Congratulation! Looks like the que sera sera approach did work :)

This is just my first year teaching math, so others may have differing opinions. I would say that, if you want to become a good upper level math teacher then you need to know all topics UP TO AND INCLUDING calculus like the back of your hand. That means that you can not only solve the problems yourself, but that you can anticipate the areas where students will be confused and common questions they might have. Not only that, you have to be so familiar with the topic that you can break it down into smaller parts, present them in an engaging way, and then tie them together in your students' minds.

I've read other posts on here by people wanting to teach HL math and thinking that they can just read the chapter in advance and learn how to solve the problems, but trust me when I say, that isn't going to work. That level/depth of knowledge required to be a good math teacher isn't something you're going to be able to cram for in a few months or a year. Heck, I have a math degree (and part of a M.S. in Math) and it's still challenging at times, especially when it's a topic I haven't seen in years.

I personally had a difficult time finding a mentor for the TeacherReady program. The TR program director was willing to set me up with a school, but it was an hour and a half away and not accessible by public transportation. Instead, I applied to several of the Tier 1/2 schools in my area with only limited success. Most said that they already had too many student teachers for the year, some said they didn't have someone who could mentor me in my subject/grade levels, and only one school said that I could do my student teaching there, but they were also too far away to consider.

In the end, I had to get a full time teaching job at a private school. The plus side to this is that I now have a year of experience teaching my subject in addition to having completed my TR program requirements. No, the experience may not count in terms of my salary scale, but I spent a lot more time in the classroom that I would have doing part-time observations/teaching at an IS.

Just my 2 cents, of course.

MedellinHeel wrote:
> How does a school get around cheating with an all online degree / class?

That's a fair question. As someone who did their degree almost entirely online (different school), I will say that the cheating issue depends greatly on how the classes are structured and the type of work given. For example, in many of my higher level math classes, homework was completely ungraded (only used for feedback) and the tests consisted of a few extremely complicated problems and a 12-24 hour time limit. The difficulty was such that cheating would have been almost impossible unless you knew someone who had an advanced knowledge of the exact same topic.

For other classes, we were required to take all of our tests at a local university testing center. This also made cheating difficult/impossible, as the tests were sent directly to the center and there was a proctor there watching us the entire time. I would go so far as to say that cheating is probably more of a problem in regular, brick-and-mortar classes than in many online courses.

If your friend is interested in teaching high school level history, mathematics, or computer science. I would recommend looking at the University of Illinois' online B.A. degrees. They're fully accredited and will give you the same diploma as their regular programs. It is possible to finish the degree in 3 years if one works diligently, CLEPs out of what they can, and takes summer classes.

http://www.online.uillinois.edu/catalog ... greeType=1

As other posters have mentioned, once her B.A. is obtained, your friend can do her student teaching overseas through the Teacher Ready program. This is fully accredited and takes about 9-10 months to complete. Yes, the exams must be taken in America, but they can be done over a 2-3 day period and are offered in dozens of different cities.

Our insurance is good worldwide, and includes dental but not vision. I do not have children, so I didn't read the fine details of that section of the policy, but it seems like they are fully covered until the age of 18. My deductible is also $250, but overall the plan is much, much better than what I used to have when I worked as a government contractor back in the US.

MedellinHeel: You might actually be in the same cohort as me, as I am also finishing this spring. To answer your questions, I have already passed the licensing exams and my endorsements are in Grades 6-12 Math and Physics, the former of which I have a degree and graduate credits in. For my job search, I went only through word of mouth and TIE. I did initially look for schools in Thailand, which is a desirable location for many people, but only found jobs that were for for-profit schools that had little to offer in terms of their academic programs (no-fail policies, and not AP or IB). I then decided to only consider schools that had strong academic programs, even though they could be in less than desirable areas.

In the end, I was approached by several schools (I posted on TIE in early December) from the aforementioned areas, and they were all willing to take a chance on my finishing the TR program in time for the new school year (I did provide proof of my having passed the exams). I attribute most of this success to the fact that I had prior classroom experience, and the fact that I was really willing to work almost anywhere, as long as I felt that the school and I were a good match.

