Search found 120 matches

by Lastname_Z
Mon Sep 16, 2013 9:34 am
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: How to convince family on your life abroad?
Replies: 4
Views: 6030

How to convince family on your life abroad?

What did you guys do to sell your family on your life teaching abroad? Specifically I'm looking at schools in the Middle East (Saudi or Kuwait) since school positions popped up there and they didn't list an experience requirement, and say they accept young people.

My family seems to think that places like Dubai, Saudi Arabia or Kuwait are just another Domino in the Arab Spring, that it can get dangerous very quickly and that foreigners are the first to be targeted in that situation.

In that situation yes, but those countries aren't exactly the same as other Arab Spring countries. So I'm looking for advice. What can I say, do, or show to my family to sell them on the ME?

Either way I'd end up going there regardless of my family's approval, but it would be nice to put their minds at ease at least...
by Lastname_Z
Fri Sep 06, 2013 9:31 am
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: Search Associates Internship
Replies: 2
Views: 4682

Thanks Monkey. I appreciate the input.

I was wondering if anyone else had anything to add so that I can get a variety of responses. Maybe even from recruiters or people who have worked with interns.
by Lastname_Z
Mon Sep 02, 2013 4:32 pm
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: Search Associates Internship
Replies: 2
Views: 4682

Search Associates Internship

Does anyone have any experience with this internship? Either having one in the school, or even being one themselves?

Do schools look at this teaching experience? Does it help with making connections in getting a job after the internship?

I'm a recent graduate with qualifications in History, English, and Spec Ed. I'm just looking at my options.

I'm flexible and willing to go anywhere. I'm aware that I'm not a competitive candidate. I did hear that I also have a chance of starting in a so-called Tier 3 school and slowly working my way up.

So I guess what I'm wondering is: will the internship help me if I want to apply to upper-level school/better regions, or is it better to just start in a lower-level school?

Any help would be appreciated with this. Thanks.
by Lastname_Z
Sun Aug 11, 2013 11:09 am
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: Search Associates application help
Replies: 2
Views: 4304

Search Associates application help

Hello everyone,

I am trying to get into the Search fairs in Toronto and Bethesda. I'm a newly-certified teacher in History, English, and Spec Ed.

I'm doing the application and I was wondering if anyone is willing to give any advice about what to write in the Bio. What kind of information should I put in the biography section? What type of information would stand out to recruiters?

Should I focus more on specific life events or what skills I can offer independent of my certifications?

Thanks
by Lastname_Z
Mon Jul 08, 2013 5:02 pm
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: Questions about marketing myself (no experience)
Replies: 2
Views: 4061

Questions about marketing myself (no experience)

I don't have experience outside of my year of practicum (where I did a lot of teaching and gathered references from that). I'm well aware that this isn't a great situation when applying to International Schools outside of maybe Third-Tier schools.

However, I'm interested in looking at ISs in Poland. Here I feel that I am not at as much of a disadvantage. I have family in Poland, I speak fluent Polish and have been in Poland for extended amounts of time before. Also, being of Polish descent, I can easily acquire Polish citizenship.

Usually schools have the 2 years experience rule because they want teachers to have the teaching skill set so that adjusting to a new culture won't be as burdensome for the teacher. In my case, I'd have no problem adjusting to life in Poland and would only have to focus on teaching.

So, I was thinking of contacting International Schools in Poland directly and selling myself in this way. So is this a good route? Has anyone else been in a similar situation (worked in the country of their heritage)? Any thoughts on the subject would be greatly appreciated.
by Lastname_Z
Sat May 25, 2013 12:17 pm
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: How Marketable am I/What are my chances of finding a job?
Replies: 23
Views: 30482

[quote="shadowjack"]Lastname_Z - Again, not going postal on you, but have you made any inquiries about positions outside Toronto? Did you do one of your practicums in a smaller center, or did you stay in town? One of the best things I did was to go to a rural center for my practicum just to experience it and see if I would be comfortable living in such a setting. That helped when I began applying for jobs in late March, as districts were interested in someone who had taken the initiative to get out of the city. However, I can only speak about my experiences in a different province a few years ago :-)
[/quote]

Thanks for the advice shadowjack. I think I'll give the rural areas a deeper look. I usually just skimmed those sites. I'm also considering Northwest Territories but that's a whole other topic.

