Hi Justlooking

Sorry, I misread your post, thinking you were a Maths teacher and her an English and PE teacher. It does make your situation more complicated, which translates into possibly having to wait longer for the right job combination to be posted. Which is probably why you haven't heard from anyone just yet.

Where are you looking? There are Maths and English positions being advertised at the moment.

I see from the TIEONLINE website that the International School of Kenya are advertising for 4 Maths positions, 2 High School and 2 Middle School, and a High School English/ Social Studies position.

Often I think you make a lot of sense Ichiro but here you really are stirriing the pot.

Not everyone wants to work in a 'top tier' school of 3000 students with 5 classes on a Grade level and full of over ambitious 'show ponies'. Sometimes the most 'valuable' teachers are those working in isolated places with minimal resources yet try to prepare their kids for the 21st century.

I agree your comment about only including your latest jobs, training and accomplishments. Are you sure about a 1 page resume?

Hi, welcome to the world of living internationally ... The only certainty is uncertainty! :)

"Here's the problem: We haven't heard from anyone!"
So who have you applied to? If you're applying to the 'top tier' schools bear in mind that they can afford to wait until the 'perfect match' for their vacant positions comes along.

How long ago did you apply? Sometimes your application may not be a top priority for the school right at the moment.

Its true that the recruiting season has started earlier and there are a number of schools posting vacancies now but there are lots of schools that just haven't got there yet. They should at least acknowledge your letter of interest out of courtesy but they may have just put it on the pending file, waiting to see what their staffing needs are likely to be. Although it sounds terrible some Directors feel that they don't have time to acknowledge 30 (or more) letters of interest.

We're only half way through November so don't jump just yet. I've been doing this for 15 years and at times I've been surprised at the speed of the response of a school but I've also received a reply from a school 3 months after I contacted them.

Seen from a different perspective, if you take the international school scene as a whole, there are regional differences in pay and benefits that are not necessarily related to school 'quality'. By all accounts the packages of schools in the East tend, on average, to be far better than schools in Africa or South America. Schools in central and north western Europe pay far better than schools in eastern or southern Europe. Try comparing the package offered by schools in Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece, or Turkey to schools in London, Paris, Vienna, Copenhagen. No contest. However, large packages do not equate to large savings. Cost of living is a big factor in Europe, Japan, Moscow, and Korea amongst others.

There's at least one school in the East that's been compared to a bus running down a steep hill without a driver. Their package allows for savings of at least 20 to 25 K a year for a couple with a non-teaching spouse. Would this be possible in most international schools in London, New York, Rio, Moscow, Lusaka? Any one teacher families in Rome or Lome saving 25K a year?

As has been pointed out many international schools will only take a teacher with a non-teaching spouse, and one or two dependents, as a last resort. The top priority is often a couple with one partner being a High School Maths, Science or ICT/network/systems administrator and the other partner being a Primary teacher. Does this mean that all the teachers with a non teaching spouse and can't afford to live in Brussels on one salary are bad teachers?

With regards to couples being hired, often the decision is a 'bottom line' decision, and a school is willing to take the bad with the good because the whole is cheaper than two singles, or two teachers with non-teaching spouses.

Then we get to the question of good teaching. Are 'show ponies' good teachers? How about prima donnas? What about mavericks? They don't always go down very well, some administrators like a nice compliant group of 'yes men and women'. The whole question of 'good teaching' is a discussion on its own.

I'm interested to see that it's been noted that things are a little slow at the forum:) of late. There appear to be far fewer critical voices.

It could be that recently the dodgy international schools have suddenly taken note of all the past criticism, or suddenly things don't seem so bad at the 'bad' schools, or that people are concerned about posting negative comments in case they jeoparise their position in an uncertain teaching environment.

None of the above apply in my case. I've stopped posting because a group of posters suffer from the '3 Monkey' syndrome. Hear no evil, see no evil and heaven forbid, speak no evil. I suppose you could equate them to the ISR PC Posting Police. Criticism of schools or administrators draws accusations about one's own competence, the need to move on and forget all that's gone on before, and never, never 'slander' a dishonest, manipulative etc. etc. administrator.

