PsyGuy wrote:
> @intotheblue
>
> It does sound that way, and can appear that way, especially when talking
> about higher tier ISs, but there are lower third tier ISs and hardship
> regions (and DE) where most IB ITs get there start.
>
> UPe = University of the People
> https://www.uopeople.edu/programs/ed/
>
> You will have completed all the testing requirements for the CA CLEAR
> credential.
>
> Regionally accredited means the IS is accredited by one of the regional
> accreditation organizations such as WASC, however the CTC does tend to be
> selective, and the regional accreditation requirement should be thought of
> as a minimum to get looked at.

@PsyGuy

Thank you very much much for the detailed response again

PsyGuy wrote:
> @intotheblue
>
> The rule is no amount of training equals any amount of experience. No
> certificate is going to substitute for PYP classroom experience, and no
> recruiter or leadership thinks the certificates add value to practice.
>
> There are two type of certificates however for IB and PYP. The most common
> is whats called a workshop certificate. Its essentially 17 or so contact
> hours. Typically, thy are offered over a weekend F2F or online over the
> course of about 4-6 weeks. The F2F ones generally cost a little more, but
> you have travel expenses to contend with that can make them very expensive
> for hat they are. Traditionally the workshop for PYP was the CAT 1 Making
> the PYP Happen (MTPYPH) and while thats still the standard technically any
> workshop thats suitable for age level and role will meet the IB PD
> requirements.
>
> The other type of certificate is called a "Teaching and Learning"
> certificates, these are typically offered as part of degree programs at
> various Unis. They are seriously expensive, though UPe offers a Masters
> program that is about USD$2600, which is comparable to hat you could spend
> just on travel and course fees alone for a weekend F2F workshop.
>
> The year went by way to fast. The Masters requirement for the CA CLEAR
> credential is no longer relevant anymore. CA revised the CLEAR credential
> requirements last year which went into effect in January 2019. You no
> longer need the advanced education requirement (neither the Masters, a 150
> hr Bachelors or 15o hrs of PD) to obtain the CLEAR credential.
>
> You will need to take the Praxis Core Academic Skills to meet the basic
> skills requirement, and complete two years of full time teaching experience
> in a regionally accredited IS. Your DC ESOL credential will meet the ELL
> requirement. You will thus qualify for a multiple subjects teaching
> credential (for primary) and a single subjects credential in World
> Language: English Language Development (all level).

@PsyGuy

Thank you for the detailed response again. I understand that no amount of training equals any amount of experience.
However, I am beginning to wonder how I can acquire IB experience in the first place, because it seems like all IB schools only hire teachers with at least 2 years of IB experience in the first place.

As for Teaching and Learning certificates, may I ask you what UPe stands for? Is it University of Pennsylvania? If so, somehow I couldn't really find IB certificate program on their graduate school of education website.

Lastly, I already completed Praxis Core, Praxis Elementary Multiple sujbects, Praxis ESOL and Praxis PLT. Then, have I already met the praxis requirement for CA? Also, what makes a regionally accredited International school? Does the school need to be officially recognized as IS in its country, or does it just need to be accredited by agencies such as WASC?
I am asking this, because in South Korea, there seems to be a lot of pseudo international school considered as just academies by the Korean Department Education, but are accredited by WASC and send their kids to top US, UK universities with no problem.

