I am not sure if you can get one if you don't plan to teach in the US, but New Jersey has an option if you completed your education in a foreign country. From my quick perusal, it doesn't seem to have a residency requirement. When I had questions, I emailed them and they got right back to me, so I would suggest you do the same if you are interested.

http://www.state.nj.us/education/educat ... ountry.htm

I think the US certification would be more useful in landing jobs.

As for getting hired as a non-native English speaker, it depends on the school. My experience is that the better, truly international schools don't mind and sometimes even seek out international teachers. At my current school, we have non-native speakers teaching music, science, math, as our DP coordinator, and of course the languages. At my last school which was not as high quality, the only non-native English speakers were local hires (read: cheap for the school to employ) or language teachers.

Some schools definitely want native speakers, but some schools want to show that their teachers are as international as their student body. I think your wife may limit you in your search, but would not put you out of the running for many schools. It will be harder for you to get jobs as a teaching couple, but I wouldn't say it will be impossible.

My suggestion would be to go for the US certification and to highlight the US conservatory.

Certification is done state-by-state in the U.S. So there is no one answer to your question. I have had certification in three different states and they all have different requirements and hoops to jump through. You'd need to visit each individual state's department of education to find out if you can get certified there. Some states that I know other international teachers have used because of limited/easier requirements: Montana, Missouri, New Jersey, and Colorado.

One thing to keep in mind is that a permanent certificate is getting rarer and rarer in the states. Most states require that you complete a certain number of hours of professional development that is documented in a specific way to renew an expiring certificate. There are a few out there that still offer permanent certificates, but you have to search to find them.

Hi justgreene,

Another note -- you said you couldn't find financial information on the school's websites. Few publish it on their websites. If you join Search, this information is available to you on their database. It is really helpful -- it will give the typical salary for different pay steps and savings potential. You do have to take it with a grain of salt, however, as these are school reported. It is a good starting place. Another nice thing about Search is that your membership is good for three years or until you get a job.

As shadowjack mentioned, the areas you are interested in are high-demand areas that may be difficult to break into your first year as an international teacher. If you like Europe, I would suggest you focus more on Eastern Europe as it is slightly easier to get into and the taxes don't tend to be as bad. Most of Western European schools won't provide housing or flights, so that is also something to keep in mind.

Since your wife hasn't been teaching for awhile, she might want to try to get a job where you currently are for next year so that she has more recent experience. This will make her more viable candidate and make you stronger as a teaching couple. Ideally, you both should be working -- many schools will only cover one child per working teacher. This would delay your start, but might be something to consider. If you signed up for Search now, you could do a soft recruitment next year (see if you can land anything with minimal effort) and then try in earnest the following year if you are still looking.

I was listening to a Freakanomics podcast the other day and it was talking about online attacks and online trolls and the problems that exist with them. I found the transcript and have posted the relevant information below. With the recent issues about particular forum members it is quite relevant. I found Steve Levitt's description of the problem applied to both sides in the issue. While one side doesn't use ad hominem attacks, it does often resort to rude, dismissive language that clearly shows a disdain and condescension for those with diverging opinions/experiences. The other side then quickly loses the high ground because often times they attack the poster directly.

Particularly, I thought Levitt offered a good explanation for why people get so upset. In short, it is really hard to counter misinformation. Levitt's final line in this excerpt highlights why people get so riled up about it: "And we don’t have a good online way of saying whether things are true or not. And that’s where I think the cost is."

When individuals insist on posting what most members of the community consider to be untrue/rude/dismissive it has a cost to the community. The usual response is that people should be smart enough to determine what is true and what is false, but the act of having to filter through it all is time consuming and costly in many ways. In this specific situation it seems to be complicated by the fact that at times the same people post helpful, truthful, detailed responses.

I don't think there is an easy solution...

