Our school is refunding partial tuition and more or less taking it out of our salaries. And constantly asking us for fluff evidence of teaching to show the parents to justify the tuition. Very disappointing

If anything qualifies as a force majeure, this is it, and therefore doesn't count as "breaking contract." I don't think any reasonable person will hold it against you (now or if you need to reference it in future applications).

Life is not easy abroad at the moment. Border closures are unpredictable and flights are becoming scarcer. With classes moving online indefinitely, admin are starting to wonder how they can justify paying salaries (often denominated in an ever-strengthening dollar). This is not an environment anyone should be expected to bring a family into. Many EU embassies are flat out telling citizens to leave, and the U.S. is doing so as well in so many words.

In terms of the email I think you can explain it much like you did here. Offer to help however you can with the transition. They might even be relieved to not have to pay you through the year.

The problem is the checks usually need to be recent, so getting them before you go is only good for your next job.

The Professional Education exam does require some study because the answers align to Florida's standards, and they intentionally make some of the wrong answers be more intuitive to what you think you should do in a certain scenario (the questions give a scenario and then your response to that scenario in multiple choice). IIRC I used Cliff's notes. The most helpful thing was to identify which standard the question was asking about (it is asking about one only) and then eliminate any answer that does not match that standard. That usually leaves you with two answers.

I'd also recommend studying for that exam because you cannot take it abroad, so if you fail you have to return to the U.S. again. The general knowledge exam can be replaced by the GRE, but note if you transfer your license in the future you might have to take that state's general knowledge exam because you have nothing to transfer over.

For the general knowledge exam I would be careful on the writing portion, they want a specific style of writing. Best to study that a bit.

I'm in a similar situation. You're not alone. I'm also married and returning to the U.S. after next year, for a number of reasons:

-Living on the fringes of society as an expat, not able to speak the language or participate fully in the community
-Entire life at the whim of admin, highly risky any time you change jobs and can't as easily change jobs locally. Personal life is closely tied into work. Don't really have control over whether your home is your home, up to admin to extend your contract.
-Not paying into social security, not able to contribute to IRA or 401(k), other tax and legal considerations
-Always living to some extent 'out of a suitcase,' not able to truly build a home living in one-bedroom furnished apartments
-Depending on where you relocate to and your job now, your experience abroad may not count for salary scale, putting you perpetually behind your peers
-Missing relatively clean air, water, etc., at least in most parts of the country
-Not able to start a side hustle as easily, take classes, generally access resources available in many American communities

In states with traditional salary scales, you can make $80k+ per year with some years of experience. Career teachers in these states are making over $100k on the tail end of their careers. This is publicly available information. And as you know, the big kicker - your spouse can work! Yes the ok salary with housing gives big savings potential to single teachers, but once you're married and if your spouse is not a teacher then there is a big opportunity cost as they stay at home.

In the U.S. it is incredibly easy to re-invent yourself, there are all sorts of programs for career changers in most in-demand fields. Most college educated people can find a $50k+ career right away or within 1-2 years of schooling, much of it online. Teaching, IT, business, healthcare, and so on.

I will say I am stressed about the requirements to transfer certificates etc, and finding a job, and generally being restricted in where I can live depending on those requirements (e.g. I don't want to do the edTPA even if I would be interested in living in NYC). For that reason I am also considering a career change myself outside of teaching. But the move back to the U.S. is sort of a no-brainer.

It depends on your subject area. But I was in a low-demand subject area and got hired for 2017-18, with just some years of ESL experience (in my case it may have been more a matter of the school not discounting the ESL experience). I got a few interviews but nobody banging down my door, however did end up with a great job.

My Plan B and you might want to consider this also - if I couldn't get a job abroad I would go back to the U.S. and go somewhere that excited me. If the purpose is a change of scenery there are plenty of options in the U.S. for that. Hiring is later too so you could pursue those jobs in April, May or later when the international hiring season is closing.

I advise OP does his/her own research on the importance of regional accreditation as you are getting some false information here about programs being equivalent. If you are teaching in the United States, more than one state requires regional accreditation for purposes of salary scale. If this is a possibility in your future you may consider it worth the extra cost to complete a program with regional accreditation.

ACE also conveniently checks a lot of boxes for things like DoDEA or New York's state requirements or other things that may be of interest, if you select your program carefully.

Been in this situation. Agree with sid, start organizing things yourself. Couchsurfing or facebook expat groups are a start. You might be surprised how many likeminded people you find. Co-ed sports are good. Look for existing groups and events also

Do better than the teacher that came before you

To say it's all "for the kids" can be a catch all for any type of admin overreach, though. Frankly it would be a red flag to hear something like that in an interview. It's the teachers job to work with the kids, it's the admin's job to work with (and support) the teachers and parents and to a lesser degree the kids. So by saying that it's a warning that you are going to be micromanaging or otherwise overstepping with some kind of my way or the highway approach to doing what's best "for the kids."

Of course I don't know anything about sid so that's not personal but it sets alarm bells ringing when I hear that kind of stuff.

I would recommend against it:

-It's $600
-It's only 16 hours so you have plenty of time to do it if you actually get hired by a school, and a school should know this
-It's definitely not worth the cost
-It's not useful without context, e.g. in cat 1 you make a sample unit plan. Much more useful if you actually have a class you'll be using it on

That said if you get hired I would definitely recommend it, saved my first year. Even if it is a rip-off

I would try to estimate when you will have the certificate, schools will want to know you have it for visa reasons. I just put the certificate as it would appear if I had it, and then 'expected March 2019' or whatever the case may be, in place of the date.

Keep in mind it can be a slow process actually getting the certificate after you finish, 3-5 months depending on when you take your tests and where you're located. Maybe shorter if you're lucky and have all your ducks in a row

So much if not most of what you said was just plain factually wrong I'll let anyone making the mistake of listening to your advice figure it out on their own, because they would in short time.

I would advise against the previous poster's recommendation to commit felony tax fraud. ETFs are functionally almost identical to mutual funds and there are countless bond ETFs. In regards to "instruments" it seems this person has a fundamental misunderstanding of the term and it's not clear what is meant here. In any case I would avoid this advice in the same way I would avoid an audit and criminal charges from the Internal Revenue Service.

Be aware of some of the rules for expats around IRA contributions and the like, then get some general investing advice from bogleheads.org.

I can recommend Interactive Brokers. Most U.S. brokerages don't take expats as customers, they do. I forget exactly why I did not choose to use Robinhood.

@PsyGuy

We disagree on OP's potential. The current offer is outside the international school 'system,' there are plenty of administrators in this tier who don't know the rules and will see a U.S.-certified teacher with an M.A. and a year of teaching experience. I think the type of offer OP has currently grows on trees and they might want to continue looking if they only just started applying outside the U.S.

I mean OP go look on eChinacities and apply for one of the million jobs there, maybe you'll at least find one with better hours.

That said I don't mean to dump on this offer too much you can still save some decent money and have a new experience. And you're late in the hiring season and an offer in hand is better than a thousand job postings.