Search found 1392 matches

by sid
Sun Jan 22, 2012 5:02 am
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: How bad is it to cancel a contract after signing it?
Replies: 27
Views: 35342

The guy didn't make a mistake. He signed a contract.

He didn't sign up to a life of torture and misery. He agreed to join a school that seemed all right at the time.

He didn't since find out that the school is pit of hell. He just saw greener pastures.

He didn't ask whether he would get divine absolution. He asked what would happen if.

How did this descend into personal attacks? Do what you feel is best. Let the OP make his decision. He's asked for opinions, he's got them.

Sid out
by sid
Sun Jan 22, 2012 3:00 am
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: How bad is it to cancel a contract after signing it?
Replies: 27
Views: 35342

Diogenes passes me by.
I've made my mistakes. Some haunt me. Whether it's purely principle I don't know. I'm sure it's mixed up with a good dose of not wanting other people to know, a shudder as I remember the consequences of my actions.
But surely one can give guidance, especially if the guidance was requested, without first achieving perfection?
And perhaps having made some errors, lived with the results, is also a good basis for offering advice.
by sid
Sat Jan 21, 2012 11:23 pm
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: How bad is it to cancel a contract after signing it?
Replies: 27
Views: 35342

I agree with several of PG's observations, but not his conclusions.
The character question is interesting, and I happen to believe it matters very much. I do have principles, and I respect those who do, and I make choices in life based on those. Still, PG is right in that you have to decide for yourself whether your word is your bond.
Perhaps more telling, the question of how your actions will be viewed and what might happen. The guy ending up with no job at all - that happens every year. If my school happened to be your second school, the one you signed with after first signing elsewhere, all it would take would be one phone call from your first school, or anyone who happened to know what you did, and we'd cancel your contract as soon as we confirmed the story. Frankly, we're not interested in taking risks on people who demonstrate that they can't be trusted, that they may or may not live up to their obligations - and yes, once you accept a job and even more once you sign a contract, you have an obligation to live up to. And unlike PG suggests, we wouldn't care if you'd walked away from a third, fourth or even fifth tier school in order to join us, clearly the superior school. All we'd care about is that you can't be trusted to honor a contract. And by extension, can't be trusted, period.
I'm being rather blunt this morning, aren't I?
It's not personal. Not really. I consider it normal to be tempted by these things. I've been tempted. Which is why once I accept a contract, I immediately stop looking, tell my agency, and send polite "I'm out of the race" notes to any schools I'd been in discussions with. It stops the temptation.
But you need to know what awaits on the other side of the fence. There's a chance it could be greener grass, and a chance it could be no grass at all, with your name bandied about the circuit as someone to avoid. It's not a risk I'd be willing to take.
by sid
Sat Jan 21, 2012 3:09 am
Forum: Forum 2. Ask Recruiting Questions, Share Information. What's on Your Mind?
Topic: ISS and job offers
Replies: 5
Views: 13560

As a recruiter, I do not like the 'express interest' feature, and I'll be bringing it up with ISS. Every time someone clicks it, I get an e-mail telling me to access the website and pull up credentials. If someone expresses interest in 4 different open positions, I get 4 emails. The day the feature opened, I got 150 emails. And they're not stopping.
So I really do apologize to everyone who's using the feature in an expectation of some sort of response, but it's not going to happen. ISS set this up and flooded our inboxes, without asking us. Frankly I think they are misleading applicants by seeming to suggest that this is a quicker road and/or may lead to a response. I suppose it could for the small number of positions that are really hard to fill, but if you're a grade 3 teacher I'm likely just to wait and see if you're at the fair. There is no realistic way I can do my normal job and keep up with all these expressions of interest.
My apologies, and I hope you get one from ISS too.
by sid
Sat Jan 21, 2012 3:00 am
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: International School of London ( in Qatar )
Replies: 8
Views: 20999

They hired several teachers who had been fired from better schools in Doha, including some of the ones mentioned above. Sends a clear message about how much they care about quality.
by sid
Tue Jan 17, 2012 2:12 am
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: Non-expiring teaching certificate?
Replies: 13
Views: 18764