Btw, I realize I might have sounded defensive. That wasn't my intention so I'm sorry about that. I really do appreciate the advice that you, PsyGuy and others have given me in this thread. :)
by Lastname_Z
Sat May 25, 2013 9:36 am
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: Relevance of Master's degree
Replies: 29
Views: 34238

Not going to say much about it myself, but I found this article to be an interesting read on the subject.

http://www.independent.co.uk/student/po ... 63540.html
by Lastname_Z
Sat May 25, 2013 9:05 am
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: How Marketable am I/What are my chances of finding a job?
Replies: 23
Views: 30482

[quote="shadowjack"]Hi Lastname_Z,

are you so wedded to Toronto that you wouldn't move to Thunder Bay, Espanola, Chalk River, North Bay, Timiskaming, Timmins, or anywhere else where you would more likely land a job.

Honestly, unless you are going to SA's fair where they handle interns, you won't get accepted to an SA job fair. At Queens and Uni, you would be up against more qualified candidates.

You will have a masters, but no experience, which makes it harder.

You have no spouse with experience (and why do schools prefer teaching couples? (a) They are viewed as more stable; (b) they are cheaper to hire (two people, one housing allowance, married medical which is slightly cheaper than two single medical); (c) you fill two spots with basically one interview), and you have no experience. Your certificate in SPED with no experience will count for nothing. Schools can hire SPED people with 5 or more years of experience who have proven their salt.

So, not to go all negative on you, what to do, what to do.

Forget about Search Associates. Sign up for TIEonline. They have a ton of third tier schools just coming out of the woodwork and still posting jobs. The pay will be crap, but barely livable, often in China or Central/South America, but...it will get you your first two years on the ladder after which you can go forth and find a better job at a slightly more decent school (or a decent school where the head wants to surround himself/herself with young, cheap teachers).

As a Canadian teacher who came out in the early 90's when there were no jobs and secondary enrollment had not started expanding again, I feel your pain. However, I know that if you are willing to relocate (and not necessarily to a reserve school), there are jobs out there, and lots of subbing too. Most of my graduating class stayed in the city - most are out of teaching now, too. The ones who went rural got jobs.[/quote]

Oh I was under the impression that there weren't any full-time jobs up North in Thunder Bay, Espanola, etc either. If there are, I'm more than happy to relocate there and get the two years experience.

I will try TIE online.

As for the masters, I guess my main reasoning is that it will bring me up the payscale in Canada. So it's a long-term vision. I already talked to vice-principals at schools and they said that my being more expensive is irrelevant since they don't pay the wages, the government does. The other thing I found is that it actually does help in the classroom. The more comfortable you are with the material you teach, the better you will be at creating lessons. Plus, as an English teacher, writing that much will also be an asset to me in that it will improve my writing. I saw this with one of my associate teachers who had his PhD. Lastly, I can afford to take the year to do it now. Who nows how I'll be financially years from now, especially if I have a family.

Thanks for the advice though. I'm definitely reconsidering my position on these things.
by Lastname_Z
Fri May 24, 2013 11:51 am
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: How Marketable am I/What are my chances of finding a job?
Replies: 23
Views: 30482

Re: Comment

[quote="PsyGuy"]@Lastname_Z

Yes it will, its not a one year gap its trying to get a an IT job with zero experience. At least with a year of experience a recruiter knows you have done a classroom and a behavior management plan, and you will have a reference, which doesnt sound like much but is infinitely more marketable then zero experience, no reference. You cant even talk your way through an interview, because most of the questions such as "What has your role been with parents", "How have you handled a difficult problem", etc, etc, all those standard interview questions require you to draw on teaching experience, that you dont have. Whats the interviewer going to ask you, to evaluate your fit as a teacher? You cant talk about your graduate degree with those type of questions.

If you cant get the classroom experience then doing the masters is an option that doesnt waste your time, but forgoing the possibility of experience for a masters for a new teacher is handicapping yourself.

Internships are usually 1 year contracts with the option (like any contract) to renew. Do they count as "experience", sure, if you dont label them as "internship" experience.[/quote]

Okay PsyGuy, thanks for the input, which is seriously making me reconsider my position on things.

