The one course is Theory of Knowledge, which I have taught before. Mainly I am a social studies teacher, but I've taught a lot of different stuff. Moving into an instructional coach and/or curriculum development role in future (like DP or MYP coordinator) is appealing to me, so I guess we'll see!

sid wrote:
> Should be fine. Even long term admin sometimes move back to the classroom
> just because they want to.
> But be advised, you might just want to stay admin!

Lol, yeah well that wouldn't be a problem obviously!

I am in the running for a curriculum coordinator position, which is combined with teaching one course. I am very excited about the prospect of doing curriculum development, particularly as they have the IB diploma program, but I don't plan to move into administration in the long term. How might this look on my CV in the future? Would several years mostly out of the classroom, but doing curriculum development, along with some coaching and leading professional development, have any downsides? I don't imagine so, but I'm curious.

global_nomad wrote:
> I had this exact same situation happen to me 15 years ago with a Tier 1
> school. I was in my 20s, a young educator with only a few years experience,
> and I was just trying to break into international education. After
> exchanging a couple of emails, instead of a phone interview, they requested
> that I fly to them at my own expense. I simply couldn't afford it at that
> point in my life. Very reluctantly, I sat down and wrote the following
> email (thinking I was losing my big chance at breaking into a fantastic
> international school), which I am glad I saved:
>
> Thank-you for the quick reply. As I mentioned before, I am VERY interested
> in the (specific teaching) position. I believe I would be a good fit at
> (1st tier international school). However,I didn't realize that I would need
> to fly over to (1st tier international school) to interview in person at my
> expense.
>
> Nonetheless, I researched airfares through travel agents and via the web,
> and have not found any reasonable airfares for the weekend of June 9th.
> They are quite expensive due to the short notice. I am hesitant to take on
> this type of expense when I have not even been offered a job. Is there any
> other alternative you would consider in lieu of me traveling to (fantastic
> city where the IS is located) at my expense? Would (the Director of
> school) consider traveling to (my city) for the interview?
>
> I look forward to hearing from you soon.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Young, Naive Teacher
>
> I find it particularly hilarious that I asked if the Director would fly to
> ME for the interview! LOL! I was lucky they were desperate to fill the
> position as it was June already. They eventually backed down and settled
> for a couple of phone interviews.

Wait...you got the job in the end?!

I have a lot of gaps in employment, or short stints, on my resume. The reasons are all legit and will not be an issue in future (grad school, my now ex-husband getting transferred, maternity, etc.), I even have references from these schools. I commonly get asked about this in interviews, but I imagine this might mean I don't even make it to the interview in some cases. Should I include some kind of explanation about this on my CV? If so, how? All the info is in my Search profile, but I get the impression Heads don't read that very carefully.

I know I can just Google around, but what decent schools in Europe are not on Search or one of the other big recruitment agencies? Most likely this will be all Tier 2/3, I guess? There are a TON of schools in Germany, for example. Bonus points if they recruit non-EU passport holders. Anyone?

expatscot wrote:
> "is pro-active in taking over lessons and activities from teachers who
> are absent without having been replaced yet"
>
> That doesn't sound positive.

Yeah I noticed that part! I think PsyGuy's take is correct.

Yikes.

Thanks for the advice everyone. I need to write the MS head back anyway to say thank you, and I don't have the contact info for any other admin, so I will ask if I can contact them closer to the fair about a time slot.

I have been contacted about a possible position as a "pedagogical advisor" at a school in Europe. I am having a hard time figuring out what that means, seems like a combination between a counselor and a glorified substitute? I plan to ask for more information, any ideas in the mean time? I should note that I am not a school counselor.

The pedagogical advisor:
• is a counselor and a confidential advisor for all students,
• plays a central role in the induction of new students,
• advises the students about their homework, their subject choices and their study skills,
• makes sure that students respect the school rules and reports students who do not act according to the rules to the responsible member of the school management,
• is pro-active in taking over lessons and activities from teachers who are absent without having been replaced yet or who cannot be present in their class for another reason,
• has an essential responsibility in the supervision of the students, inside and outside the school building,
• understands the needs of the students where it concerns counseling on aspects of school life and personal, social life,
• sees the absolute priority of immediate acting in case of any situation in which a student is excluded or treated in a negative way by other students,
• has an antenna for problems that occur in the behavior and the performance of the students and takes the time for listening to the students,
• has the necessary skills to administer and report the results of her/his activities; up-to-date knowledge of ICT is a prerequisite,
• is available as the first ‘Ansprechspartner’ in the school in the variety of situations where teachers and students are confronted with and acts in an efficient and communicative way towards all parties involved,
• reports regularly to the school management about all the facts and developments in the daily life of the Secondary School; procedures to be established together with the responsible member of the school management.

Today I was contacted by a school, I think they found me in the Search database. The middle school principal asked me which fairs I would be attending and I told him I will be at Cambridge. He invited me to "reach out" to the head and HS principals at the fair, since he won't be there. I know I should be trying to get a specific spot/time, should I maybe email the middle school principal again about that? I imagine closer to the actual fair would be better as it's still 2.5 months away.

Also, are school tours a thing, as a teacher? I'm going to be in the Netherlands for winter break, and wouldn't mind checking out some of the IS there (assuming they are open), even though I am sure they would not hire me at this point.

So, in the middle of a meeting just now I was told that I will be teaching Science next semester because "no one else can do it." Yikes.

Yeah, and the only reason I agreed to do the science in the first place was as a favor to the school because the science teacher left in the middle of the year. This year I also teach two completely different courses to two different groups of kids, in the same room, at the same time. As you can imagine, there are a plethora of other horror stories I could tell, but I'd be getting too specific and outing myself I think. Believe it or not, this principal is actually quite a step up from the previous one, who resigned and left from one day to the next in the middle of last year!

I'm in the third tier because until recently I was a trailing spouse, and couldn't follow job leads. Even so, in the past I was offered several very good jobs at great schools, but had to decline them because I knew I would be moving shortly. My previous school was an upper tier 2. Where I live now there is only one IS, and it is terrible.

I agree that while being out of primary for a while is a disadvantage, it shouldn't be a killer, especially considering my PYP training and experience, I've even led some in-house PD on inquiry. I was surprised about my associate's response, which is why I posted.

I think I wasn't clear in my original post, I currently teach all secondary grades, including . The issue is I don't have full DP experience (2 years teaching the same course), just a year teaching Grade 11 ToK. I agree that I need to specialize, that is my professional goal for the next 5 years.

What is SLL?

I'm a secondary social science teacher, I also have a license for English. In the past my school has asked me to teach Grade 7-9 math (I said no to Grade 9), PE (did it) and Grade 8 science (I said no but then gave in with the stipulation that I would not teach it again). So, as you can see I'm pretty flexible, I have to be because my school is seriously tiny, but there is a limit. The night before I returned to school this year, I received an email stating I would be teaching mostly MS science courses, and two different social science courses during the same hour to two different groups of kids, among other disconcerting changes that I won't get into. I told the principal I was going to quit unless he gave me the courses I was supposed to be teaching. I'm a single mother of a toddler, I've lived and taught all over and in some pretty sketchy schools, so please understand that threatening to quit (and leave the country) was a very huge deal to me. My principal backtracked, sort of, however I actually don't know what I will be teaching next semester. Between that and some other ridiculous occurrences this year and last, obviously I will be moving on as soon as it is feasible...