I've always thought that if a school (or business for that matter) has a salary scale and it's a good one, why wouldn't they want to publish it on their website? Wouldn't they want potential applicants to know what they how great their salaries are? When I see "salary commensurate with experience" I tend to assume that the pay must not be anything worth bragging about. Or worse yet, sometimes they just say "competitive salary." If it's so competitive, wouldn't you want us to know what it is?!

I realize maybe you're more interested in their job listings, but if you just want their Fact Book you can buy it for $30. I did that last year and I feel like I've gotten my money's worth out of it. It includes salary and package info, which is sometimes difficult to interpret on ISR and ISC. If you're definitely planning to recruit this year, I would think the extra $20 to also get their job listings might be worth it. I would also recommend it if you are focusing your search on American international schools.

This is a rather morbid question that I'm sure none of us wish to consider, but I recently learned that a distant family member has been diagnosed with cancer and it has led me to question what I would do if the same were to happen to me while working abroad. My concern is not with the quality of healthcare available in other countries, but let's say (heaven forbid) one were to be diagnosed with a serious or terminal illness and wanted spend his/her remaining time at home in the States. At that point breaking contract with the IS would not be a consideration, but losing the insurance they provide I think would be a huge issue. As a relatively young and healthy individual, I am blessed to have little knowledge or experience with this type of situation, but, like all of us, my time will come, and as an aspiring career IT there's always the possibility that my time could come while I'm living abroad. I'm not afraid to live on my own in a country on the opposite of the world from my family, but for some reason I am terrified of dying in a country on the opposite of the world from my family. I guess my question boils down to what do you do for insurance if you get diagnosed with a serious illness and choose to break contract in favor of moving home to be with your family? Is there some type of catastrophic health insurance you should maintain to cover you in a situation like that? Again, I apologize for the not-so-pleasant question, but it could be important to consider.

I would be interested in hearing about this topic as well. I might guess that many of the people who are the most experienced/qualified in aquatics are not necessarily teachers. If an IS expects its aquatics director to also teach (or at least have a teaching license) that might eliminate a lot of the potential candidates.

I apologize if these questions have been asked/answered elsewhere in the forum, but I'm seeing a lot of posts about DoDDS teaching and my curiosity has finally been piqued enough to dig deeper into this option. First of all, I know they offer very good salaries but do these schools tend to offer the benefits that ISs do (housing, flights, etc.)? I have been able to locate the salary scales for schools in the US and Puerto Rico, but I have not found them for their schools in other parts of the world. Does anyone know if they are available somewhere? Also, how does the tax situation work? If you're an american working for a DoDDS are you subject to american income taxes, the host country's income taxes, both, or neither? Lastly, DoDDSs (to my knowledge) are not reviewed on ISR or ISC. Is there another website somewhere that offers the review-type information for DoDDSs that ISR offers for ISs? Do you just have to rely on the interview and word-of-mouth to know if you're applying for a school with decent administrators and a positive climate?

Between the paid side of this site and ISC (International School Community), you will find that there is tons of information available about this career path. Especially if you're only a sophomore, you have time to read reviews and posts and form your own opinions about schools, locations, etc. that might work for you. If you're trying to go in with no full-time teaching experience, your options will be limited. You might check out the UNI Job Fair (University of Northern Iowa). According to their statistics, 31% of the candidates hired at the fair last year had 0-2 years of experience (compared to 29% for 2-4 and 40% for 5+), so it may not be as difficult as you might think if you're flexible on location. I would recommend looking into some tier 2 or 3 schools in China. I think they tend to be more flexible on the 2-year minimum due to the large number of international schools in China and the small number of candidates willing to live there. Some lower tier schools in Latin America may also be an option. I would just caution you that there are a lot of crappy international schools out there and unfortunately without 2 years of experience there's a higher likelihood that you could end up at one. Of course if you do your research and have a little luck, you might end up somewhere wonderful. Who knows? The nice thing about looking for your first international post is that those schools do recruiting long before public schools in the states do. You could always go to fairs during the winter, get interview experience and not accept a job if you don't get something you're happy with. You're not likely to miss out on any jobs in the States by doing that since they don't really start posting many jobs until May. If I were you though, I would try to tough out two years of teaching in the USA (maybe go to Alaska or Hawaii if you're itching for an adventure!) and look at a job in International Education for your 3rd year when you'll have a lot more options to choose from. Good luck!