One last thing though: Could I not reference my practicum experience to answer those questions about classroom management and working with parents? Also, I have references from all of my associate teachers and a principal at one of my placement schools. Do those not count?
by Lastname_Z
Fri May 24, 2013 11:23 am
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: How Marketable am I/What are my chances of finding a job?
Replies: 23
Views: 30482

Re: Comment

[quote="PsyGuy"]@Lastname_Z

SA defines an "intern" as someone with less then two years of professional experience. the masters has nothing to do with it, and many non career educators get certified through a masters program. Schools though with intern programs tend to go for the frsh out of college young ones, so they can "mold" them. Having a Masters may turn some schools away though. An IS internship you should under stand is a fully paid position at the school at the upper tier schools with only a loss of some of the OSH bennifits. At lower tier schools interns are cheap teachers for schools who couldnt get someone better, and they use :internship" as a way of justifying the low compensation.

You can find the AP study books the IB course guide is only available through the OCC, but if you google it and spend some time you will find it out there.

Really, maybe I didnt emphasis it enough but getting classroom experience is the single most important thing you can do, everything else is secondary.[/quote]

Does being an SA Intern count towards getting your two years experience?

I understand that getting classroom experience is important, I really do, but will that one-year gap where I get my Masters really hurt my chances? It will keep them the same. I'm getting my masters for more than a career. It's also personal.

I'm really not picky in terms of what school I work for once I'm done my masters. I just know that I need to get classroom experience somehow.
by Lastname_Z
Fri May 24, 2013 10:59 am
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: How Marketable am I/What are my chances of finding a job?
Replies: 23
Views: 30482

Re: Reply

[quote="PsyGuy"]

So really you have a score of 1.75. First, to put the system in perspective very very very few teachers ever max out or even get close to maxing out. 1.75 is an entry level teacher score.

IB training isnt worth anything, schools want experience, and the rule is no amount of training equals any amount of experience. It wont hurt though, F2F IB training is a weekend, and a couple weeks online it costs about $600+ for a training session not counting travel expenses.

History and English arent hard to fill positions, and without experience makes you unattractive.

Heres the problem and i agree with the other posters in total. The Masters without experience isnt going to be very attractive, most ISs have a Masters after s couple years teaching. What is also true though is that getting that 2 years experience is going to be very hard in Canada, you could apply everywhere and not get hired. You need a job anywhere teaching anything so that you can build your experience, and the masters only helps if you cant get a job anywhere. You can get a masters online or by distance while getting experience, so the Masters isnt a now or never issue, what you need is being in a classroom.

A reservation school would be fine on your resume but it would be as hard as a bottom tier school in the middle east, and you dont get the benefit of IS experience, and possibly curriculum experience (IB/AP/IGCSE), unless the reservation school has one of those.

I see two paths for you:

"THE GOOD"

1) [b]Contact Search Associates (SA) about their internship program, these are usually upper tier schools that take newbies like you and are an "in" to some of the better schools.
[/b]
2) Apply to every school that has an opening in your certification areas, bilingual schools or anything. What matters is the experience and the reference.

3) [b]Dot he MAsters, but do it while working, it will take you 2 years but your first contract is going to be two years anyway.
[/b]
"THE BAD"

1) Apply locally for a teaching position and if unsuccessful and waiting do the Masters. Its one year and you get 2 years worth of points out of it. Hopefully someone hires you and in two years your marketable.

2) If you do the Masters try to get a job working at the school in something that "education" related.

"THE UGLY"

[b]1) You could extrapolate your practicum experience into "actual" experience giving you one year of experience. Especially if your supervising teacher will write you a letter of reference. Whatever your practicum was it was a "Pre AP" course.[/b]

2) Get a book from your bookstore on the AP World History and AP American History Exams. Write a college syllabus, and "borrow" (if needed, or your just lazy) from one written by professor on the internet. Thats what being an "AP" teacher means when you get down to the technical aspects of AP training, which is all about how to write a syllabus.

3) Get the History IB course guide and read up on the IB for interviews. Since the IBO is protective about their program and philosophy, recruiters (especially ones who arent IB) tend to think those that can talk the talk can walk the walk.

4) Do the Masters, and then "say" you tutored/worked with special SPED students. Since these are small groups and private instruction you dont need to verify it. Even better is if you can get a job with the university or in your department and spin whatever your doing into a SPED angle. Even better is if you can get a "friend" to write you a letter or verify your experience. Most lower tier schools wont chase down a private reference.

