Here's a related question. How good does one need to speak Spanish in Mexico City. I'm willing to learn, but do not know much.

Thanks for all of the info posted so far!

SUNY-Buffalo often gives credit for attending conferences. Usually it is a credit or two, but is pretty cheap. PBS offers really good classes that you can take for credit - with lots of college choices.

http://www.pbs.org/teacherline/

I'm going to add this to the discussion: international teachers have a different plan than teachers in their home countries. People in their own countries general settle down in one place and make it "home". International teachers are leaving their home to go somewhere else - I think this makes it easier for that teacher to move to another country. Your friends are constantly coming and going, why shouldn't you? Back home, your friends are more likely to stay put and not move countries every two years.

I know this is a generalization, but I do believe that this movement causes an atmosphere to be created where it is almost expected that you will move on after a couple of years. I think it would be unusual for someone to get a job back home where it is assumed you'll be moving on after your contract is up - it's not unusual for an international teacher to move on after 2 years.

"Really? Admins have the power. If they abuse that power, should they not be accountable? Even if it's just on a forum that rational people take with a grain of salt?

If a teacher acts unprofessionally or is otherwise unworthy, then the admins WILL and already do, name and shame them in ways that actually matter: To future employers and to other heads."

I wonder if people do take this site with a grain of salt. Did you read the blog post that ISR put up about Indonesia? Seems like like quite a few teachers believed what they read. I am also not okay with admin going out of their way to badmouth teachers. Wrong is wrong, unless you are in politics when it's okay for you/your political side to say/do something, but immoral and evil when the other side does it. Sorry but badmouthing is wrong no matter who is doing it.

I guess it boils down to someone being a mature adult. Just because someone else does something wrong to us does not mean we need to do something wrong back. What role models are we to students I wonder...

I'm pretty okay with people giving rational views about schools. I'm not okay with naming admins and going after them. I guess I find it hypocritical that we are okay with naming admins, but we are shocked and repulsed when admins name teachers.

Of course I also hate the hypocrisy of some teachers who feel their education is over once they have the certification (how is that modeling learning for students?), but that's another story.

Let me take this in a slightly different direction. We were talking about blacklisting teachers - what about blacklisting admin and schools? Is it okay to badmouth admin and schools publicly but not teachers?

I understand that schools aren't people, so a list isn't quite so bad for them. What about an administrator? What if the admin types set up an ISR applicable to teachers and started naming teacher names and hiding behind screen names to discuss their thoughts about those teachers? How would we as teachers feel?

Thoughts?

I'm kinda leaning towards the EdD, but am open. I mainly want to get the doctorate because I really do like learning, but I want something to show for it since I am - not the main reason I want the degree, but it doesn't hurt.

I would still want to teach. I know I would not be a good admin and have no desire to do so. Department head maybe, but still teaching. Thanks for the feedback. The stat idea is particularly good. Thanks!

How long did it take? Did you go with online or at the physical campus? If you had it to do over, what would you do differently?

Thanks. I'm looking at either the EdD or PhD and am looking for other people's advice.

Psyguy, maybe your account was hacked - just like in Italy. Since you are certified in Texas and do have ESL experience, maybe this is what happened again.

Psyguy, how can you devote so much time as a junior admin in Denmark, while posting a whole bunch on another site (and this site)? How do you find the time? You must literally not sleep with the time zone differences and all.

http://texas.teachers.net/chatboard/index2.html

Anyone here working on their doctorate? Any thoughts? Any recommendations?

Hawkeye, what are you talking about? Psyguy is a junior admin in Denmark. Of course he has a great job in Denmark to go to on Monday. There is a saying about arguing with a fool. We all know he is living vicariously and is living a fantasy life. Not much we can do to help him.

Psyguy, good luck and all and I do hope that no one makes a big mistake from your "fantasy admin" advice.

How is being an educational consultant a "junior administrator from Denmark"? Did I miss something? I still don't understand why you continue to play this game. Is this how you would like your students to act in science? You don't have to actually be there to observe and report on an experiment when you can make it up - that's what you are modeling.

I guess I just don't get it. You are making your future tougher and tougher. What we say online follows us whether we like it or not. Please start acting like a responsible educator. I know you have a lot of good qualities and I know you are trying to help people. How are you going to feel when someone follows your advice and really regrets it - based upon your being a junior admin from Denmark? Please stop and only state facts that you have first-hand knowledge of. I certainly don't know everything and it doesn't make me feel good to lie to others to cover it up.

What really bothers me is that this site could be so useful - a place to easily share information. When people like Psyguy (and others who lie or distort) post, it makes it an almost impossible task to sort it all out. I get the whole anonymous thing, but with anonymity comes greater responsibility.

Psyguy, please continue to help people, but please be honest and don't state facts that aren't true. It's ridiculous to think that a public school in Denmark is (a) going to hire a foreigner to be a counselor (no EU passport); (b) that this public school would illegally violate Search's terms and recruit illegally/shadily; and (c) that a public school would pay around $14,000 to send 2 junior admins to a job fair half way around the world (and even more to send recruiters to BKK for another shady recruiting trip) to send people on a recruiting junket to hire even more foreigners. I do know that the EU is getting very strict with hiring non-EU passport holders - they aren't looking for more foreigners.

I don't know what you think you are gaining by claiming things you are not. Are you getting paid by the claim? Is this a joke to see how far you can string people along? These don't sound very nice to me.

So what are we saying? Are we saying that Psyguy is actually the admin/owner of the site? The site is registered in Arizona (fits in with the Texas/California posting times). He says he is from a school in Denmark, but no school was at Search Fairs from Denmark. This also fits in with Psyguy's defense of ISR concerning the blog post about Indonesia.

Sounds somewhat believable. Thoughts?