I know most U.S. public schools are required to have 180 student days. Since 180 seems like an arbitrary number and I know International Schools are not as regulated as public schools in the U.S., without reviewing them, does anyone know of any International Schools that have a school year that is noticeably shorter than 180 days (say 175 or less)?

This seems quite risky and complicated. (Though I suppose no risk = no reward). I'm intrigued the concept on a smaller scale though. Has anyone had experience (positive or negative) with putting their housing allowance toward a mortgage on a property near their school and then renting it (with any luck to incoming ITs) after leaving the country? That's more or less what you're recommending, right? It's the classic concept buying property rather than "throwing away money on rent."

justlooking wrote:
> You can name schools in this forum. You just can't put review-type
> information in this non-members area. I think stating that the school is
> in a suburban or country setting is not even close to a review. Just a bit
> of objective information.


Fair enough.

Al Batinah School in Sohar, Oman - reviews state very specifically that it's in a small, quiet town)
Brent School Manila - Not actually in the city, described as being "far from the pollution of Manila"
King's Academy Jordan - A boarding school that appear appears to be in the middle of the desert

The school on Kwaj in the Marshall Islands is another possibility.

I'm interested in a similar type of school and have found a few that I consider good options. I have no inside knowledge about any of them, but I have done a lot of research reading reviews, comments, etc. I don't want to get in trouble for mentioning any schools by name, but I have found schools in Jordan, Oman, and the Philippines that I believe would fit your criteria.

Have you considered getting your 2 years of experience teaching Spanish at a public school in the U.S.? Even though they may not be in demand in ISs, language teachers are very much in demand in public schools in the U.S.

I had looked into Ecuador as a possible location, but it turns out there must be a national law that says all schools have to be in session for 200 days. Needless to say, I haven't found any schools in Ecuador with good vacation time. There may be other countries with similar laws.

I bought it, and I agree! My only complaint is there are few schools that were on their list of fair attendees that were not included. I feel like between that, ISC and ISR I can piece together what the salary and culture of most of the schools I'm interested in would be like.

This resource is available to attendees of the UNI Fair but it is also available for anyone to purchase for $30. Could anyone who has it comment on what type of info is included in it? Does it include specific package info or anything that I couldn't already find on the school's website or ISR or ISC?

@Senator - I would check to see if your home state has any virtual schools. This particular virtual school only hires current, local secondary teachers. Since I'm already on and have been there for several years, I don't think they will have a problem with me moving out of state as long as I still have my teaching license. It's a really good gig and there are people beating down the door to get hired there. I applied several times with no luck and then I just got lucky by knowing the right people and applying at the right time.

@shad - There is no video conferencing so I doubt that would be a problem. Like I said, it's really just grading and nagging the students to do their work! I'm sure the summer terms would not line up perfectly, but I'm prepared to deal with that.

@PsyGuy - This is the comment on ISC for a school in Abu Dhabi that prompted the question:
"You are not allowed to work and make extra money anywhere else besides the school. I have heard at other schools that the government has cracked-down on those teachers and has fined those school 50K AED."

Logic tells us it wouldn't be a conflict of interest, but one only needs to read a few ISR reviews to see that logic often doesn't prevail at ISs. I don't want to risk getting fired, fined or deported. My name is on the website for this virtual school, so if someone searched my name it's one of the first things that would come up. I believe that it won't be an issue at a vast majority of schools. It just worried me because I was really focusing on UAE as a possible destination and that comment led me to believe that a side job would not be allowed anywhere in the country.