“We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we’re curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.” -Walt Disney

Pixar’s Onward (2019) is one of my favorite movies of the past few years. There are numerous heartwarming scenes in this story about two brothers (Ian & Barley) on a quest to bring their Dad magically back from the dead for one day. My favorite moment in the movie takes place near the middle of the adventure. Ian (voiced by Tom Holland), the younger brother, doesn’t have his driver’s license, but is driving his older brother, Barley’s van. Barley (voiced by Chris Pratt) is coaching him about how to merge into traffic on a fast moving highway while they are being chased by some very angry fairies. 

The dialogue goes as follows: “I can’t do this,” Ian says. “Yes you can” replies Barley. “I’m not ready,” Ian shouts, looking incredibly anxious.  “You’ll never be ready, Merge!” Barley shouts back. Ian gets up the courage to punch the gas pedal and merge into the lane. They make it safely into the lane on the highway and the ‘driving lesson’ continues, as does their adventure. 

That short exchange between Ian and Barley is only a few seconds long, but it is a valuable illustration for many big moments in life. Moments such as a new friendship, a new job, having a child, getting married, moving, a tragedy. All of these moments can be scary, full of anxiety at all of the newness and potential for anything to happen. The key line from the Onward excerpt above is “You’ll never be ready, Merge!”. The truth of the matter is that as humans we don’t like change, we fear the unknown, and we often plod along on the path of least resistance. 

In July of 2016, when my wife and I were about to leave everything that we knew behind and move to Thailand, we were not ready. But we were about to Merge into an awesome adventure. And writing this five years later, I am so glad that we did! 

Adventure

Let’s back up just a bit to December 2015. I was at Urbana, a missions conference in Saint Louis Missouri. Out of the 300+ missions organizations with booths and displays, I was fortunate enough to meet Shawna Patterson. Shawna was a former middle school principal at the International Community School, Bangkok (ICS). She gave me a great sales pitch about ICS and I gave her my resume. 

Two months later while sitting at my kitchen table in Fredericton my phone rang. When I looked at my phone I said to my wife “there’s an extremely long phone number trying to call me, I am NOT picking that up”. She wisely responded, “It could be a school that you left a resume with calling you back, you should answer it”. So, listening to her advice, I did just that. On the other end of the phone was Stephen Ladas, who at that time was the assistant headmaster (he is now the headmaster). Mr. Stephen asked if I would like to apply for a middle school science teacher position. If you have read through my blog you know that I began my teaching career with a desire to teach PE. Although I appreciated the offer of teaching science, I declined Mr. Stephen’s offer. A few weeks later I felt compelled to contact Mr. Stephen again and asked if I could interview for the position. He graciously accepted. 

Through a much longer story involving cancelling our brainstorm about moving to Thailand because my wife is an RN and couldn’t be registered to work there. We could not stop the overwhelming feeling that joining ICS and moving to Thailand was going to be an adventure. So we said yes to the eventual job offer and off we went. 

Science

During my BEd I was trained in PE and Science methods as well as ESL. A small portion of my practicum at both Leo Hayes, in Canada and CISB, in China was devoted to the science classroom. I believe the total number of lessons that I had taught as a science teacher prior to becoming one myself was no more than three. Three lessons, that is all. 

The crazy thing is that my lack of experience didn’t seem to stress the leadership at ICS. Not my principal, Karen Conwell, one of the all time great leaders that I have come into contact with. Or the head of the science department, Allan Fjording, an amazing mentor. Not even to the assistant headmaster Stephen Ladas, the ICS legend. From day one at ICS, the leadership was confident in me. They were confident that I had the right attitude and growth mindset to learn while fitting into the caring community environment at ICS. I can honestly say that those three leaders and the rest of the leadership team believed in me when I did not believe in myself. The level of support they provided on a regular basis was tremendous. 