If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask!

2teachers: I am almost finished with the TeacherReady program and secured a job at a Tier 2 school about a month ago, as well as had a few offers from other mid-tier schools. I did my student teaching at a bilingual school (full-time) and previously had several years of EFL experience. As frustrated as I have been with the TR program at times (their website is nothing sort of abysmal and assignment feedback can be lacking) I know that that program is basically the only way I would have been able to get a US teaching license and move away from ESL/EFL. It also helped me gain a better understanding of methodologies that have really helped my teaching. Because of that, and the fact that it did lead me to a wonderful IS job, I have to recommend it.

One thing I will mention is that, being a new teacher from an alternative cert program, I had almost no choice in location. The schools that were willing to take a chance on me had good academic programs, but were in locations that many teachers won't consider (e.g. North Africa, Central Asia, Mexico, etc.). Luckily, I was more interested in the work experience and not the location, so it all worked out in the end.

SpedMaestro wrote:
> Asia is pretty bad for expat women or so I've heard.

Not at all! I've known lots of female teachers who met their significant others while working in Asia. Some us even ended up getting married.

Cherrypop - We used TIE exclusively for our job search but only bothered with the database and not the instant notification. Once we identified a school that we were interested in, we sent our CVs directly to the director via email.

Good luck at the fair and enjoy your time here in Bangkok! It's a lovely city.

I am not a vet and this is my first experience with hiring season. I was so ignorant as to how things worked that I didn't even sign up for any of the fairs and instead just sent emails directly to the heads of the schools I was interested in. This may have not been the "correct" way to do things, but I've had 3 interviews thus far, and was just offered (and accepted) an amazing job via a Skype interview. I have to wonder if the fairs are simply becoming outpaced by technology at this point.

We didn't hear anything for all of November and most of December, although we did send out applications to about 20 different schools. Last week, however, we were contacted by 5 schools wanting to set up interviews (Skype and in-person) during this week and next week. Looks like things are indeed heating up.

Hi Danda,

Would you please contact me via email so I can ask you a few questions about QSI, specifically their mastery teaching model? I'd greatly appreciate it!

ektramath[at]gmail.com

Here's Psyguy's definition of the tier system:

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There is no objective definition of Tier 1, Tier 2, or Tier 3, and as such there is no "master list" of who is in which list, and to that end even if there was no one would agree on it. Youd have some consensus with schools like WAB (Beijing), and ISB (Bangkok), but there would still be a lot of disagreement. Though if your on the international school circuit long enough you get a feel for which schools are at which tier. School quality also has a lot to do with where you are a tier 2 school in Hong Kong, might be a tier 1 school in mainland China...

There is no "definition" of Tier 1, Tier 2, or Tier 3. Its all subjective, in general when teachers describe a tier 1, etc school from one another it comes down to

1) Compensation package
2) Work environment.

Historically the compensation package is the priority, not because of greed or anything, but because its easy to quantify. If your in Brazil, $30K is better then $28K. Schools that pay more for a given region tend to have more stable finances (a sign of longevity, given enrollment, and reputation), and have larger endowments, meaning they have been around long enough to develop efficiency and have well planed capitol projects. Better schools can charge more in fees, and be more selective in their admissions. This creates more "cash" on hand for salaries and benefits.

COMPENSATION:

Typically includes (in this order of importance/priority:

1) Salary (based on number of contract or teaching hours per week)
2) Housing (including utility costs)
3) Tuition (If you have kids. In addition if you have a non teaching spouse, how easy is it for them to find a job)
4) Transportation (Including Airfare, moving, and settling in allowances).
5) Insurance (Mostly how good the medical is)
6) Retirement (Including end of year bonuses).

WORK ENVIRONMENT:

Working conditions is the far more subjective of the two. It means something slightly different to everyone. But can include as a general principal (and these get more "fuzzy" the lower I go):

1) Staff/Faculty/Parents:How qualified are your co teachers? Do they know what they are doing? Do the aids, secretaries try and help you? Is the PTA crazy helicopter parents? Are the parents really the ones running the school?

