ITP - 74: From Army Brat to Global Teacher

Greg: Welcome to the International Teacher Podcast with your host Matt the Family Guy, Kent the Kent Guy, Jacqueline from JP Mint, and Greg the single guy bringing you episodes from around the world about the best kept secret in education.

You got it. International teaching. Welcome to the show.

All right, welcome to the International Teacher Podcast episode. And you know what? I have Jacqueline here with me, but I don't have Kent. He's off with his cat, I don’t know, doing something.

Jacqueline, welcome to the show this afternoon for me.

Jacqueline: Thank you so much, Greg. I know I say this every time, but I’m really super duper have-fragilistic-expialidocious excited.

Greg: Oh, not about our guest? Is this one of your best friends again, Jacqueline?

Jacqueline: This is one of my best friends in the world.

Greg: I love your friends. Who is on our show today, Jacqueline?

Jacqueline: Today we are very honored to have my friend Sharon in Thailand, but we’re not going to say she’s from anywhere in the US because, like you, Greg, she’s an Army brat.

Greg: Oh yeah. Hey. What? Welcome, Sharon. How are you?

Sharon: Thank you. I’m so great. Really happy to be here.

Greg: What branch were you for as an Army branch?

Sharon: My dad was infantry. Army.

Greg: Me too. Did you grow up on different bases around the world or the States or places like that?

Sharon: Yeah, we moved 25 times before I graduated from high school. So yeah, I feel like I know you already. Maybe we were in the same schools.

Greg: I know, we’ve got the same schools. Where did you graduate high school?

Sharon: My dad retired from the Army and went into the reservists in Kansas. So we moved up to Wisconsin, where family was from. Then the war hit and my dad got called up for Saudi. He went overseas, and then he got called again and sent to Germany.

He stayed in because the retirement package and pension were too good to give up. He would go off once a month to train with the soldiers, but then the war hit.

Germany was the only time we were overseas with the Army. Other than that, it was around the States.

Greg: Where were you in Germany?

Sharon: Heidelberg.

Greg: We were neighbors. That’s awesome.

Sharon: Yeah, so I really feel attached to you already. And I think it’s going to be great to have you on the show to talk about all the different places you’ve been, because I bet, like Jacqueline and I, you’ve been all over the world, not just with the Army.

Greg: That’s what I want to talk about. Can you tell our listeners the elevator version of how you got into international teaching and where you’re at now?

Sharon: As a military kid, it gets in your blood. It’s really hard to settle down anywhere. I ended up in Kansas because my dad was stationed there. I went to college there, met my husband, and in our wedding vows I made him promise to follow me wherever I went because I knew I couldn’t stay in one place forever.

Greg: Did he agree?

Sharon: He was like, sure, whatever. But he didn’t believe anything would come of it.

So I became a journalist and worked for 12 years in Kansas. Then my parents were in Saudi Arabia, and my two younger sisters went to boarding school in Switzerland.

Greg: Are we allowed to say school names?

Jacqueline: Not sure.

Sharon: My sisters went to Lausanne American School. I didn’t know anything about international schools because I grew up in DoD schools.

Greg: Department of Defense schools, right?

Sharon: Right. Mostly children of American servicemen.

Greg: That don’t want to be there.

Sharon: Exactly. So when I went to Switzerland for their graduation, I met all these international teachers and thought, how do I not know about this?

As soon as I got home, I told my husband I was going back to school, becoming a teacher, and we were going overseas.

So we went to Istanbul, Turkey, which is where I met JP. We did four years there, then four years in Shanghai at Shanghai American School. Then two years in Laos, five years in India at the American Embassy School, six years in Chile at Nido de Águilas, and now I’ve been three months in Thailand at Ruamrudee International School.

Greg: You’ve named some really important schools.

Sharon: We were so lucky. I feel like I can manifest whatever I want. I wanted those schools, and it just happened.

Greg: Manifest me a beer right now.

Sharon: I actually have some in my fridge.

Greg: That’s not manifestation.

Sharon: After Chile I took a year off before coming to Thailand. I took a gap year and worked with horses.

Greg: And the word for that is equine.

Sharon: Yes, equine studies.

Greg: I love that word.

Greg: Do you guys know about the “Qu wedding”? There’s an elementary book—I was at a school in Venezuela and we used to have a wedding with the kindergarteners. They’d dress them up and celebrate Q and U. Our superintendent would stand up there and do a speech with all the Q words: “Please remain quiet and quickly find your seats,” and so on.

Sharon: That’s awesome.

Greg: So what do you teach then? Have you taught a broad spectrum? And your husband’s a teacher too, so you’re a teaching couple?

Sharon: It’s complicated. Yes, my husband is a teacher, and we were a teaching couple all the way until now.

When I took my year off last year, he was also going to take a year off and pursue one of his passions—luthery, which is the building of guitars.

Greg: I was going to say violins.

Sharon: It’s stringed instruments, yes.

Greg: Is it equine luthery? Is he doing it on the back of a horse?

Sharon: That would be amazing. We should invent that.

Greg: It would be Fabio on a horse with long hair tuning an instrument.

