Search found 20 matches

by muguet
Fri Oct 08, 2021 3:23 am
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: Certificate Transfer to NJ is Taking Too Long
Replies: 8
Views: 10277

Re: Certificate Transfer to NJ is Taking Too Long

When I transferred I had a similar situation. The phone calls were worthless. One day I logged in and it was granted (no email notification btw).

For me it took 3 months.
by muguet
Thu Sep 23, 2021 10:55 pm
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: LinkedIn
Replies: 12
Views: 15607

Re: LinkedIn

I've been recruited for a tutoring side gig on LinkedIn that turned out to be decent.
by muguet
Thu Mar 19, 2020 7:24 pm
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: Life insurance for expats
Replies: 5
Views: 8762

Life insurance for expats

Sorry if this has been covered, but the search function keeps excluding the word "life" so I can only find stuff about health insurance.

What's the deal with purchasing life insurance when living abroad? I tried purchasing from a major company in my home country and did not qualify due to my address of current residence. If I write my home country address to get approved, do you think they would not honor the insurance if I were to die while abroad?

Any reputable companies that specialize specifically in expat life insurance?
by muguet
Fri Feb 15, 2019 4:14 am
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: Laziest Students in Asia?
Replies: 36
Views: 36645

Re: Laziest Students in Asia?

I've taught super lazy Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Thai students... which is to say that I think that the overall culture of the student body at a school can have a very large impact on students regardless of the national systems they've come from, their cultural upbringing, or parental pressure.
by muguet
Sat Jan 05, 2019 6:58 pm
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: Advice needed
Replies: 4
Views: 5498

Re: Advice needed

It's possible. I know of a non-native English speaker hired to teach at an international school in Japan- Eastern European but had a native English spouse as part of a teaching couple, so that probably helped.
by muguet
Tue Dec 11, 2018 3:33 pm
Forum: Forum 2. Ask Recruiting Questions, Share Information. What's on Your Mind?
Topic: Ichiro examples
Replies: 19
Views: 37882

Re: Ichiro examples

Ugh Psyguy your description of Ichiros is a great encapsulation of why I don't go to job fairs. I still can't believe schools would want this ridiculous stuff!
by muguet
Tue Oct 23, 2018 4:37 am
Forum: Forum 2. Ask Recruiting Questions, Share Information. What's on Your Mind?
Topic: Why intl schools promote diversity but do the opposite
Replies: 16
Views: 34723

Re: Why intl schools promote diversity but do the opposite

Based on my own experience at an international school, I would have to say the answer (although not at all a legitimate one) is parents.

I've seen many international school parents be unapologetically racist, so when their children do racist things at school, they really don't care. They are paying the tuition fees that run the school, and they want to see white faces as teachers, so administrators, whether consciously or not, hire white faces and don't push it when it comes to overt racism on campus. I have found this to be one of the saddest realities about working abroad.
by muguet
Thu Jul 26, 2018 4:00 am
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: Search technicality
Replies: 2
Views: 4727

Search technicality

Will I have to repay my Search fee if I change my date of availability to later in the year? I haven't accepted a new position, but will be continuing in my old position.
by muguet
Mon Jun 18, 2018 5:32 pm
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: Career change from corporate job - experiences?
Replies: 5
Views: 8656

Re: Career change from corporate job - experiences?

Saying you want to go into international teaching to have more free time strikes me as very odd. I know many people who have left teaching or taken break years due to the massive amounts of time it consumes. Especially if you are talking about E. Asia. One thing to keep in mind is that school time is going to be much less flexible than corporate time. You can't schedule your meetings around your own needs, and you will likely have after hours commitments that you must attend to beyond just planning.

Especially if you haven't taught before, you are going to be going in as a new teacher in general, and those first fews years basically take over your life as you figure out how to set up a classroom and plan lessons. After 3 years of getting a foundation in your subject, I could maybe see you having more free time, but I really think you are being overly optimistic about the demands of the profession here. I obviously don't know the details, and it depends a lot on the school and courseload, but what you have observed from teachers who seem to have more free time may be from teachers who have been teaching the subject for years and therefore have very little prep required. Overall, I would make sure you want to teach for many other good reasons besides free time before you dive into this world.
by muguet
Mon Jul 25, 2016 4:34 pm
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: US college student thinking of teaching abroad
Replies: 15
Views: 20440

Re: US college student thinking of teaching abroad

Sorry stormageddon, I missed the first part of your original post that said you were also getting a degree in secondary ed. That should mean you will come out certified right? I think if you have a certification somewhere, your chances of getting hired overseas right away out of college are higher, even if you don't have the typical two years in the classroom. I would give it a try, apply to some places, and see if you get any bites. The good thing is that hiring season is going to be in the winter of your last year of undergrad, so if nothing comes out of it, you can still apply domestically with no problem. With the summer jobs-- try to find a way to have some stake in designing and/or teaching a unit on your own. If your title is "teaching assistant," many teachers will be glad to let you take over the class for a couple days or so. It will give you something more substantial to talk about in your interviews if you have some curricular design under your belt. Good luck!
by muguet
Mon Jul 25, 2016 1:54 pm
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: US college student thinking of teaching abroad
Replies: 15
Views: 20440

Re: US college student thinking of teaching abroad

I would caution anyone from walking into a full time teaching position straight out of college with no real teacher training. Even though I worked in teaching assistantship type positions all through college, my preparation was nowhere close to where I realized it needed to be once I enrolled in an actual teaching and certification program. There are definitely enough resources online that you could fill up your hours in the classroom with no problem, but I would be concerned about not getting a solid pedagogical foundation to inform your instruction. For most teachers, the habits and routines you form in those first years really stick, and it will serve you so much better down the road if those habits are based in best practice.

I know it's not what you want to hear, but I would either a. have some fun and teach English for a year, then reevaluate whether you want to get certified or b. bite the bullet and do a 1-2 year teacher preparation program through a university. I would dabble with assistant type jobs that will get you into the classroom first just to make sure it's what you want to do before investing in a program.
by muguet
Mon May 23, 2016 5:29 pm
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: Phone apps for translating non-Roman alphabet languages
Replies: 5
Views: 8794

Phone apps for translating non-Roman alphabet languages

Does anyone have good suggestions for apps that can be used to look up words or phrases one might encounter on a sign or on a product that aren't written using the Roman alphabet? I would think that by now someone has probably come up with something where you could take a picture of the word to get a translation to English, but I haven't ever used anything like that and doubt that it would be very accurate. I'm thinking of instances like trying to navigate the dry goods section of a grocery store when you have little to no idea what the boxes or jars say. And even if you buy something and want to look up the name or ingredients after the fact, are there any easy ways to look up translations when you can't type in the word in the first place?
by muguet
Fri May 06, 2016 9:41 am
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: edit
Replies: 8
Views: 10210

Re: Teaching IB

Become familiar with the assessment criteria early on and use them to structure your assignments and formative assessments. This will help you and your students become comfortable with the language and expectations.
by muguet
Fri May 06, 2016 8:15 am
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: edit
Replies: 8
Views: 10210

Re: Teaching IB

Well, it's not so bad with just one SL student. I have found that the time some teachers allot for review in DP is sometimes overkill and I need to spend more time teaching it the first time around than is allotted on their calendars-- just find what works for you. The one thing I would definitely alert you to as you are planning a year-long calendar is the IA (internal assessment). Depending on your student population you will probably need to have piecemeal deadlines/checkpoints to make sure you have what you need to turn in to the IB by that point in the year. I've heard some teachers have students do it all outside of class, but I think that's really contrary to what the IB intends for it to be (and would definitely not work for my students).