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From Albania to the Canyon, teachers get international experience before returning to Grand Canyon

Rosie and Jason Evans spent six months teaching in Durres, Albania before accepting teaching positions at Grand Canyon School in February. Loretta Yerian/WGCN

Rosie and Jason Evans spent six months teaching in Durres, Albania before accepting teaching positions at Grand Canyon School in February. Loretta Yerian/WGCN

GRAND CANYON, Ariz. - When Jason and Rosie Evans returned from teaching internationally in Durres, Albania to take teaching positions at Grand Canyon School (GCS) they discovered several things, first, kids are kids no matter where you're at in the world and second, school administration can make or break a school.

"It was really fun to teach those kids, they were a mix of very rich kids but they were smart. They were a very fun group to teach," Jason said. "Unfortunately the administration was not inspiring for us to stay....It's good to be back here, the administration here is nice, they care, they think things through, it's obvious their goal is education and everything the administration in Albania wasn't, these guys are here."

Jason also suffers from severe allergies, which re-surfaced during their time in Albania. With allergies plaguing him and feeling a lack of support from school administration, the Evans decided it was time to look at their options and turned to Grand Canyon School, where Jason had taught from 2006 - 2009.

The Evans are excited to be back in Arizona and the U.S. After being absent from Grand Canyon School for over seven years, Jason said he can see a difference in school administration, staff and students.

"The nice thing is that the administrative staff and the school board and the teachers are so much more on the same page than they were 10 years ago, unquestionably," Jason said. "I can tell that after I left they went through so much, but it does seem like they've got some stability now. It's very obvious that this school is going in the right direction."

Rosie, who teaches middle and high school physical education and strength and conditioning at GCS, said that while kids are kids no matter where you're at, in her general experience international schools are different than schools in the U.S.

"That's what I thought," she said. "Coming back here, it feels like, 'ok, now we're back. We're in America, there's security, there's a feeling of more experience and trust with people around you and who you're working with."

While overall the transition to GCS and teaching again in U.S. schools has gone smoothly, the Evans said gaining students trust and building relationships has been important.

"Because teachers have (gone) in and out of the school, I think we need to build up the students trust," Rosie said.

Jason agreed, saying that even with the positive changes he has seen in school administration the students have had to bear the burden of inconsistency at GCS.

"The administration (has changed) for the better, for sure," he said. "But you can see the effects of the chaos that these kids have been through in how they act and how they trust and those kind of things."

Jason said his goal is to give the students a positive and consistent environment and to build trust with his pupils.

"We're just going to try and give them a consistent, caring environment and kind of undo some of the places that they've naturally gone because they've had, some of them, six different social studies teachers and some of the middle schoolers have had their teachers not finish the year with them in elementary school. That's normalcy for them. So that has effects and hopefully we're going to give them a stable, caring environment," he said.

Rosie said goal setting and consistency is her aim for the remainder of the school year.

"Goal setting (because) I think these kids need to start thinking about setting a goal. I have them set a goal every day and I think they're starting to get it. Every time they come to my class I ask them, 'what is your goal for today?' It's a skill, a life skill," she said. "I'm going to push them and keep them (going) in the same direction and push them to their potential because there is a lot of potential in these kids."

With a combined 30 years of teaching experience along with international teaching skills, the Evans believe they have a good chance at accomplishing their goals. The Evans said they both would like to spend the rest of their teaching careers at GCS.

"We would like to be here until we retire," Jason said.

"That's our goal," Rosie added.

About the Evans

The Evans have two children, Athena and Aldie. Jason and Rosie are both full time teachers at GCS. Rosie teaches middle and high school P.E. and strength and conditioning classes. Jason teaches middle school social studies and 12th grade economics.

Rosie graduated in 1996 in the Philippines and got a full scholarship to college playing basketball, the national sport of the Philippines. She went on to become the athlete of the year while playing basketball for her college. She went on to play professional basketball.

For the next nine years Rosie taught and received her Masters in performing arts. After applying for and being denied a visa to visit her sister in Florida, she began searching for other ways to come to the U.S. She applied for a teaching position and was accepted to a school in Pinon, Arizona on the Navajo reservation.

Jason originally went to law school and worked at a science camp for students in Southern California.

After law school he started teaching and landed a job in Pinon. It was there he met Rosie. A year later the two were married. They recently celebrated their ninth wedding anniversary.

Teaching in Albania

The Evans taught in schools in the Valley before moving to Durres, Albania to teach middle and high school classes at the Albanian College of Durres (ACD). The family spent six months in the coastal town of Durres, a resort town with a large Italian influence that borders the northwestern side of Greece and is separated from Italy by the Adriatic Sea.

According to Evans, ACD was built with the intent of bringing western education to Albania. Their goal was to promote forward thinking and implement English language skills into student's vocabulary. ACD has 175 students enrolled with students ranging in age from three years old through 11th grade.

"They were trying to set up an international American school basically," Jason said.

This was the ACD's second year in operation and according to Rosie, was a transitional year for the school.

"They hired a lot of teachers from America with international experience and it's good, it's contagious when your administrators are new. We kind of started with the same goals and objectives and then along the way we pointed in different directions," she said.

Because they were experienced teachers, the Evans felt like they could thrive at the school but the lack of support from school administration eventually made them re-consider their time.

"It's a school with unlimited potential," Rosie said. "Generally it was a great experience for our kids as well. They were really taken care of."


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