Sharon: Anyway, last minute instead of doing that, he got offered a job here in Bangkok at KIS. We were friends with the head of school at the time. He said, “I think I’m going to go,” and I was like, “You can’t go to Thailand without me.”

We had traveled here once, and I told him all my future happiness hinges on getting a job in this country. He was like, “No pressure.”

So he went, and I stayed in Florida doing equine studies. When it came time, a lot of things happened that made me decide I wanted to go back to teaching.

I was actually looking at Mexico because I feel like those are my people. I love learning Spanish and didn’t want to lose it.

But in the meantime, my brother—also an international teacher—was in Abu Dhabi. Some of his friends became administrators at my current school in Thailand. They reached out to him, but he couldn’t go, so he recommended me.

We connected, I interviewed online, and boom—they gave me a job here.

So now we have this situation where my husband is at a different school, but it’s all awesome.

Greg: You’re still a teaching couple, just split across schools.

Sharon: Exactly. And we have our own places. We live apart but get together every weekend. It’s actually great.

Jacqueline: They just went on a weekend trip. Tell us where you went.

Sharon: We went to Kanchanaburi, which is in the countryside. Mountains, rivers—it’s beautiful. We stayed at a horse farm, did horseback riding, hiking, and visited waterfalls.

It’s also the location of the Death Railway. You can ride the train and see the bridge from “The Bridge on the River Kwai.”

Greg: Build a guitar, ride a horse—you’ve got everything.

Sharon: We should have brought a guitar.

Greg: That’s what I’m here for. I’m here for guidance.

Jacqueline: I want to tell you about something Sharon hinted at earlier—her blog called “The Guide Hog.”

Greg: Oh yeah?

Jacqueline: You know when you go somewhere and you take a tour? Sharon stands right next to the guide and asks nonstop questions. She just absorbs everything.

That’s why she’s the “guide hog.” Everyone else is like, “Oh my God, stop asking questions.”

Sharon: It’s so true. I remember in Italy I got obsessed with Carrara marble and kept asking, “Is that Carrara marble?” Finally the guide corrected my pronunciation, and I was like, never mind.

Greg: So tell us about the blog—is it for other people or just for you?

Sharon: Honestly, I write it for myself. I have no short-term memory and I’m afraid I’ll forget my life someday.

Sometimes people ask, “Have you been to Cambodia?” and I’m like, “Let me check my blog.”

It’s mostly detailing our travels. I don’t know if anyone reads it, but I like to think it’s entertaining.

Jacqueline: I read it all the time. Her writing is exactly how she talks—super engaging. And she includes tons of hyperlinks because she loves learning.

Sharon: Like recently, we thought farmers were growing marijuana everywhere in Thailand. Turns out it was cassava, a tuber.

Jacqueline: I’ve eaten cassava in Africa. Not very tasty.

Greg: I’m going down a wormhole here.

Jacqueline: Anyway, we’ll put both our websites in the show notes. Travel as a teacher is incredible.

Greg: I was in Slovenia once and did a food tour—amazing experience.

Jacqueline: Eastern European schools often have great packages—housing, benefits, and lower cost of living.

Greg: I almost went to Kazakhstan after talking to a director at a job fair. That’s the beauty of job fairs—you discover places you never considered.

Sharon: That’s the hardest part as you approach retirement—there are still so many places I want to go.

Greg: Do you have bucket list schools?

Sharon: Maybe Europe. I’ve never lived there as a teacher.

Greg: Advice for younger teachers?

Sharon: Start in Istanbul, then South America, then Asia or the Middle East to make money, and then Europe later.

Jacqueline: Don’t jump around every two years. Stay at least three to four years if you can.

Greg: Don’t just chase top-tier schools. Look at places you’ve never heard of.

Sharon: I love job fairs. They’re so fun.

Greg: It’s the networking. You meet people from all over the world.

Sharon: And that’s how you learn everything.

Jacqueline: And build your LinkedIn network.

Sharon: I’ve done amazing PD—WIDA, TESOL, conferences, even during my gap year. Schools have paid for me to attend workshops and conferences.

Greg: Schools paying for PD is huge.

Sharon: My current school even gives a monthly stipend for PD.

Greg: That’s rare.

Jacqueline: It shows a school values you.

Greg: What was onboarding like in Thailand?

Sharon: The best I’ve ever had. They picked me up, took me to meals for two weeks, helped with housing, errands, everything. Vans running all day. Admin present the whole time. It felt like they really cared.

Greg: That makes a huge difference.

Sharon: It made me feel valued immediately.

Greg: Final thoughts?

Sharon: Transitions are hard, even after 22 years. There’s always a learning curve. It’s easy to get discouraged after the honeymoon period.

If you can make it to Christmas, the second semester feels completely different. You’re no longer new, and things start to click.

Greg: That’s great advice.

Jacqueline: And then you realize how far you’ve come.

Greg: Thanks for being on the show.

Sharon: Thank you. This was so much fun.

Jacqueline: Thanks, Sharon.

Greg: And to our listeners, thank you for tuning in. We’ll see you next time on the International Teacher Podcast.