Does anyone have CURRENT information about Beijing City International School? With the many changes in Directors over their 7 years it's important that your information reflects the current situation. I would be in the elementary school.

Here are my questions:
1. I read that they have a new salary structure that "rewards professional excellence and loyalty". What does this mean? Is salary also based on years of experience? I have 16 years.

2. How good is their health insurance plan and can we see our own doctors when we come back to the US on visits?

3. What is the climate like in the elementary school? Current attitudes towards the director and ES principal and amongst the staff?

4. I'm hearing rumblings about potential political changes that could impact safety and general quality of life. What do you know about this? I am a single female.

5. Anything else I need to know to know if I'd like to work and live there? Anything you can tell me that would give me an advantage in an interview?

Thanks in advance for the advice and information. This forum is so helpful!

Bigfatgit - can you give me an honest picture of safety in Cairo right now? And what life would be like for a single female. I'm hearing really mixed information. I need someone to give it to me straight!

Calipro, 60 hours for a masters in school counseling is a little light in comparison to some school counseling programs. Don't complain! :)

Psyguy, I don't know squat about what NC requires! I never indicated I did. I am talking from more of a global perspective about school counseling. And that is that some states require being a teacher first and others don't. I happen to have lots of knowledge about Washington and some other states, but none about NC. So I would never debate about a state I don't know anything about. I didn't make the comment about inferring vs. requiring. Calipro did. I was commenting on his comment about that and saying that regardless of how he interprets it, he needs to look at the teaching requirement very closely for that state because it's obvious it could be a potential issue. I don't care enough about coming out on top in this debate to research about the requirements in NC. What you are saying about NC could very well be totally accurate! But I'm cautioning Calipro not to necessarily extrapolate it outside of NC.

CaliPro, if you are in a state that "intends", "encourages", "just really really likes" you to have a teaching certification, even if it doesn't "require" it (and some states do require it), the universities with the good programs very well might require it in order to be admitted into their program. Do your research very carefully. You might have to move to a different state to get your school counselor certification. And you will definitely need the minimum of 2 years of experience, I would think, before a decent IS will pick you up. School counseling these days is very education focused and you really get little opportunity to do real counseling. Being a teacher prior is very helpful. Otherwise you will have a much steeper learning curve of all the education mumbo jumbo. You need to really decide if the reality of the job is what you are dreaming of. I wouldn't use it as a way to get into the IS schools just so you don't have to teach! You can email me at dreamgiver23@yahoo.com and I can talk to you more about this. We won't get anywhere with this discussion on this forum.

Okay, we can agree to disagree. You are correct that some states do require a teaching certification and experience. However I unequivocally know many do not. And if you get your school counseling degree and certification in a state that doesn't require it, once you get a few years of experience as a counselor, it's not much of an issue to teach in other states, as long as there is reciprocity. I know most of the international counseling jobs don't require you to have taught first. However you do need years of counseling experience. And what you said about WA state combining their school counselor and school psychologist certification is very misleading. They both require an ESA certificate. Same as school social workers, nurse, SLP, physical therapist, etc. However the educational program and requirements for that certificate are very different. Totally different masters degrees.

You absolutely do NOT need to be a teacher with teaching experience before being a school counselor! However some states or districts require it. But many do not! But like I said in my earlier post, this field in many parts of the US is very competitive right now with budget issues being what they are. Being a teacher first is good because you have that to fall back on if you don't get a school counselor position. Just know what else you're going to do if you don't get a job!

Just do your research about the ease of getting a counseling job stateside. With educational budget cuts, counselors are frequently one of the first positions to be cut. In my state there are a ton of counselors and very few jobs. The competition is absolutely fierce.

A school counseling degree will take you 2-3 years. If you don't have a teaching degree, you very likely will have extra requirements as part of your degree program. Then you will need 2+ years of experience just like teachers must have to be qualified for an international job. And it depends on which level you want to counsel. Elementary and middle school usually require quite a bit of classroom teaching in the form of guidance lessons. So if you don't want to "be a teacher" you should find a different career or stick with high school/career counseling. It definitely is not as simple as you make it sound. Time and effort is probably not that different between going the teaching vs. counseling route. Plus, you will have a hard time getting into the good school counseling programs with no education or psychology background. But there are LOTS of second rate programs out there.

