Thank you for the responses.

1. True. They have all been very different experiences.

2. I started to feel the burnout last year, to be honest.

3. The students are awesome. Actually, in reference to #2, a large part of the burnout is from parents and, as far as parents, just a small minority. Some are awesome (20%), most are there for the major school events and that is it (70 or 75%) but there are the occasional ones (5 or 10%) who really become exhausting and sadly, those occasional ones take up way too much energy, at least for me personally.

As far as students, just in this past week I've enjoyed conversations with students who have reflected on their favorite assignments from the year such as a recycling project I did with them or past tense photo album. One student told me I was his "best teacher friend in the school" and two other students left me very beautiful notes. I was amazed at how insightful the letters were considering they are in 5th grade.

In the previous school my wife worked in high school and an 11th grader with a history of aggression nearly broke her arm. The lack of response from admin really disgusted me and really marred the rest of the year. I was ready to quit the day of the incident and talked to my wife about my intention, assuming she was ready to quit too. To my shock, she actually convinced me to stay and she wanted to finish the contract too. This year I have had a difficult relationship with another member of admin, as I mentioned before, which I think is another reason for the burnout (admin the past two years).

4. I see what you mean. But at the same time I wanted to make sure I was doing things according to the philosophy of the school. Every school has those little differences. Or in some cases really big, for example, a few years ago I worked at a Choice Theory school and I was very vocal in letting admin know "This is my first experience with choice theory, please visit my class early and often to make sure I am implementing this theory properly in class." That was an extreme example but I feel like first year teachers should be observed at least once a month for the first few months to make sure they are adapting to the school culture and how things are done. Or at least observed more often than vets. Maybe I need to be more confident in my abilities but I also prefer to let admin know I am transparent more than fishing for anything.

5. Thanks for the input on point 5. There was one member of admin who was awesome to talk to, which was a huge positive. Just someone who would listen to me vent and offered great advice.

6. Thank you for your point of view on point number 6!

7. Oh I know! Sorry if I gave information to the contrary. One of the things I enjoyed in my last job was how independent we all were and how everyone was cool with that. I know not everyone can be your friend and, in fact, I feel like one thing some teachers did not like about me at this school was I liked to grade and plan by myself. I mean, I would check in with them when needed, share resources and check quizzes they made (and vis versa) but largely just preferred the silence of my class compared to the library where there was more talking than planning.

Well, thank you for all that you said. I don't think I remembered every point so sorry if I missed responding to something specific.

Just ignore them.

I try to become close to a few teachers, 3 to 5, at every school I go to. It helps a lot.

Hello everyone!

This year I have made the difficult choice to leave teaching. I have been in the field for 12 years and I have taught in the USA and four other countries. It has been an interesting journey but I feel burned out, like I don't have the energy for this anymore. I am looking at starting a business with my wife in her home country, we will try to run a hotel her father built.

I started to think about leaving the field in February and the feeling has intensified with each passing week. I sat down with my wife and told her how I felt in late March but I think she knew before I even opened my mouth. Thank goodness she was open to the idea of me leaving teaching. I would be a liar if I said I am not nervous, I am very scared but I am also hopeful and her support helps a lot!

As I said, this has been a difficult year. I have been observed for a grand total of TWENTY MINUTES. Yes, you read that right, 20 minutes between August and today. If this is my first year at the school, I don't understand how that is possible. I never got feedback on those 20 minutes either. I have pleaded with members of admin to come to one of my classes, stopping short of begging. I told them I want to improve, I want to be transparent and my door is always open. Give me 5 minutes warning, I don't care, COME! Come to my class, please! I tagged members of admin in google calendar. Nada. Why would a teacher so desperate for feedback receive nothing in return? I think around March I realized I was not going to get what I wanted, feedback, and I became more firm in my decision to leave the field.

I see the agony in the faces of teachers who have not been told, one way or the other, if they are coming back next year or not. I sense it in the air, it is a stressful atmosphere. I feel like it is very unfair that some teachers still don't know. The school started to offer contracts for next year (which starts in August) in March. Other teachers were offered in April, others in May but some still do not know! Not to sound selfish, but it has strengthened my resolve that I am making the correct choice. I don't have the patience to play that game, not anymore. No one really knows why contract renewals are done that way. Some think it is based on seniority but there is no evidence that is the case.

There is a lot more I could say, including a member of admin who is only negative with me but that is not the point of the post, despite my rantings. I would love to hear from ex-teachers. How was the transition out of teaching? What do you do now? What advice can you offer? Thank you for any advice you can give!

