Hey all,
My wife and are planning to dive into the world of international teaching in 2008. We thought about it this year but decided to stay where we are for one more year and then look abroad next year.
Here is our situation:
I have a B.S. Secondary Education and am certified to teach Social Studies and Humanities and will have 3 years experience by the time we will be looking. My wife has a B.S. Art Education and is certified to teach Art and will have 3 years of art teaching experience and 3 years of English teaching experience.
My Question:
We are certainly qualified to apply for Social Studies/Humanities and Art positions. But, is my wife qualified to apply for an English/Language Arts position? She will have 3 years of teaching it and is working towards her certification but will be about 6 credits shy of certification in the field. Should she still apply for English jobs?
We are interested in this because I have seen many more schools with Social Studies and English/LA positions open than Social Studies and Art positions open.
Thanks for any info.
Certification vs. Experience?
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interteach
- Posts: 212
- Joined: Wed Nov 29, 2006 2:25 pm
It looks to me like your wife IS certified, but would like to teach outside her area -- that's a different thing that being uncertified. Many schools (not talking about the big guys with waiting lists of people wanting to work there) which are great, but small, just consider the fact that you are a certified teacher. Stay away from schools which hire uncertified teachers - they are what I all "backpacker schools" and there used to be lots in China - though the field is becoming much more professional now.
Remember, certification means different things in different countries/states. For example, while you are certified to teach a particular subject to a particular grade level, in British Columbia (where I trained) our certification do not specify our subject or age level -- THEORETICALLY I'm qualified to teach any subject at any level. However, since I specialized in Middle Schol Social Studies, that's probably where I'll get most of my jobs. That being said, I am now in a school where I teach AP English (!) as well as History. This is because I have 5 years experience teaching Literature at college level - something like your wife's experience.
The problem is that while there are many jobs for English teachers, there are many certified English teachers with degrees in English, so the competition would be fierce.
As a teaching couple, getting the right combination is always tricky. Good luck!
Remember, certification means different things in different countries/states. For example, while you are certified to teach a particular subject to a particular grade level, in British Columbia (where I trained) our certification do not specify our subject or age level -- THEORETICALLY I'm qualified to teach any subject at any level. However, since I specialized in Middle Schol Social Studies, that's probably where I'll get most of my jobs. That being said, I am now in a school where I teach AP English (!) as well as History. This is because I have 5 years experience teaching Literature at college level - something like your wife's experience.
The problem is that while there are many jobs for English teachers, there are many certified English teachers with degrees in English, so the competition would be fierce.
As a teaching couple, getting the right combination is always tricky. Good luck!
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TexianTravel
- Posts: 44
- Joined: Thu Nov 30, 2006 11:35 pm
- Location: Egypt
A Matching Degree
There is also the consideration of your degree. While I am certified to teach ELA, my degree is in Music. That knocks me out of teaching in Turkey, and possibly a few other countries as well. I did get jobs in both Saudi Arabia and Egypt teaching a self-contained classroom, which included Math, Science, and Social Studies; all subjects I was NOT certified in. However that may say more for the schools than for me; neither were anywhere close to top quality.
I have over 15 years of teaching experience in a variety of countries and I've almost never taught what I was trained in which is PE and when I did teach it, it was never full time. Most schools will assign a teaching load based on their needs and your ability. As long as you can get through the paperwork to get your work visa, the rest is usually worked out during timetabling. In smaller school, it's very common to land in subjects you are not necessarily comfortable teaching because there are gaps in the timetable.
If you're very interested in a subject, it's also very common to position yourself after a year or two and move towards that area once you've been hired and have experience at the school. In a precious post, when it was time to renew, I said I'd be interested in staying only if I taught in the area I was most interested in and since they wanted me to stay, I got the change. Frankly most good administrators know that a piece of paper doesn't make a good teacher and they'd rather look at your experience and references to make their decision.
If you're very interested in a subject, it's also very common to position yourself after a year or two and move towards that area once you've been hired and have experience at the school. In a precious post, when it was time to renew, I said I'd be interested in staying only if I taught in the area I was most interested in and since they wanted me to stay, I got the change. Frankly most good administrators know that a piece of paper doesn't make a good teacher and they'd rather look at your experience and references to make their decision.