marieh wrote:
> For me, Plan B would be to look for a job in my home country since that's
> the only definite in terms of travel/accessibility at the moment. I don't
> envy anyone their decisions though. I consider myself to be a fairly
> ethical person, but at the end of the day I have to look out for myself and
> my family.

Same for me. I'm looking back home which is something I would have found laughable a year ago.

The international circuit right now is like a grim game of musical chairs except when the music stops several chairs will just spontaneously vanish. So do you sit tight in one chair and hope when the music stops you don't fall right on your butt? Or do you grab as many as you can get hoping one of them will still be there? There's no good answer here.

Taiwan is odd in that there are really no tier 2 schools which are the best fit for you right now. You could apply to the top ones but the competition will be fierce even if there are openings.

Are mainland schools completely out of the question? You could almost certainly pick up a tier 2 school position there that would allow you to build up an experience base while earning a vastly better salary than what the lower ranked schools in Taiwan would offer.

I filed 2019 two weeks ago and used my mail forwarding address in the US. The site previously said there was an error but now says it will mail my check on May 1st. It did not give me an option to add my bank information sadly, so I hope I will be able to remotely deposit the check with my US banking app.

Of course you have the right to be upset. There is much to be upset about given the current circumstances.

The country where I am living, Georgia, just announced they are closing the borders to foreigners for two weeks starting two days from now. However, at this point I think we all know this very well might be extended. This obviously sinks any spring break travel plans for most in our school community who are not Georgian. Previously, our had school had asked staff to restrict travel but that is largely moot now.

Since you are asking I assume there is part of you who wants to go. It’s a matter of how much caution you can take.

Is this a purely social gathering? If yes, I would ask if I could bring a friend with me if I felt the need for caution. A male friend if I really wanted to dampen potential romantic expectations. If he says no that would be a red flag for me and I would find some excuse to not go.

If more work related with other colleagues I would just go. I can’t think of any of my prior admin who never hosted gatherings for colleagues. When your other colleagues leave just go with them and avoid being alone with him if it is a concern.

I’m in Tbilisi and all schools have been shut down for at least two weeks.

Does anyone out there have any suggestions on how to do high school math assessments at least semi-effectively? My school does not have any platforms that support this directly and I am having a hard time thinking of a way to handle this.

What about free tuition for children? That could be a deal breaker for many families if that becomes taxable given the insane tuition many schools charge.

I'm also set to move to China in August. As you can expect I am closely monitoring the situation. I'm not ready to pull the plug yet as the situation is currently expected to run its course over a period of six months. At this time as a single, I am willing to take a wait and see approach. Right now the infection rate is expected to peak in my city around April, which is tight timing-wise, but at least allows some flexibility if the situation continues to worsen.

I currently work at a quality school as a math teacher, and while you can transfer there is no guarantee you can get what you want. I have more experience than you and have several years in the system, but was not offered a position at an IB school last year when I put in for a transfer. There are only a few schools with IB and it is a matter of luck on whether there are both openings and you are first in line to get an offer. Ultimately I decided to stay put for another year as I did not mind my current location.

Next year I am moving to a non-quality school in Shenzhen that pays substantially better. As others have mentioned quality schools do follow their contracts to the letter, but mastery learning at the secondary level can be quite taxing. Also, if you are at a small school you could be teaching multiple levels simultaneously (e.g. in one period you could be teaching Alg 1, Alg 2, and Geometry all at the same time). Granted the class sizes would be small, but that one-room schoolhouse experience is definitely not for everyone.

@Zagreb77 Sure! I should point out that targeting particular schools within the QSI network is quite difficult. Since there is a transfer system between schools that happens prior to most hiring the relatively popular schools (in which Tbilisi is included) are tough are get, and most external hires tend to get offers in Central Asia or China. Tbilisi is a lovely place to be for a few years though if you can find work.

Illiane_Blues wrote:
> I'd much rather work at a school with a salary scale and not with
> negotiated salaries.
> The fact that I'm in a high needs subject doesn't mean I work harder or
> have more or better degrees than the English teacher at my school. If
> anything they are working harder than I with all the essays they have to
> read and grade.
> Different salaries for the same work would make me feel uncomfortable.
> But that's a personal preference.
Fair enough. It’s worth pointing out that salary schedules don’t prevent wage discrimination at international schools. Even the ones with salary schedules often have local vs overseas contracts for expats, and on top of that many have entirely different compensation packages for host country nationals. With all that going on already I’m not particularly bothered by having one more layer of differential compensation. I’ve heard some teachers at my current school (which has a schedule but different levels of contracts) grouse about this privately, but they keep renewing their contracts so it can’t bother them too much either.

mamava wrote:
> I would be seriously suspicious of a school that doesn't have a salary
> schedule. Do you really want to work for a school that paid out salaries
> based on random or personal or subjective qualities?

They don’t assign salaries randomly. As an experienced high school math teacher who is comfortable negotiating I can often do better without a salary scale. Teachers in high needs areas can leverage their background to get more than they could otherwise with a flat scale that ignores every quality except experience and education. Like I teach my AP Econ students its all about supply, demand, and scarcity. You know what they will pay before you sign the contract, and you can decide if it is worth it to you or not. Plus, as someone who worked outside of education for a while that’s the norm for me anyway. Fixed salary scales can be reassuring, but they can be limiting at the same time.

What do you define as good savings? Is it a percentage of salary or just total amount saved? How much?

Right now I am saving ~50% of my salary in Tbilisi ($2000 per month go straight to my investment accounts) while still eating out regularly and traveling. A very solid balance of lifestyle and cost of living exists in Georgia. Hard to get a good job though as QSI is the only big player (British school I hear is decent too though), but you can't apply directly to any of their schools as an overseas hire. The rest of the Caucuses are similar in this regard.

Next year I am moving to China where I expect to save $3000/month after the initial year when all the bonuses start to kick in. This will be my second time in China, and I expect to encounter more lifestyle challenges and restrictions, but at an acceptable level given my increased savings.

I think once you narrow the list to only include countries that offer both a great lifestyle (this is subjective for sure) and big savings it becomes short indeed though! China, the ME, and oil-rich locations might pay well but they are not for everyone. Right now I think SE Asia as a region scores the most points overall though if you can get into one of the top tier schools.

Current Search numbers show $55K for BA+4 and $66K for MA+8. These figures are not net and they state 16% taxes with them claiming the same savings amount as noted before. Salaries in China seem to be trending up, and I recently accepted a position at a school in the Guangdong region for $70k so these numbers seem plausible.

Interesting. I have a follow-up question then. If it's more about public healthcare than the pension, what does it take to have access in most western European countries? Is it like Medicare where you need a certain amount of time in system as a taxpayer or is it residency-based?