Maybe they see it as a victory, maybe they don't, I don't know and quite frankly I do not care. For me at least, it turned out to be a victory in the long run to get out of a place that operates that way. It was quite clear they do not have experience dealing with foreigners (and I was the only one there at the time I was working). The only shame is the kids were super confused as to why I was going, many pleaded with me to stay and I know when they saw me months later at a local mall, they were still super excited to see me. I do it for the kids. I keep to myself otherwise and do not always play the games that some staff want to play (like gossip or complain, etc.). I just prefer to take my stuff, hide away and grade, plan, etc. away from that. I guess not gossiping or choosing to do my own thing is not fitting in, in THAT school culture but other schools will respect a teachers right to do their own thing. So that was a victory to me IMO.

Maybe it would have been easy for them to give me bulletins but I am not so sure and I have no way of knowing because they never gave me even one. It is an official paper, signed after a meeting is held about it. I know they can only be for certain things and must include proof. Again, I just did not get any, that is the thing.

Not my father, my father in law! I guess you bring up a good point though, I guess they could have called the police but not sure they would escort him, maybe they would have, who knows, impossible to know now. Maybe my wife has more insight into the possibility of that happening and perhaps I can ask her for my own edification.

No consequences for the school unless I decide to write a review ;).

No. According to labor laws of the country I was in and the actual contract as well, they do indeed need just cause with legit reasons. To fire someone requires a process that starts with giving the employee a bulletin, in other words a written document that states admin grievances towards the teacher, signed by the employee once a meeting has taken place to set up a plan of correction based on that bulletin. 3 bulletins are required before someone can be fired for cause. I did not have a single bulletin, written documentation of grievances, and not smiling is not a reason to get a bulletin, more serious transgressions are required. A paper trail is required to show admin made every step possible to change the situation in case the person dismissed decides to take it to the labor board. When my father in law was in that meeting they were shaking in their boots, they knew they were wrong, sweating bullets, etc. When they got rid of me without just cause they were counting on this idea that I was just another naive foreigner who would not (or would not know how to) fight back or that I would assume it was just the way the country was. After that meeting it was clear I could have sued. I later found out after talking to local teachers that other teachers have successfully done so as the labor board in this country are very pro-worker. The school not having any paper trail would have made it very easy for me to win. As soon as they saw what my father in law knew what he was talking about they offered a generous severance package and a note admitting there was no just cause, instead it was a dismissal without cause. My goal was not to hurt the school and by extension, possibly the students, the only ones I actually cared about as far as the school was concerned (well, and a few cool teachers).

Can a company fire you for any reason (in this country)? Sure, but they better be prepared to POSSIBLY deal with the fall out if they do not follow proper procedure and the person being impacted knows what they are doing or knows someone who does. In the end, a legit school will follow proper procedure to cover their butts and either provide bulletins outlining grievances, grievances that are accepted by the labor board, or just not renew the contract at the end. Ya, you can be fired for some dumb reason, without documents, etc. and the school can continue operating that way but eventually that comes back to bite you IMO. If not me, perhaps the next person will sue. Perhaps I should have sued to prevent a next but at the time I wanted to move on ASAP from the negativity. Hopefully they at least do things properly from now on, but who knows..would not be shocked if they tried the same thing in the future.

Question: Is it worth posting a review on a school over workplace negativity? I am not sure, as there were some positives to the place too. Any way, the negativity came from the fact that a lot of the local teachers spent a lot of their free time in a general space for all employees (kind of like an employee lounge but solely for working) gossiping and complaining about this and that (and sometimes other teachers). IMO the issue comes from the fact that admin either seems oblivious to this fact or knows about it and does not care. Both are bad for different reasons IMO but do not equal a positive work environment no matter what. This is the same school from another post I made that tells teachers if they are coming back (or not) on the last day of school/last day of the contract (both are the same day). They also don't have teachers sign a contract until like February or early March for some odd reason. At least the two years I was there.

To put that last point in perspective, the school year starts August 1 for teacher, 2 or 3 weeks later for students, ends June 30 for teachers, early June for students. I signed both contracts (this year and next year) before I even arrived to my current job, as a comparison.

This was my first IS experience but I am starting to realize there were some things that were off. The students perform very well but are pushed a lot and by some measures (that the school seems to selectively advertise) are top 3 in a country chalk full of ISs.

I do not see any edit function. I should specify that the last day of school is June 30th and/or the last Friday of June every year. I had asked about my fate in April. I realized the way I worded the story might be confusing as far as the time line.

