On top of that, isn't Singapore one of those countries now taxing tuition benefits? I think some of my friends left because their school offered tuition, but it was now taxed.

The schools I've worked at have all been fine hiring teachers of any color. For them, it's more about good qualifications, experience, and most importantly, the fit. The longer I'm overseas, the more I realize it's how the administrator believes you will work with the current group of teachers s/he already has in that division/grade level/department.

If I were an admin, not favorably at all! I had a student teacher who was doing one of these programs a couple of years ago. I was most unimpressed with the quality of the program and that it would give him a degree that qualified him to teach, especially in comparison to the program I had taken at a university in the States.

Flair pens
Expo dry erase markers
2-3 packs of bulletin board trim (same kind, cause you have no clue the size of the boards you'll have, but they'll really brighten up your room)
2 packs of 4" bulletin board letters cut-outs
My own stapler and tape dispenser (the ones in Asia have wicked-sharp teeth that constantly cut me)
A desk organizer for my pens and whatnot
Books I love and want to read to the kids
A framed picture of my family
One postcards from each of the places I've lived

Ship the stuff you won't need for 2-3 months. Take your necessities in your extra suitcases.

Definitely take:
Sheet sets
good, large towels
over-the-counter medicines for you and your little one

If not counting before school, recess, lunch, or after school "prep" then 3.5 hours/week. This is not counting the "prep" time that is taken up by required team meetings.

Initial flight arranged by all schools we've worked at. HR worked with us to make sure flights would work for us.

Flights in the summers have always been arranged by us. Allowance given, travel agents suggested, but not required. I prefer this, as we can look for flights that depart/arrive at times convenient for us and with layovers that aren't too long.

Flight at end of contracts arranged by schools, with schools working with us for what's convenient for our schedules.

Having your children in the school in which you work is standard. I don't know of anyone who has home schooled their children while teaching overseas. What would that say to other parents (and faculty) in the school? That the school isn't good enough for your children?

I would not mention this in a cover letter or interview. I would go in expecting that tuition is going to be part of the packaged offered to your husband. International schools tend to be very academic, so your advanced child might actually find a challenge in moving to an international school setting.

BJ=Beijing. Though I'd say the same is true for Shanghai, if you're coming in with 7 years experience and an M.A. You're going to start around $60-70,000 USD, and have housing, retirement, and other benefits on top of that. Living well as an expat (not eating noodles every day), it would be easy to save at least $3-4000/month. I know a teaching couple with a child that easily saved $80-90,000/year and took great vacations and ate at expensive restaurants.

"Its unlikely your school will auto deposit into your home bank, I only know of a handful of schools that do it. "

Really? Every school I've worked at, up until my current one, has done this each month. It was super convenient and I find myself really missing that, as it's a hassle to go to the local bank each month to wire money home. My old schools just asked how much we'd like sent to our account in the States, and how much we'd like left our local account.

I'd be interested to know if I just lucked out on previous schools, or if lots of schools auto-deposit to home accounts.

One reason we moved overseas is to pay off our student loans more quickly. We had over $80,000 in loans. We paid them off in less than 4 years, as opposed to the 30-year loan we signed for. Even while paying our school loans off in large sums each month, we always had plenty left over for great vacations, 20% to retirement, and a comfortable life both overseas and summers at home.

Go ahead and head overseas now, not when things are paid off. You'll find yourself able to pay off your loans much more quickly, save more for retirement, and start your IT career. Good luck!

Agreed with Sid. We had a small problem with our account at our credit union and the bank just called my mom, who also banks there, to take care of it. If you like your bank, no reason to change.

For China, a lot of international schools have Christmas off, and then another week or so at Chinese New Year. It could be the schools that are serving more Chinese students skip Christmas and just do Chinese New Year.

Not worth it. If you already have asthma and you have a young child, there are serious health concerns. I also don't think that it's a quality life when you're "managing" the air pollution by staying inside except for your walks to/from school or a store.

One of the main reasons we left Shanghai is because we couldn't justify what we were making financially with the impacts on our family life. Our daughter couldn't go outside and play (well, she could, but with AQI frequently over 200, we didn't want her to.) We started becoming more and more hermit-like, and didn't want to go out to ride bikes, roller skate, take walks, etc. The grey skies for the majority of the days was also depressing. SO many grey skies...so few blue ones.

My husband and I both ended up with Dengue this year, but fortunately it was not as serious as most cases we'd heard of. We got rashes that itched like crazy over our entire bodies, starting from the chest and spreading outwards to fingers and toes. We also had mild headaches, body aches, and extreme tiredness. Again, this was not severe, hospital-needing dengue, which we've had coworkers experience.

We typically do not open windows in the house to avoid most mosquitoes. We also buy electrical plug-in mosquito repellents and wear mosquito patches during the high dengue season. Because dengue mosquitoes are usually out during the day, and we're at work in the a/c, we've been lucky until this year. We also know which ones to watch out for (larger sized, striped, etc) and are vigilant to kill any we see indoors.

Everyone else's responses are right-on. Personally, I think I'd rather have a dengue risk than malaria risk.