Read this post before having dinner with people who used to work in Saudi Arabia. Turns out Economic City is on the coast - this might appeal to some. It is also the site of the latest "tallest tower in the world". It's planned to be a mile high - will believe it when I see it.

I'd never work in Saudi due to the controlling environment but others might see it as a place to get started.

I guess the best way I can respond to your query is with some additional questions:

What would be your purpose in exposing this person? If it's just your sense of unfairness, how would this be weighed against damage to this person's family, students and the school climate and/or reputation in general?

Are you absolutely sure the school doesn't already know? Many overseas schools have people on staff who are not certified - for a whole host of reasons. In the end, is it possible it would be a non-issue for the school and then you are left simply as the whistleblower?

If the person is lousy at their job or bad for kids, I'd say absolutely expose them. If they are doing a good job and students are benefitting from their work, then it's a much more difficult question. I look forward to seeing how others respond.

Very interesting to read each person's perspective. I went home; I would look for work outside of teaching. Gipper - totally relate to the family issues. We already feel irrelevant to extended family...we've missed out on 15 years of bonding.

6 months for every year out....yikes, I'll be ancient! Might not be worth it!!

Football games....high school, college and professional - all available in person. Shopping all day with my mom.....calling my sis over a silly little find.....niece and nephew graduations, weddings, etc.

Ease of life - laundry done in 30 minutes and the towels are fluffly. Knowing how to take care of the beauracracies of life......knowing a million ways to get around in my home city.

A life outside of school - I never socialized with work colleagues at home. It's really hard in some countries to find a life outside the school.

Live concerts, community festivals, farmer's market.

Maybe I just need to move? :)

I'd be interested to hear from those who are contemplating (or who alredy have gone) going home. We've been out long enough we have money in the bank and have seen a good chunk of the world; we are thinking of trying life Stateside. We will, of course, wait until the economy is in a better place. We find we miss the football games, seasonal celebrations and the myriad of family celebrations.

We think we can go home and then if it's not as wonderful as we imagine always go back out again. This might be easier said than done.

Thoughts?

I have experience with the online courses from these two institutions and have been happy with them:

University Wisconsin - Stout
Walden University

I agree that the post about Qatar got a bit off course but if someone is looking at the region, those of us with actual experience can't let sweeping generalizations stand if we know they are wrong. If PsyGuy's comment had gone uncontested, the original poster might have been scared away from a country that has some fine schools.

I'm not much for censorship - probably the best advice is to only engage with the original poster and not get baited by the likes of Psy Guy. He always wants to have the last word so the greater the number of responses, the more he rambles on.

Out of the respect for my Latin friends, I also use "the States" but don't totally get it. After all, Mexico's full name is The United States of Mexico. We can't change what the founding fathers called our country. It's simple to write EEUU in Spanish but there is no easy equivalent in English. The reality is that unless I say "America" in most of the world, they don't understand what I mean.

My only experience with that fair was being surprised by the couple of top Asian schools that were there one year. They each had unexpected last minute openings. It can be a good fair for a single who is flexible about location.

My only experience with that fair was being surprised by the couple of top Asian schools that were there one year. They each had unexpected last minute openings. It can be a good fair for a single who is flexible about location.

I can't speak to British schools - only top tier international schools. Most require teachers to definitively say if they are returning or not before the winter break so many great schools are recruiting at the first fairs in Bangkok and Boston area. I've learned on this forum that European schools find out much later about openings.

It seems the whole season is moving up. Some schools are giving bonuses for declaring departure before the due date. This means the school can start interviewing in October. Some heads are looking to avoid going to the fairs, if possible. Lots of good schools left after Christmas and even the best can have unexpected vacancies towards the end of the school year.

I can't speak to British schools - only top tier international schools. Most require teachers to definitively say if they are returning or not before the winter break so many great schools are recruiting at the first fairs in Bangkok and Boston area. I've learned on this forum that European schools find out much later about openings.

It seems the whole season is moving up. Some schools are giving bonuses for declaring departure before the due date. This means the school can start interviewing in October. Some heads are looking to avoid going to the fairs, if possible. Lots of good schools left after Christmas and even the best can have unexpected vacancies towards the end of the school year.

Again, two months in Egypt does not make you a credible reference for the Middle East. Egypt is worlds apart from the Gulf states which are worlds apart from Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. Your opiniions on Egypt are well documented in this forum and noone can take away your bad experience, but it does not mean people should write the region off. I don't really write this response to you but for the sake of those who are new to international teaching and might think you know what you're talking about when referring to the Middle East.

PsyGuy - with only 2 months' experience in a region it would make sense that you recuse yourself from any comments about the region. Leave it to those of us who have lived there to provide some specific info, good or bad. There are teachers who spend their entire career moving between schools in the NESA region. Europe and Asia are not for everyone - for a lot of reasons. One of the great things about the MIddle East is that it's close enough to Europe to visit often AND be able to afford it!

The best school in which to work in Amman is ACS - not to be confused with Modern American School. The latter is a for profit school; a person who worked there told me there was at least one fight a day in the secondary.

ABS (Amman Bacc School) is an IB school with almost 100% rich locals. The facilties are great and they've been working on improving the expat teacher package. The expats are much fewer than locals.

I don't know anything about working conditions - I just know I'd steer clear of that type of population because my own experience with a rich, local population was not good. To each his own.