Hi Sdakota,

I completely agree with PsyGuy. My spouse and I both have EU passports and this completely made the job hunt much easier. In fact, at the job fair interviews I was swamped with offers from schools in Europe, even though that was not my first pick of continents at that time as I had already lived there and wanted something new. I met other teachers who really wanted to work in Europe and could not get interviews. At that point I did not have that much experience either.

The world is your oyster. Good luck!

@senator - Thanks for the reality check. So much is a crapshoot.

@nikkor - Thank you for all of the helpful information. The whole male counselor in elementary/middle school is probably the path he will take for now. However, a strange thing happened last week. We are friends with a principal at a high school in our city and he contacted my husband to see if he wanted to be one of the high school counselors next year. Weird coincidence! He is thinking about it for now. Of course I am all over him to take it to gain some experience.

Hi Dragonguy,

Google, "Physical and health education guide MYP," and you will find the IB MYP guide to start learning about IB philosophy, etc.

Link to online guide: https://ibpublishing.ibo.org/server2/re ... &chapter=1

One of the recent "Next Chapter" changes to MYP PE is that it is now called MYP PHE to wrap in the health component more completely.

The "Assessment criteria overview" will give you give you an idea of how you will assess students. Year 1 is Grade 6, Year 2 is Grade 7, and so on. You'll design your own summative tasks, but if you enter an established IB school most likely you'll have a horizontal and vertical planner, unit plans and assessments passed down to you to extend upon.

Over the past 7 or 8 years I've taught MYP PHE a few times and it is loads of fun! Lots of interdisciplinary opportunities, especially with science and design.

Best wishes with your next school hunt!

@LUWahoo

One suggestion is to call the IB Americas regional office (#301-202-3000) and see if they will send you a list of candidate schools in Virginia. Right now there are a lot of candidate schools in the US, so chances are your list of schools will increase. Schools are usually in candidate status for about 2-4 years before becoming authorised.

@PsyGuy

Great point about the "growing pains" of the candidate school world. The IB does not "endorse" candidate schools in the Americas region. Candidate schools are required to specify on their website or in school publications that they are a candidate school. IB America schools are required to follow the same protocols as all other IB world schools. Now, if they do or not, is another story...

@nikkor - After speaking with my husband it seems that he feels more comfortable going the elementary/middle school counselor road for now. He is already a licensed mental health counselor and needs to take 2 classes to get his school counseling license. Of course he'll then need a few years experience. Thanks for the tips on areas of focus and the resources.

My new question: In your opinion, will a Tier 1 school even consider a couple where both candidates are not top-notch?

I appreciate both perspectives, and will mention both to my spouse. He is definitely more seasoned as mental health counselor, and it would benefit him to gain the college admissions piece. We definitely want to keep options open.

Glad to hear that I might have a chance at a Tier 1 school. Last time around we lived in expensive cities and did not save a penny. They were quality experiences that led to many good things professionally. This time around we are hoping to couple those great experiences with savings as well.

I've been out of the international school world for about 5 years and am hoping to go back in the next few years. I taught for four years at two decent international schools. My spouse worked in another sector while abroad, however we both decided that it would be best if we both worked at the same school in order to increase savings potential. We have two children and know that there is a greater probability of our kids going to the school if we both work there.

My spouse is in the process of getting his school counseling license and fluently speaks a few languages. I am a secondary science teacher and MYP coordinator. I've taught for seven years at authorized IB schools. I have attended five or six MYP workshops in different regions of the world. I am also an active member of IBEN and do school site visits and lead MYP workshops. In the past I was a member of ISS and would probably go that route again.

What are the prospects looking like these days for a couple like us given that my spouse will be relatively new to his field?