Thank you

PsyGuy wrote:
> @DomeVet
>
> Unfortunately PMs are disabled for the forum, you will have to post it
> publicly for the readership.
>
> @intotheblue
>
> That will make it easier for you to find PD, but there are lots of
> associations, unions, DOEs and other organizations that have various
> options for PD online that you can do anywhere in the world. It is work, it
> is more effort being an IT, and there is a cost in coin to do it.
>
> Having a US credential is going to slightly give you a benefit in applying
> to the US NC ISs that have partnership agreements with US DSs that require
> a US credential for their ITs. There is also some preference within IE for
> UK trained ITs at BSs, and US trained ITs at ASs. The latter tends to be
> more of an issue at SLL and in upper secondary, that is last of a barrier
> for an ESOL or Primary IT. At primary getting IB in PYP is far more
> important in terms of marketability and utility than having a US or UK
> credential. As far as ESOL is concerned there are ISs that have a
> preference for the British and for American voice, but thats not going to
> be relevant to you not being an American or British, you cant really do
> much with what you look and sound like.
> If youre arent going to focus on ASs and your not going to branch into
> other teaching areas, than there probably isnt a lot of benefit to you in
> maintaining the DC credential once your QTS is issued.
>
> Another option to renal is mutual recognition, about 6 months before your
> DC credential expires you just transfer it to another state (Hawaii would
> be my recommendation) that would get you another 5 years. Hopefully within
> that time (9 years total) you would have a Masters and be able to apply for
> the CA CLEAR credential and that credential does not require PD to renew.

@PsyGuy

Thank you very much for your reply again.

Based on your response, I would like to ask you few more questions, if you don't mind

1. How do I get IB in PYP? Is there a certificate? If so, is it possible to attain it online as well?

2. By meaning Masters, does it have to be specifically Maters of Education? I have a Masters of Arts in non-education, but the major was offered through a graduate school of education.
If it has to be a Masters relevant to education, does it have to be Masters of Education or can it be Masters of Arts or Science in education relevant field? (e.g. MSC IN APPLIED LINGUISTICS FOR LANGUAGE TEACHING). Also, does the masters have to be from US? The MSC program I mentioned above is a program offered at Oxford, which I have been interested in for a while now.

Thank you

PsyGuy wrote:
> @intotheblue
>
> In response to your inquiries:
>
> 1) Yes, leave the registration number blank, as you dont have a
> registration number with OSSE
> 2) Standard Teacher Certification
> 3) DC Office of State Superintendent of Education
> 4) Yes, you can select ages 5-19
> 5) Yes, write Elementary education and for TESOL write "EAL"
> 6) Yes, this is the letter I was referencing earlier. Send an email to OSSE
> asking for a letter on their letterhead and signed by the chancellor with
> their seal on it. Be sure to include all the requirements described in the
> QTS application website. Send it to them and ask for them to send you a
> scanned copy and place the original in the post to you. Hopefully if they
> do that you should have the letter in a couple weeks if you do it now,
> since this is a slow time for their office. The term for this letter is a
> "verification letter of good standing".

@PsyGuy

Thank you very much for your answers. Teach-Now says that they will soon launch online PD courses to help their alumni to renew DC license. I am non-American, so there is literally 0% that I would teach in the States. In such case, is it worth renewing DC license every 4 years to work strictly in international schools in East Asia? In these countries, will having an active DC license give me an advantage over having a QTS?

Thank you

PsyGuy wrote:
> Thats normal, the current credentials dont have a license number on them.
> You have an educator number in ECIS. Just put N/A or 0 on the application,
> the vast majority of application have non checked free text entry fields,
> you can put anything in them (I personally like to use 愛綺麗可愛い蝶 if it will
> accept kanji characters).
>
> DCs renewal can be difficult, but its easier than some states. For DC you
> need 180 contact hours (120 for the primary credential and an additional 60
> for the ESOL). These can be obtained by coursework (1 US credit hour or
> unit is equal to 15 contact hours), but you an also use PD provided by
> various educational and professional organizations. Uni credit would easily
> work, so would IB workshops, and there are a lot of other organizations
> that have online content, they just have to give you some form of digital
> certificate that you can submit. Being a US citizen doesnt change the
> requirements, but for those working outside the US and outside of DE it can
> be harder and more expensive to get the required PD.
>
> Mutual recognition of a credential in CAN isnt just one system, each
> provincial regulating authority has their own requirements. Many of them
> wont issue a credential if you do not have an offer of employment in the
> province, some of them do, BC (British Columbia) is one of them. However,
> one commonality of CAN in their credentialing system is that they are based
> entirely on Uni credit and coursework. In addition to a bachelors or first
> degree in some subject they require an academic or traditional EPP/ITT
> pathway. In addition you will need recent teaching experience.
>
> QTS in the UK is far easier. The portal to apply with the TCL is:
>
> https://teacherservices.education.gov.u ... ecognition
>
> The application takes maybe 15 minutes, and then the process takes about 2
> weeks, though because your certificate is from DC and they dont have a
> virtual database portal you may need a letter from the DC OSSE, and that
> could take some time. Its relatively painless though.