Mr. Allan was a phenomenal head of department. He had previously taught my class and provided me with all of his resources. Mr. Allan maintained an open door policy with me. I knew that I could reach out for his guidance at any time and when I did, he was incredibly patient and willing to help. Mr. Allan is now the principal at ICS Udon Thani, ICS’s second campus, in north-eastern Thailand. He is a caring leader that I will continue to cheer for along with the rest of the team at ICS Udon Thani. I am excited to see the growth that they will experience under his leadership. 

Mrs. Karen is an amazing leader. She is the best principal that a teacher could ever hope for. I was blown away by her positivity, vision, and encouragement. She took the time to venture into my class every two weeks to check in both formally and informally. When she came through I would feel a familiar balance of nerves and excitement. I was nervous because I cared deeply for my students and wanted to teach them well. My hope was that these elements were evident in my teaching. I was excited because I knew that Mrs. Karen’s keen eye would pick up on one or two things for me to improve. At ICS, thanks in large part to Mrs. Karen’s tutelage, I developed an appetite for constantly improving. As much as possible I tried not to take any of Mrs. Karen’s guidance personally. Instead I tried to focus on improving one step at a time in order to educate my students with as much encouragement and patience as possible. I knew that I was still in the beginning stages of being a teacher, but that if I was willing to learn and take positive criticism, I would accelerate the process of becoming a master teacher. 

Mr. Stephen has to be the most encouraging and positive person that I have ever met. He is known for always being the first person to clap after a speech or performance, giving a fist bump and an “alright” to people in the hallway, and making sure that everyone knows exactly why they’re awesome. Mr. Stephen’s positivity is rivaled only by that of Mr. Rogers, the American tv icon. Like Mrs. Karen, I was always thankful when Mr. Stephen would observe my class. Even though he had a very busy job as the assistant headmaster, he would still take the time to write me an encouraging email after each visit. After class, when I had received one of his emails, I could hardly wait to open it. 

Thank you Mr. Allan, Mr. Stephen, and Mrs. Karen for your investment in me. 

Teaching science turned out to be one of the best experiences of my life. I grew to love honing my craft as a classroom teacher. I was able to dive deep into topics like motion, energy, chemical reactions, volcanoes, and earthquakes. In science class we were able to do projects like making seismographs, in depth studies on volcanoes, and tons of lab experiments. In our advisory (homeroom) groups we were able to take part in Operation Christmas Child, service trips, and plenty of games.

I am so thankful to have taught each of the incredible students in my grade 7 & 8 science classes. Students, if you ever read this, I love you and am so thankful for our time together. ICS… Eagles!

Community

Thanks to the incredible example of the leaders described above as well as the rest of the ICS leadership team, ICS is a truly special community. I experienced numerous ways that the servant-hearted leadership team led by example in order to build a deep community. They would stay until the end of events helping with cleanup, attend most performing arts and sporting events, welcome new staff into their homes, and be at the entrance of the school to greet everyone in the mornings. These simple and sometimes small touches helped the entire ICS community feel cared for. 

ICS was also a place of celebration and community events. Every fall they put on a staff and family fun day. Where all of the staff and their families come to school to take part in sporting events, crafts, and their choice of catered food from the best restaurants in the area. ICS hosts an international day each year that has two stages: 1) the marketplace of multicultural delicacies and handicrafts made by families in the community, 2) the performance where groups of students, parents, and staff showcase their talents. 

One of the biggest testimonies to the community at ICS is that every day after school, the campus is opened to students and family members. Parents, grandparents, and students all mingle around the campus while sports practices and after school clubs take place. It is a true community feeling that can be imagined through writing, but truly needs to be experienced in order to be fully understood. 

My wife and I cherished our adventures at ICS Bangkok. We were blessed with great memories with students, many deep friendships, and fun experiences that will always be close to our hearts. Thank you, ICS Bangkok for everything. 

The next adventure that we merged into was moving to Hong Kong. Find out more in a later post.

If you would like to find out more about ICS Bangkok follow this link. 

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. It was a pleasure spending time with you today.

Peace & Blessings, 

– Josiah