What should I bring?
Scaffold me fellow educators! Never done this before!


Do I have a chance of getting employed?

Bachelors in Ed- Secondary Education.
3 years international teaching, no IB experience.
Project Based Learning for two of those years.
Courses taught: English 12, Drama 10, middle school humanities, health education.
Single with no dependents
Teaching certification from BC

Any other information for you to accurately assess?

vandsmith wrote:
> PsyGuy wrote:
> > No, its not worth renewing the intern credential.
> > A 61% isnt going to impress anyone in IE.
> > McGill is the only CAN 'Ivy'.
>
> maybe it's the patriot in me but i'd say u of t, ubc, and u of alberta are all fairly
> ivy in terms of quality.

Agreed. UofT's shy two rankings from McGill.

joe30 wrote:
> I don't think the MA really matters in terms of content, what matters is
> that the course fees are low and it's delivered online (so you can still
> work while doing it). The opportunity cost of taking a year out to study on
> campus balloons the cost of your degree. Let's say you would have earned
> $35,000, plus $5,000 worth of benefits like accommodation, flights etc.
> Including course fees (which tend to be higher for on campus programs) your
> course could well be costing you around $50,000 which takes a long time to
> earn back by just moving up one salary band. This goes double if you're
> doing an American MA (I understand MA's in America are two year courses,
> not one)
>
> On the other hand there's plenty of distance learning programs out there
> offering an MA for around $7,000. With that you could well make back your
> investment in 3-4 years from moving up a point on the salary band, and from
> then on it's all profit.
>
> Out of the two options I'd do the MA in Education although I agree it seems
> kinda redundant. The main thing really is that it's distance learning and
> the fees are low though, otherwise it makes little sense from an ROI
> perspective.

Agreed! Thanks for your advice!

PsyGuy wrote:
> @whoami
>
> The MFA in those cases is the terminal degree, there is no generally
> accepted doctoral degree above the MFA in certain fields. You can get a
> doctorate in theater, but can only get an MFA in acting, there is no
> "Doctorate of Acting". You can get a doctorate in communication,
> but can only get an MFA in rhetoric and oratory, there is no comparable
> doctorate level degree in rhetoric and oratory. In these cases the MFA is
> the terminal degree, its the highest level degree you can obtain in the
> field. In your case you could get an MFA in creative writing, and while
> you could get a doctorate in literature, there is no doctoral level degree
> in creative writing. You can then make the argument that your degree is
> terminal and you qualify for the doctoral salary band, assuming the IS has
> such a band.


But the research says.....: http://www.ed.ac.uk/literatures-languag ... ve-writing

> I would advise that if you arent interested in an M.Ed or other education
> related degree and want to pursue a Masters now if only for the economic
> advantage, the best utility to moving into a first or elite tier IS is
> presenting the best candidate at doing what you do best, and this means
> focusing on being a specialist and not a generalist, focus on literature
> and language arts. There are a lot of places that offer distance M.Lit and
> MFA programs and I would STRONGLY focus on the MFA if at all possible, as
> its still considered a terminal degree in many areas of the fine and
> performing arts, which could put you on the doctorate salary band at an IS.
> Especially if you went to a local Uni and got an appointment letter at
> prof. rank as an adjunct to support it.
>

>
> You are a fairly young IT still at the entry class IT, but assuming your IS
> is a tier 2 IS you have have had good fortune in your career so far. Your
> lack of experience needs to be focused on what you can do and you will need
> to SHOW recruiters that you have differentiated yourself within your field
> from the competition. No one cares about an English IT that has taught
> health, and your humanities pales in comparison to all the courses within
> your field you could have taught. You teach theater, what productions? On
> the face you appear to be a generalist at a small IS that floated between
> departments and taught a little of this and a little of that. Your year 12
> course (and your scores are low) is the only indicator youre a literature
> IT, thats not competitive for tier one not with only 3 years of experience.
>
> Compared to that challenge a masters isnt the priority.

Thanks for the detailed response

Can you please explain in further detail how having a masters in fine arts would qualify a teacher for a doctoral pay scale at an international school?

I'll provide as much detail as I feel comfortable so that I can receive accurate advice.

Nationality: Canadian
Age: 24
Male/Caucasian
Status: Single with no dependents.

Credentials: Bachelor of Education Secondary, British Columbia Certified K-12, almost expired Alberta Intern certificate (is this worth renewing)? Major in English and a minor in Chinese (can write, read, and speak).

Teaching experience: 3 years (all in certified international schools)
1 year at a BC certified off shore school, 2 years at a Project Based Learning/Montessori based school. Currently employed at a second tier level school (got in with connections).

Courses taught: English 12, Health 10, Drama 10, Humanities (PBL/Montessori). No IB experience.

Major accomplishments: English 12 students achieved a 61% average on the provincial exam (BC).

Based on the information above, please use your professional judgement and experiences to offer feedback on what I should do next.

My end goal is to stay abroad for my career. I am very happy at my current school, but I am looking to move after I've got a few more years of experience. Would like to break into the elite tier schools to learn "best practises." I'm learning a lot at my current school, I am the youngest and most the educators have at least 8 years experience over me.

Ideally, I would like to complete a masters degree online part time and still continue working full time. An MA in History is appealing because I think it complements my experience ,and (hopefully), I can get certified in teaching Social Studies with an MA in History?

An education masters is not appealing to me, as I don't want to go into admin (at least not right now...). I've done some reading online, and as I feared, a lot of folks felt that their MEd was a waste of time. Anyone care to comment?

Here's where I would love to comment on how great my bachelors program and where my fear was stemming from: I graduated from one of the best universities in Canada, but I still think my bachelors degree ill prepared me for teaching. I don't want to waste time and money doing more pointless education classes that are going to be grounded in dated theory and in ideal situations. The only thing here that makes me a little bit nervous is I am not sure if all international schools will credit an MA over a MEd? I mean, not to be greedy, but I would also like my masters to pay for itself with the pay raise that comes with earning another parchment on the wall. Comments anyone?

Thirdly: is completing a masters degree online respected on paper? This is somewhat not important to me, but I think it is important to outstanding international schools. Any educators out there who can comment?

Thanks, and please let me know if you need more information about me to offer advice.