So, I'm a regular reader, but have little to say. I've moved on, I've been on the circuit for 15 years and taught for 23, so I don't have newby questions, I haven't been burn't by ISS, I have a friend who was offered a rather good position by a school who contacted her through Search, so I have no criticisms of Search, and I'm in the second year of a two year contract.

There are dodgy schools out there, there are poor administrators, but we don't talk about them.

The folk suffering from '3 Monkey' syndrome have got what they wanted, a nice quite bulletin board with the odd question about a school that nobody as heard about and nobody bothers to reply.

By the way, for the non-conformists and IB unbelievers, you might be entertained by some of the comments from members of the following groups on Facebook:

Victims of the International Baccalaureate

IB Survivors (15,134 members)

You might also be interested in:
ibscrewed.net

It depends, in part, on how you find the PYP methodology and how long the school has been doing the PYP. If you are having to start creating new units and the school isn't particularly well resourced it can be difficult.

It will also depend on your PYP Coordinator and Primary Principal. There are some really good, honest, principled, authentic professionals out there. However, unfortunately, you may have the misfortune to be saddled with someone who is into appearances, doesn't tolerate dissent, wants to complete a Self Study in one staff meeting by having you agree with all the boxes s/he has checked etc. etc. Challenger describes the situation quite well. If you are a 'team player' and 'collaborative' you should have no problem. If not, well...

I hope you end up with one of the authentic professionals, and wish you all the best for the next two years.

I was thinking that there might be less movement on the job market, but I hadn't thought about teachers at home being less willing to take a position overseas and I hadn't thought about the possibility of schools having to close or the school's bank going belly up. Now that's a scary thought!

The group that my school is part of has sent a mail to all Principals advising them that in view of the global financial crisis it will be cutting back on recruitment and internal promotions. Before I heard about this I was wondering if or how the financial crisis was going to affect recruitment this year. Is this crisis likely to have an overall impact on recruitment? Any thoughts or opinions on this?

Used Crown movers about 10 years ago.

www.crownworldwide.com

What if your friend asked the Head if s/he could e.mail some of the leaving staff to see what it was like there?

There's more than one international school in Rangoon, I understand that one is connected to the US embassy and is the best option. I had a friend who worked at one of the schools and she said that there were some interesting characters working there.

Hermine, unless I've missed something, the term and concept really pertains to individuals, or perhaps the Jewish people in the Old Testament, rather than a school.

You have talked about going to ENS and turning the school around. I don't know anything about your background or experience but unless you are an extraordinary individual, with incredible stickability, you need to be absolutely clear about what you're jumping into before you go.

Scott and Hermine I'm somewhat tickled by the thought that either or both of you, as teachers, are going to turn ENS or any other school around.

I trust you'll keep us posted on the progress you're making, we'd love to celebrate your successes with you.

Thanks to those of you that have voiced an opinion on this topic. I'm often interested to see the range of views posted here.

I thought I should clarify that I'm not at either school, I chose to do what Mike said and leave the first school, which has now imploded thanks to our friend. I'm not at the second thankfully.

Texican Travel you make some very valid points. One hopes that that he's not going to get away with it forever.

Sputnik I really hadn't looked at it this way, but the Directors he's undermined were definitely not incompetent, weak willed or posers. Far from it. The issue at the heart of this is values. If we were discussing the arms trade or international banking then maybe it wouldn't matter how he makes his way to the top, but this is education, so values are important.

There is a very ambitious gentleman on the international circuit who has recently been appointed as the Primary Head of one of the better international schools. He has effectively undermined his current Director and did his best to undermine the previous one, with the intention of getting their positions.

Now I know not everyone is perfect, but his new Director and Primary 'Team' (he loves to talk about teamwork and collaboration) have no idea what they're in for.

What to do, what to do?