vandsmith wrote:
> > Today, anyways, my school seems to have a collective hangover.
>
> i'll second that. then there's the one idiot trump-loving yank in school smiling
> like a stupid puppy, blocking my coffee run in the morning. argh! whats worse is i
> often get mistaken as an american so now i have to do all THAT stuff too.
>
> v.

We have the same issue all the way over here in China. All of our foreign teachers are against him except one loudmouth from Florida. An African-American, no less. But, at least the Mexican-American teacher from Florida is against him, too.

I had a similar problem with applying to schools in Washington State. A lot of the school districts would use the exact same template, but I'd have to type everything in all over again. In some rare cases, they had options to import some information from previously submitted applications.

In Wisconsin, where I got my first certificate, they have a really useful site called WECAN that makes job application fairly seamless. Some specific districts might have additional questions, but it keeps everything else there for you--resume, certificates, references, the whole bit. I suppose some states are more organized than others when it comes to this kind of stuff.

Hope you find some better luck soon!

Well, thanks for the pointers. I suppose I'd be better off getting more experience instead of trying to add more certifications. If I really wanted to, I could add certifications in other sciences just by taking Praxis II tests (per Wisconsin certification rules), but I get the feeling that the DoD would want to see supporting coursework for that.

Hello everyone,

I am currently teaching physics (AP-level) at an international school in China. This was my first teaching job since getting certified grades 6-12 math, 10-12 physics, and 9-12 history. This is my second year of full time teaching.

I am looking to teach with the DoD (particularly DoDDS) mainly because of the benefits, the fact that I was raised a military kid myself, and the opportunity to continue living abroad.

I've been reading quite a few of the other topics, and here's a few things I've gathered (correct me if I'm wrong):

(a) DoDDS is very competitive to get hired with
(b) DoDDS rarely hires inexperienced teachers (2 years FT exp minimum)
(c) Most DoDDS teachers don't move around so much, if at all
(d) DoDDS teachers are not necessarily the cream of the crop (hard to believe this one)
(e) Students in the DoDDS/DoDEA system aren't typically very high achieving, with some schools possibly having some AP programs. I attended the high school at Lackland; there were those who wanted to do well, and those who just wanted to do the bare minimum; many enlisted right there on the spot after graduation.

Now, I'm not bothered by (c) through (e), but (a) and (b) are a bit troubling for a low-experienced teacher like myself. If I wanted to work with them next school year, I'd have just finished 2 years of full time experience. With Chinese students, no less, but I guess it's still experience to them.

So, here are my questions:

1. What is the demand like for math and physics teachers in DoDDS? Is it enough to warrant hiring someone with as little experience as me?

2. How exactly do I get the EAS system to send an email to a supervisor for a reference form? I've been trying repeatedly and they don't get it in junk or anywhere.

3. Besides DoD, are there other teach-abroad programs that offer retirement pensions?

If anyone has any input for any of these, it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!