That was tough. Police stops were frequent. They would pull you over for minor things and expect cash.

JP: Not granola bars this time.

Caryn Pelletier: No, definitely cash. Timing mattered too—when tuition was due, there were more stops.

Caryn Pelletier: The school also had financial struggles and cutbacks, which made things harder.

Caryn Pelletier: Finally, we moved to Bahrain, where we’ve been for four years.

JP: That’s quite the journey.

Caryn Pelletier: It really has been.

JP: Thank you so much for coming on the show.

Caryn Pelletier: Thank you for having me.

Greg: Thanks for sharing all those stories.

JP: And thank you everyone for listening. We’ll see you next time.

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