Hi,

I was wondering what people thought of this and if it was normal because, well, maybe it is. A few years ago I worked at an IS, a very good school for the most part. Any way, around March I started to get nervous, wondering if I was doing a good job. I wanted to come back for a second year and was literally losing sleep over it, wondering if I would be invited back. So by April I worked up the courage (I can be shy too) to ask the head of school if the school wanted me back. Within a week she got back to me telling me I would be coming back.

I thought that is what any teacher would do to secure their future. Apparently not. On the last day of work (the 30th of the month) I learned that admin meets up with everyone, 1 by 1, and tell them if they are coming back or not for the next year. Of course, I already knew. But I watched as some teachers would exit the office dejected (others relieved) depending on the fate. Is it normal for a school to wait until the very last day of the contract to let employees know if they are coming back or not? I assume I did something abnormal because no other teacher asked before the last day but I think it is unfair because it gives the teacher 4-6 weeks to scramble and try to find something before the new school year starts. Usually by July 1 it is way too late to secure anything! At another school I worked at in the country they at least let you know about a month ahead of time, sometime in May. I suppose the first school might give the reason that if people find out their fates a month early they might mail it in or just quit. I can actually see both sides, to be honest.

I was blindsided once. I was not given a reason and I did not get a response when asking for one. Not until my father in law, a resident of the country as well, came in and basically got it out of them. He was really fed up with how I was treated and wanted to stand up for me so I agreed. He is very convincing, jack of all trades kind of guy and very diplomatic in the meeting itself despite how mad he was outside of it.

In the end we figured out that *gasp* there was "no just cause" and after I got the letter stating as much I went to see the coordinator once more to see if I could get some kind of detailed answer. I regret it because more or less it was "smile more" (and I admit I am not one for fake smiles or shallow displays of emotion). Basically I was too stoic, not enough smiles around campus. Which should not matter if you are doing your job, which I was. I had trouble with a few kids but most of them really liked me (months after I left the school a half dozen students from the school saw me in the mall and were so happy to see me). As a teacher, if you see me around campus you would likely say that I am focused, neutral and lost in my own mind (thinking about some activity or lesson plan, etc.). I guess some could claim I am aloof. Regardless, I did not know that not smiling (enough) was a reason to blindside someone without cause. The more I think about it, the more I think I should sign up for the paid site even if money is tight and really outline the experience in greater detail.

My point is, I suppose, if you were to ask for a reason you would likely get something stupid like I did. Even if they do not provide a reason, it is likely because they have no solid reason and that there is "no just cause." That says a lot.

Happened to me about 4 years ago in late June. I remember setting up two interviews for two different schools: One on Monday, one on Friday, both in person. For the first school the coordinator actually picked me up at a nearby mall and drove me to the school (IB). It was a quick interview, very simple and they hired me on the spot. I don't think it lasted more than an hour! It was for sure a last minute hire (late June for an early August start) as every other co-worker I talked to later in the year said the hiring process was much more difficult when they went through the process. But hey, it proves even great schools (one of the best in the country) have last minute openings. For sure I was in the right place at the right time!

Any way, when I got home I emailed the second school and told them that I had been hired by the first school, sorry, etc. Well, two years later I got back in touch with the first school. They actually remembered me and invited me to an interview. The first interview was at a coffee shop in a mall of all places, but the second was much more rigorous and lasted half the day at the school. I had a third interview at another coffee shop, much easier, and was finally hired at the end of the interview. It was with the owner and I am pretty sure it was a meeting simply to give me an offer.

The next school I worked at I had applied to probably twice in previous years without so much as a response and it seems the third time was the charm as I was finally invited to an interview and psych test, a second interview and finally the offer.

Long story short, I would not be shocked if they had some recollection but at the same time, admin changes quickly, especially HR, so maybe not.

I don't think you would have much of an issue depending on where you look in the world and if you are flexible. I was hired by a very good IB school in South America, one of the best in the country. Prior to that I only had 2.5 years experience as a teachers aide at a Pre-K, 2 years experience at one of the best Pre-Ks in the city as a co-lead and 2 years experience at a UNI in China. I have a BA but no masters (yet).

The IB school took a chance on me and I stayed for 2 years. I learned a lot and it helped me to grow as a teacher. You never know until you try and I do not think things are always as complicated as they are made out to be.

Well, sadly I don't have $29 to spend for a few opinions on one school. Things are tight these days.

Hi,

I signed up to see if I could find information on a specific school but I see there is no information here. Are there any other websites you might recommend to learn more about a specific school and read comments from recent teachers?

Thanks