Well, I'm not much of a breeder, but I would be happy with, say, 1/2 of my colleagues teaching my hypothetical children. About 1/2 I would be a bit unhappy, because they are lazy and do not give very engaging. (None are so awful I would be terrified or angry, just a bit disappointed). My school is a decently tier-one-ish, at least tier one for the region (Latin America). A lot of the best teachers in the school have gone on to tier one schools in Europe or Asia or Africa, so surely some of the best schools in the world have great teachers?

Another option would be to tutor students at your previous international school. I know some retired teachers from my school, and they tutor maybe 8 hours a week and that gives them maybe a thousand bucks a month. Enough to pay the rent, at least, and if you own your own place, enough to live off of besides vacations/extravagances.

I would agree that I doubt those are "Thai student" problems. It sounds like you need to work on both classroom management and instructional skills. I teach in a country that apparently has much worse behavior than Thailand (this is coming from teachers I know that moved here from Thailand), but I think my students are fine, because I have classroom management skills. Generally speaking half the teachers at my school complain about behavior, and the other half don't, because they know what they are doing.

I don't want to give specifics, but I add about 25% to my income with tutoring.

boss14 wrote:
> How bad is the negativity with co-workers compared to typical office jobs? Wouldn't
> it be less bad because you get to spend 15-20 hours or so teaching instead of in
> your cubicle with potentially hellish coworkers?

If that's how easy you think teaching is you are in for a REAL shock your first day in the classroom!

Having spent a lot of time in hot places, I can say that the techy stuff REALLY stinks quickly, because it doesn't breathe. I would rather be a bit humid and not smell like a dirty sock.

Don't worry about where you are going! I have lived in several countries, many hardship locations, and let me tell you, there's something to like about everywhere.

Let me quote the excellent film "Empire Records":

"I do not regret the things I've done, but those I did not do."
If you don't go, you would always wonder.

When my parents made me move (across country) when I was 14 it RUINED MY LIFE!

Haha, not really. I got over it eventually :) I teach middle schoolers... they sure love hyperbole!

Yep. I work at an embassy school in Latin America, and although it's not paid great, being Latin America, the teachers at my school have the door open to tier one schools. All my colleagues moving on this year got hired at elite tier Asian schools and are going to make bucketloads of money.

At the same time, I agree that there has been a proliferation of lower-tier schools. My country has a few of them, and I'm amazed at how they manage to get teachers. But all the teachers I have met from these schools are just happy to be abroad and not teaching in the US/UK.

I tutor a lot, although obviously not full time. If I tutored full time instead of teaching I would make double my current salary! However, it is a bit soul-sucking as it's the rich of the rich that pay for this, and catering to the whims of rich children can be draining.

A couple things to think about:

First, what tier of school do you work at? I'm guessing that at lower-tier schools a lot of the older teachers are lousy because if they were any good they would have moved somewhere better. Even at my school, tier one for the region but in Latin America so the pay isn't great, the older teachers that we do have often tend to be mediocre, because the best teachers tend to leave eventually to high paying schools in other parts of the world.

Second, many highly experienced teachers might SEEM to have phoned it in are just super relaxed and have everything figured out. I remember my mentor teacher back in my teacher ed program seemed like she didn't give a crap because she never stayed late or seemed stressed. But if you saw her in the classroom, man was she amazing! And her students did really well. I guess if students AREN'T doing well that point doesn't apply though, but that would depend on what tests you are talking about, as some are good and some standardized ones are total BS.

Finally, even if you are right and a lot of experienced teachers are lousy, it seems like a matter of necessity to offer seniority pay. I mean, who is going to want to work somewhere they weren't going to go up a salary scale? Certainly not me. That would be a total deal breaker for me, because I want to increase my savings every year, and I'm also dubious of the whole idea of merit pay to begin with, for some of the reasons wrldtrvlr said.

nathan61 wrote:
> @chilagringa

>
> My experience is that older children are less safe in a dangerous location because
> they are out and about in society much more than very young children. The US State
> Department feels this way as there are posts that only allow children under 5 year
> old.
>

Interesting! I didn't really think about that. Maybe 8-13 would be a sweet spot because they are old enough to weather more problems, but not old enough to be out partying.

See, zenteach gave an opposing opinion that was actually useful!

Personally, as a current non-breeder I would live in Africa in a heartbeat. But zenteach gave some of the reasons I would be wary about SOME locations (not all, of course, being a continent with many countries) for very small children. Personally, I would probably wait until after 8 or 10 to bring my hypothetical children to most locations. Malaria is a bitch but ESPECIALLY for tiny kids.

In a few locations, especially malaria-free ones, I would probably bring my (hypothetical) kids after, say, 5.

I knew a family that lived in Zimbabwe for maybe 4 years. They moved there when the kids were about 6 and 8. They loooooved it there and the kids missed it dreadfully when they left.