OR

5) Get a job teaching ESL somewhere as there are TONS of positions and just spin the school as a subject teacher in a bilingual school/program. if you teach ESL at a college in China for instance you now taught History Test Prep for students studying abroad. If you teach ESL to kids in S. Korea, you taught literature to beginning students.

With this path your looking at small increases in the value of your resume that you can magnify during an interview. At bottom tier schools they hire fast, the idea is too have the right words a recruiter is looking for so that they want to talk to you, and make those improvements minor enough and vague enough not to be verifiable lies.[/quote]

Yeah, I know the Masters is not a now or never thing but I'd rather just do my masters now and not have to deal with that when I'm older and possibly have a family. So that last idea is off the table. I also got accepted into it because of the references I have from university professors. I'll lose that if I'm off teaching for two years.

Could I not get into the internship program after I'm done my masters?

"The Bad" stuff I was thinking of doing anyway, especially #2.

#1 of "The Ugly" will be easy for me since I have already got two reference letters from two different associate teachers.

Based on what you're saying, regardless of whether or not I do my masters, it seems I'm in the same starting position: I have no teaching experience. I can afford to take a year to do my masters and still start with no teaching experience.

And I'll definitely do my reading for both IB and AP. I'm assuming that I can find those online.
by Lastname_Z
Thu May 23, 2013 5:50 pm
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: Job Fairs in Ontario: Search or TORF?
Replies: 3
Views: 6032

Job Fairs in Ontario: Search or TORF?

Hey everyone,

I'm an inexperienced teacher looking for work (See my post about chances of finding a job).

During the last weekend of January, Search Associates is hosting a job fair in Toronto. During that same weekend Queens University in Kingston, Ontario hosts their annual Teaching Overseas Recruitment Fair (TORF).

Is there anyone here who has been to one of them, or both? Which would you recommend going to?

Thanks.
by Lastname_Z
Thu May 23, 2013 5:30 pm
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: How Marketable am I/What are my chances of finding a job?
Replies: 23
Views: 30482

Seems like I'll be okay then. I have no problem getting started at lower-level schools, whether it's in South America (which is not even that bad since I have a decent knowledge of Spanish) or Asia. As long as a I can get my foot in the door and that two years experience I'm happy.

Thanks for the help guys. I guess I'll be fine to get a job as long as I sell myself well at an interview. I think I'll post a separate thread asking for help with successful interviews.

One last question... another way I thought of getting two years experience was by working on a native/Indian reserve in Northern, Ontario. Do schools look on this as a good form of experience? Has anyone tried to get experience through this route, either working on reserves in Canada or in the States?
by Lastname_Z
Wed May 22, 2013 9:29 pm
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: How Marketable am I/What are my chances of finding a job?
Replies: 23
Views: 30482

Seems fair. One question though:

Why would a couple be worth more points than a single teacher? I figure it would be harder to accommodate a couple, especially if they are a non-teaching spouse.

Let's see what works in my favour (not taking into account curriculum experience)...

Advanced Degree (Master) 1 pt
Logistical Hire (Single) 1.5 pt
Special Populations (Spec Ed) .5
Extra-Curricular (Photography Club, Swimming Team) .5

So I have 2.5 points. I'm guessing that's a bit weak? Which is to be expected I guess.

Would taking a course in my subjects with the IB organization give me curriculum experience in that area? Is it worth it?
by Lastname_Z
Wed May 22, 2013 12:33 pm
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: How Marketable am I/What are my chances of finding a job?
Replies: 23
Views: 30482

How Marketable am I/What are my chances of finding a job?

Hey all,

I have a few questions about the International Schools Job Market, my marketability, and what is my best bet in terms of finding employment.

I am currently finishing a Bachelor of Education in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Grades 7-12 (12-18 year olds) History and English are my subjects.

I plan on staying one more year in Toronto to attain my Masters in History.

I also plan on taking an Additional Qualification in Special Education during that time.

My only experience teaching is a year of practicum and unrelated teaching like tutoring and teaching kids how to swim.

I know not having two years experience really hurts me as a candidate, but what things can I do to work around this? Does having a Masters help?

Thanks.