What about Cairo for a single female right now?

Overhere - yes, I know you are right about getting to the fairs and having job opportunities I wasn't aware of before getting there. I've heard that happens a lot and I want to be open to those opportunities. That's why I was wondering how I was going to get this information that everyone talks to much about. But you have reinforced what psyguy said, that most likely I just won't be able to get that information at the fair and will have to make a decision without it. That's good to know because now I know to just let it go and pray like crazy to make the best decision! :)

Psyguy - I don't plan to ask HR type questions of current staff. I can ask HR about those things. And obviously I know anything I hear would only be based on that persons experience. However that is more valuable than no information at all. I know in many situations, HR/Director/Principal, will make things sound like perfection so I'd like to have another perspective or two to try and balance things out and help me to read between the lines. I'm assuming this is why everyone says to try and talk to current staff. Plus, some of my questions about insurance and housing are based on some of my personal needs (nothing too major - food & environmental allergies mostly) that I don't want to discuss with the powers that be. These are things that seem like unimportant minute details to most people but could be really helpful to me in making a decision if presented with more than one contract. Luckily being that I am flexible and adventurous I know I will be okay and have a great experience whether I'm able to get this information or not.

I will do as much research as I can about the jobs I am interviewing for by Skype or that I've had personal conversations with the Directors or Principals. I guess that's the best I can do!

Thanks again!

You're partially right, I TRY to be really organized! :) I am a researcher, by nature. Luckily I am also flexible and adventurous, so I'll be okay even if I don't get all the info I want. Thanks Psyguy for the reality check about the fair - it's what I figured was probably going to be the case.

I believe it's true that the names of people the school would give me might be the cheerleaders that would say what they want them to say. Which would be okay to a certain degree since some of my questions wouldn't be affected by that (health insurance, medical care, other practicalities, etc). I don't plan to ask about stuff that I don't trust would be an accurate answer or would only be their opinion anyway. I would like to ask to speak directly to the person in the specialist position I will be replacing (assuming they are vacating the position by their choice).

I just repeatedly read most people saying to make sure to talk to current staff. So I've assumed it must be important. I guess that works for people who get interviewed and offered contracts outside of a fair. Then you're not quite so rushed in making a decision. If I were so lucky as to be offered more than one contract, it would not come down to just money and location to me. While those are two biggies, I would like more specific information about other things that are important to me to help me make up my mind. But it sounds like that's just not reality during the fair. So I'll need to be assertive and do as much research as possible prior to the fair.

Yeah, I've done somthing similar. Although I did not color code anything! :D I have detailed questions regarding healthcare, insurance, housing, etc that I don't think I can get the answers to without talking to someone currently working at the school. Maybe in another post I will list all the schools I'm currently interested in and see if there are any current teachers on ISR for any of those schools.

I'm repeatedly reading that it is important to talk to current teachers at a school before accepting a contract. And that makes perfect sense to me. However I need advice about how to accomplish that when at a job fair. I will be at the SA Cambridge fair. If I am offered a contract (or hopefully several to choose between) at the fair and am only given a day or so to give them my answer, how do I contact current employees to get the scoop? It seems like the time frame is too short for the logistics that requires.

If the only contact I've received back from a school is the automated form email saying "they'll contact me if they're interested" or "please sign up for an interview at the fair", then is it reasonable for me to ask them to put me in contact with current teachers now so I can get this info before the fair? Seems like it would be really tough on current teachers if everyone did that. In a prior question I posted on ISR the most common advice I got was to wait to talk to current teachers once I am offered a contract. And that makes sense to me.

Having never been to a job fair, I anticipate it will be rather frenetic and I'm just trying to figure out how to get the info I will need to make the best decision possible. We all know I can't 100% trust what the recruiters tell me.

Thanks in advance for your advice about how you guys handle this.

My associate is Michael Williams and I have always had VERY prompt, thorough, and polite responses. His assistants often are the ones I hear from. He even got an invitation to the fair I wanted, even though it was supposedly full. Regardless, so far I'm very happy. It obviously just depends on who your associate is.