2) Admins Management Style: Biggest reason for a school to go down hill. Does the admin back the teachers? Are they just a spokesperson for the owners? Do they yield to parent pressure? Do they value faculty input? Do they care?

3) Organization: Does the front/back office run efficiently? Do you get reimbursed in a timely fashion? Are salaries paid on time? Is the school relationship with the local immigration bureau good, can they process visas, permits, etc quickly?

4) Resources: Do you have a projector? Access to computers, internet? Can you make copies when you need too. What about textbooks, are they old and out dated, do teachers even use them? Whats the library look like? Whats the cafeteria look like (do they feed the teacher lunch?) Do you have a classroom/department budget, or do you have to ask for everything?

5) Academics: Do they have a curriculum? Do they use the curriculum? Does the department share a common curriculum or does everybody teach what they know and prefer? What are the assessment/grading policies and procedures?

6) Community: Are the people nice, friendly, helpful? What's there too do in the area? Is it safe? Clean? Is transportation easily accessible? Availability of shopping/groceries? Medical Care? This could be a long one....

JOB SEARCH:

1st tier schools are typically non-profit private prepatory schools that focus on an international student body. They are very westernized, and would be very similar to a private school in western cultures.

2nd tier schools are private private non-profits that act like for profits. They are predominately domestic students, who are affluent. They are equivalent to a "good" public school in a western culture.

3rd tier schools are for profit schools that are run as business. The purpose is to make generate revenue, and provide the owner with some level of prestige and status. Education is just the product, the students parents just the consumers.

Most 3rd tier schools advertise on TIE Online, Joy Jobs, and with SEARCH. You can also find them on Daves ESL Cafe (They advertise everywhere, except the "selective" recruitment agencies, such as ISS)

Tier 3 schools either pay very well because the only reason someone would work there is the money, or they pay enough to get by. Most of these schools are in the middle east or africa. There are some very "beautiful" schools that Dante could use to deepen the levels of hell a bit, and the only reason they have faculty is because 1) The money, 2) Desperate teachers who cant do any better. Of course one issue that i see common with Tier 3 schools is related to "safety" either the regional culture is very very rigid, with serious consequences for what you might consider "minor rule infractions" or the region/area could become quickly hostile and dangerous...

Your typical "ESL School" is right around the border between tier 3 and tier 2 schools.

"Elite" (also called prestige or premier) schools are a subset of tier 1 schools, that represent the top school(s) in the region.

An "elite" or "premiere" international school is simply the top (or contested top) tier one school in a region (or city). What differentiates them is they usually have the best reputation in an area as "THE" school, and you see that in a compensation package that is substantially higher then the other tier one schools in the area, as well as in their staff support, resources, and facilities.

For example; ISB (Bangkok) is typically seen as the elite school in Bangkok. ISB (Beijing) is usually tied with WAB (Western Academy of Beijing) in Beijing/China. SAS (Singapore American School) is seen as the elite school in Singapore. ASP (Paris) is the elite school is France. IS Frankfurt is usually (lot of debate on this) considered the Elite school in Germany. ASIJ is well thought of as the elite school in Japan.

Tier status is only comparable to other schools within a region. Local economies, costs of living, cultural differences make global comparisons unhelpful. For example; most european schools dont provide housing, and taxes are high so even though salaries would rival many that you would find in a place like China, the savings potential and lifestyle you can live are very different (and often better in asia).

Elite (also called premier) doesnt equal easy. Elite schools typically expect a lot from their teachers. Some teachers thrive in that environment, some dont.
Why a separate category? well there is typically a substantial and significant increase in work and compensation between the "elite" school and the other tier one schools.

I guess thats 4 levels. is there a lower level, some people throw tier 4, and lower levels around, but i have to think that is really just an individual adding insult to injury when they call a particular school a "tier 4" school.