@PsyGuy

Thank you very much for the reply.
I looked into QTS application, and I had some questions to ask you, if you don't mind.

-Registration number: I would leave it as blank since DC doesn't issue a license number?

-Title of qualification under Name of Teacher Qualification: What do I put here?

-Name of the institution: Do I write Teach-Now or OSSE?

-Age trained to teach: If I got Elementary Ed (1-6) and TESOL Endorsement (p-12), may I select 5-19 for the age range?

-Subjects trained to teach: Do I write both subjects here using the same subject names for DC?

-On the Supporting Information section, a following statement can be found:
"If the recognising body does not provide an on-line checking service please upload a letter from them that confirms your status as a fully recognised teacher and that you are not barred or subject to any restrictions to teach in that country. We can only accept documents in pdf or jpeg formats."

Is this the letter you were talking about? In order to get this letter, do I simply contact OSSE and ask for a letter that confirms my status as a fully recognized teacher? May I ask you if you know the exact name of the letter I should request?

Thank you very much for your help

Hi PsyGuy,

I finally got my D.C Teaching license in Elementary Education and TESOL (Endorsement).
However, I can't seem to find a license number on the paper. Is this normal? I believe many schools ask for it on the job application form. If there is one, where may I find it?

Also, I heard it is difficult to renew D.C. license as an non-American citizen living outside of the States. Therefore, before my license gets expired after four years, I was thinking of transferring my license to either Canada or UK to get a permanent license without having to worry about the renewal.

May I ask you the appropriate steps I need to take, specifically for UK (QTS)?

Also, I heard it is more difficult to transfer the license to Canada if an applicant does not have a Bachelor's degree in Education. Is this true?

Thank you

PsyGuy wrote:
> @intotheblue
>
> All the rational means nothing. Your EPP/ITT program recommended you for
> Elementary so your initial credential is elementary.
>
> Select all grades education, but technically endorsements are added to an
> initial credential and the all grades education is the only available
> age/grade range for ESOL for an initial credential in ESOL. The ESOL wont
> make any difference to the TCL, its English Language subject and its all
> grade levels thats easy. The primary credential is the more tricky one. In
> England years 1-6 are KS1 and KS2 its very neat except for EC/EY (Nursery
> and Reception), which your credential doesnt include, because DC has a
> separate EC credential. The TCL can pretty much put whatever they want in
> those fields, they are free text entry. They could give you ages 3-5 they
> may not. None of this is important if you dont care, and an IS may care or
> may not, but its yet another test to have to consider taking. Regardless
> whichever one you choose (Endorsement or All Grades Education), OSSE will
> just correct the data fields in the application to what they think it
> should be. Its not going to effect the DC credential.
> So getting really deep into it you were prepared/trained as an
> elementary/primary DT, you added ESOL by examination, there are regulating
> authorities that will only recognize the EPP/ITT subject program
> credential (meaning elementary), but you cant do anything about it.
>
> You can apply for QTS as soon as you get the primary credential, and then
> request the ESOL be added to your QTS fields (there is room for 2), but
> doing them together with the initial application will likely take less time
> than requesting a manual update and review to add the ESOL field in the
> future. The TCLs focus is getting you reviewed and getting QTS issued, the
> teaching fields a much lower priority. The teaching fields only show up on
> your profile, they arent printed on your QTS certificate. They play a role
> when assigning faculty to teaching roles in maintained DSs, but technically
> QTS is all grades and all subjects, its recognition you have the
> professional training in education meds/peds/asst.