PA is very picky.
PA public schools can certify anything they want to. If they offer a PD at school, they can give it a title and a number of hours, and submit the list of attendees to the state registry. If you attend a conference, you just bring home the certificate, get your school to certify it, and submit it. Done deal. Easy deal.
If you don't work in a PA public school, you're almost on your own. You don't have a school that can certify things for you, so only 2 things count.
1) Graduate level courses from any accredited US university.
2) PD given directly by a provider approved by the PA dept of ed. That approval process is ridiculously difficult, and most providers just work directly with schools anyway (so the schools can certify it), so there are almost no such approved providers.
Which means us PA-ers need, in effect, to keep attending grad school forever.[/list]
by sid
Mon Jan 16, 2012 10:30 pm
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: "Blacklisted"
Replies: 161
Views: 257496

It's very hard to tell why you aren't getting a job. Could be blacklisting, but really there isn't any actual list, it's just word of mouth. Could be just that it's not your time for a new job, you don't have the exact qualifications, your personality won't round out the existing team members, somebody else was a stronger candidate, somebody else is married to a HS Chemistry teacher and gets hired on that basis....

In my experience doesn't happen that often. Most Heads are perfectly content to let teachers move on to other positions and will neither help nor hinder a candidate they don't like, unless someone seeks them out to ask very specific questions. The exceptions I've seen have been for teachers who well and truly have no place in a school, who massively messed up, who created major issues.

And yes, Heads pick and choose who they listen to. The good Heads know and trust each other. The bad Heads listen to each other, meaning that if a bad Head is badmouthing you, other bad Heads are unlikely to hire you, which is a good thing for you. If a bad Head badmouths you to a good Head, the good Head won't listen and may even consider it a point in your favor. So if some rapscallion of dubious reputation is attacking you for poor reasons, you should still be fine. If you've managed to royally piss off a good Head, someone others like, that's when you might find things get tough.
by sid
Mon Jan 16, 2012 10:23 pm
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: Non-expiring teaching certificate?
Replies: 13
Views: 18764

Thanks, @doubtful. I'm still good though. I already finished the ACT 48 hours in the first 6 months of my current 5 year cycle, which means I have 9 years and 6 months before my cert expires, even if I don't take another hour at all. But I will. I'm a PD junkie.
by sid
Mon Jan 16, 2012 5:40 am
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: Non-expiring teaching certificate?
Replies: 13
Views: 18764

Check carefully and don't be too surprised if the forever certificates are no longer available.
My state (PA) used to be a forever state, so long as the teacher avoided teaching in a PA public school. The certificate was good for 5 years of PA public school teaching, but otherwise would not expire. It worked for me for a good many years.
And then they changed the rules. Now I need to keep the certificate current by getting a certain amount of PD every 5 years. If I don't do that, the cert will expire.
I believe other states are doing similar things. It prevents misuse of certificates by people like me, so we can't claim we're PA certified when in PA that means we've been taking top-up courses, but outside PA it means we attended classes decades ago.
by sid
Mon Jan 16, 2012 4:09 am
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: Are we screwed?
Replies: 21
Views: 28417

PsyGuy is absolutely correct.
Would you call a doctor a doctor if his license wasn't current and active?
Fly with a pilot without a current license?
Pay for a dye job from a hairdresser who wasn't licensed?
Have an unlicensed architect design your house?

And would you accept any excuses about why they weren't legally licensed?

A license may not make someone a good teacher, but it does make them legal. You could face firing, jail time, deportation if you enter a classroom without one.

You may think your school doesn't really care or isn't paying attention, but that's only when things are going swimmingly. You'll find yourself in a serious pickle when a complaint is made about you for any reason and it turns out you misrepresented your status.

Get current.
by sid
Sat Feb 03, 2007 10:11 pm
Forum: Forum 2. Ask Recruiting Questions, Share Information. What's on Your Mind?
Topic: International School of Choueifat, Abu Dhabi
Replies: 12
Views: 50926

Sabis has a very poor reputation among most international educators. The curriculum and delivery are controlled so much that teachers do not have any autonomy or choice in the classroom. They do not require certified teachers. They limit contact between teachers and parents. Salaries are very low.
by sid
Sat Dec 02, 2006 11:48 am
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: Qatar vs. Kuwait
Replies: 4
Views: 10735

George, why avoid QA? The teachers I know there report that they like it.