@PsyGuy

Thank you very much for your help

PsyGuy wrote:
> Youre maybe going to have to submit two applications. Back when it was a
> paper application, you could complete separate applications but send them
> together in an envelope and a credentialing specialist would figure out
> what your trying to do. Now with an electronic application you dont have a
> credential to add an endorsement too and while its supposed to work (your
> supposed to just be able to click the subject areas you want to add, and
> then upload everything, but its been buggy for a rather long time). If you
> already had a credential it works a lot more reliably adding multiple
> credentials, but for the initial credential, it has problems. However, it
> doesnt hurt to try if you can get it to work, than you can do it. Just
> complete the application add primary 1-6 and ESOL P-12 and upload all the
> documents for both credentials.

Thank you very much for the reply. I started working on the electronic application, and I would like to ask you a question for clarification.

If I choose Elementary Education as my first teaching subject, then do I select English as a second language "endorsement" or "All Grades Education"? Do second subjects usually get added as "endorsement" if I didn't do additional practicum in that field but just passed the relevant Praxis test?
It's bit ambiguous, because although I did my practicum in an elementary classroom, all the students were Asians whose first language was not English.

Moreover, I plan to get QTS after I get my DC license. Should I get QTS only after I get a certificate in both elementary education and ESOL?

Thank you

Hi,

I have just completed my Teach-Now program and I have all my documents ready including the Praxis test results.
On the DC OSSE form that I got from Teach-Now, it states Elementary Education (1-6) under Program Area of Preparation.

However, I also took and passed Praxis ESOL (p-12) which I would like to add as a second teachable subject.

In such case, can I initially apply to both subject areas even if my OSSE form only includes "Elementary Education (1-6)" ?
Or, do I have to first only apply to Elementary Education (1-6) and then add ESOL (p-12) after I receive a teaching certificate?

Thank you

Hi all,

I recently had a pre-screening phone interview by one of the school directors.

The interviewed last about 20 minutes and he told me that there would be two more rounds of interviews with different interviewers after this first one. He said he will probably get back to me (about the first interview result) after two weeks since there is a long holiday coming up in the country that the school is located in.

Anyway, almost immediately after the interview he sent me a short thank you e-mail, even before I sent mine.
He thanked me for my time and said he looks forward to connecting again soon.

I know it's the norm for candidates to send thank you e-mails to the interviewers, but I haven't really heard of an interviewer sending a thank you e-mail first to a candidate.
Is this not uncommon thing for international schools?

I don't think I did too poorly on the interview, but I also think I didn't do too well.
I am bit worried if this is a bad sign as the interviewer may think that he doesn't want to even consider me, thus sending his e-mail first to completely forget about me after the interview.

Thank you

@psyguy

Thank you very much for the detailed explanation.

Few more things to ask if you don't mind.

First of all, what is Acme AS? and what is ES?

After I acquire the DC certificate through Teach-Now, will that prepare me to get a teaching job in South Korea in conjunction with McGill degree despite Teach Now being online program? I am bit worried, because I heard there are many international schools that look down on online programs and disregard them.

Also, it seems like most international schools in South Korea require "2 years" of experience. Where would I get this at a proper international school in the first place, when everyone is looking for 2 years of experience here?
I do have 1.5 yrs of teaching experience at a bilingual school, but I guess that doesn't count since it was from bilingual school, not international school that didn't even require teaching certificate from English teachers?


Like you said, I like the relatively low cost and distance learning format at Oxford. I think these factors are great and this is why I am mostly interested in this program. However, I learned that this program may be extremely competitive to get in because they only have 10 spots for candidates each year.

If I fail to get into one of the "Ivy" schools you mention (Stanford, Oxford, Cambridge. Again, there is no suitable program for me at Harvard or Yale), would you say getting a masters degree fro Columbia or University of Toronto is still worth it compared to having only Bachelor's degree from McGill + teach now certificate?
Again, my concern is not being able to get a job at 2nd tier or 1st tier schools due to the fact that I don't have a formal education related degree except for online degree program (teach now).

And out of curiosity... Is the "Ivy" status essentially defined by layman's prestige?
If so, I can see why Princeton wasn't included on the list you mentioned, and understand why there is so much gap between Oxford and Columbia, when they are both considered as excellent schools in academia.

@PsyGuy

Thank you for the reply.

Then may I ask you what schools in the States are considered as "Ivy" in IE, other than Harvard and Yale?
Would you say Stanford is considered as "Ivy" ?

Yale, Princeton, and MIT don't have any masters program that I am interested in, so applying to these schools are pointless.

Also, I assume Oxford is considered as "Ivy". They offer an online masters degree in TESOL. If I get a master's degree from here, would I still be able to benefit from the "Ivy" status despite it being online program due to the prestige that comes along with Oxford?

At last, I was kind of surprised to hear from you that McGill is typically considered as "Ivy" in IE. I actually have a bachelor's degree from McGill. Although it's one of the top schools in Canada, I think it's nowhere as prestigious as some US schools including Columbia, Upenn, John's Hopkins, ULCA, etc to the perception of people in Canada or East Asia.

If my goal is to get a job in first tier school (if there is any, in South Korea) or at least in 2nd tier school,
would you say Bachelor's degree in BA is enough? I didn't major in education though, and that's why I was asking you about Teach Now previously. I felt like getting teacher certificate form Teach Now plus McGill degree simply wouldn't be enough to get a good chance of getting a job in first tier/second tier schools. For this reason, I was considering of getting a education masters degree from top schools.

With that in mind, what option below would you say is the best? Of course, everything is on the premise that I would be admitted to these schools.

1. Get Teach Now (elementary certificate) on top of my McGill degree
2. Get Teach Now (elementary certificate) + Online Masters degree in TESOL from Oxford
3. Get Masters degree from Stanford or Columbia in elementary education (Harvard only has masters in secondary education)

*I considered of getting Masters degree in elementary education from University of Toronto, but although it costs a lot cheaper than US schools, it takes 2 years to complete the program whereas US schools only take 1 year.

Thank you

Hi Psyguy,

I somehow came across some of the older posts and noticed that you occasionally mention "Ivy" status and marketability.
Essentially, it seems like you said a masters is masters unless you get one from Ivy.

By "Ivy", you often seem to refer to schools such as Harvard, Yale, OxBridge (UK), McGill (CAN), Sorbonne (EU), etc.

I am sure you are aware that the actual Ivy schools on the above list are Harvard and Yale, but Yale actually doesn't offer education degree since it has no graduate school of education.

The only schools in actual Ivy league that offer a masters degree in education are Harvard, Columbia and Penn.

Harvard is Harvard, and it would be great to have it on my resume, but it is also the most difficult to get in.
If I get in to Columbia, would you say it will also give me the "Ivy" status and would you say it's worth the money?
Or would you say it's brand is simply not up there despite it being an actual member of Ivy League schools?

I plan to work in South Korea or Singapore.

Thank you

Hi,

I am about to start the teach now program and I have a questions about taking Praxis PLT exam.
I passed praxis core and praxis subject test before starting the program on my first try.

Is it possible to take the Praxis PLT exam in the middle of the teach now program?

My program would end in January, so I am thinking of taking it in late July or early August and then in December in case I don't pass it on my first try.

In other words, is it possible fail PLT exam on the first try and take it multiple times?
I know I would be still in the middle of the program, but I bought myself a prep book for PLT and there seems to be online prep classes for this specific exam, so I would use those resources to prepare for the exam and try taking it in the middle of the teach now program instead of waiting until the end.

Thank you

@PsyGuy

Thank you very much. Have a nice day.