From the episode: "Who Runs the Internet"
"LEVITT: Well, I think that’s hard, because number one I think people feel a lot of pain from those kind of online rants. So you’re implicitly saying that the punch in the face is far worse than the online rant, but it’s not completely clear to me that that’s actually true, that the amount of pain…I mean…because one of the things about the online rant is that they live forever, right? So that someone can say something hurtful and it can stick around and haunt you on and on and on. The other things is one of the reasons that people don’t do so much of this sort of ranting and fighting in public is that it’s really socially not accepted very much. And I think there’s a reason it’s not socially accepted because it’s not very costly for the ranter, but potentially very, very costly for the person who gets ranted against. You know, it just reminds me, I don’t know why, of when SuperFreakonomics came out and we have the stuff on climate change, and the online rants against us were untrue, they were absurd, they were ad hominem. It was just a bad, ugly situation where a group of people who were very emotional about what we were saying, working essentially in unison to try to discredit us, and we really didn’t have a good vehicle for fighting back. But what I remember so vividly is I remember, I think it was in Washington D.C., where we were giving a talk, and a heckler got up and began ranting in exactly the same way that the online rants were going against us, and the people in the audience just told him to sit down. And what was so weird was that he sat down. And that he was so bullied, and so easily cowed by a few people saying don’t do that. So he got to say a little bit of his peace and we got to respond to it. But somehow it seemed to be much more productive than if he had just ranted and ranted and ranted and hadn’t let us talk at all, which is really what I think you get online. So I don’t know. I’m not really that much in favor of giving…I mean, sure people can rant, it’s such a hard job for other people to sort out what’s true and what’s false, that rants that can’t be verified for truth, I think are terrible. And we don’t have a good online way of saying whether things are true or not. And that’s where I think the cost is.

Just want to add my perspective to the placement discussion. Others have said they "save" choice locations as a "reward" for transferring staff. This is not true at all. They do transfers first, so yes, the good locations usually go first. However, if a good location is available when you're hired, they will place you there. You do have to ask! They will try to push to a -stan to fill those hard to fill positions, but if you have checked their website right before your interview, you can request any of the positions available and they will most likely give you what you ask for.

Just to repeat, there is no policy about "saving" locations as rewards. I guess you could consider it a "reward" that you get transfers before new staff is hired, but that just seems like logic. And finally, as others have said, QSI is not at the top, but as a newbie just getting licensed as a teacher, you could do worse. You will get what you're promised (but nothing more).

I wanted to touch on your wive's certification question (#7).

I would say that the social sciences and elementary are probably the two most competitive areas for international teaching. If you are in the social sciences, I would recommend that your wife get certified in another area. I am certified in social sciences and another area, and I can say from first hand experience, I have gotten my jobs because of my other area of certification and then worked my way into the social sciences. At my current school, we have waaayyy too many people wanting social science positions. It is not very common for schools to have two open positions for social science and it would make it more difficult to find positions in the future. You might get lucky and larger schools might have two positions available, but my opinion is that you'd be majorly limiting yourselves to both be certified in social sciences. Schools generally want to be able to fill hard to fill positions and then the partner is given social sciences or elementary.

There are always exceptions, but I wanted to put this out there as you consider future moves.

It depends on who interviews you. Jim Gilson, the founder, I think is the only one who asks. But he will ask. No one else I ever talked to who were interviewed by others reported getting this question. There are plenty of non-religious people that work at QSI. There are also lots of very devout people. The philosophy and other published material for the organization never reference any religious belief or teaching. It is nothing official and is not included in the curriculum. But it can be a strong undercurrent depending on who your coworkers are.

Whether you'll be comfortable as an atheist working there, it really depends on the location. Some have a bigger religious group than others. And of course, things are always changing.

I can't speak for Armenia, but I worked for the current Director in Georgia at another QSI school. First of all, he is NOT religious. QSI has a religious strain that comes down from the founder, but the level of religious environment really comes from the staff and the director. At the other QSI school that I worked at, there was a strong religious group and a strong NOT religious group. We worked side by side and no one had any major issues (job-wise). The current director in Georgia was definitely a member of the NOT religious group.

As far as he goes -- he is good for QSI. Solid individual, hard worker, and realizes the limitations of the mastery learning system. Even with this, you will still be bound by the system of mastery and all the bs that it entails that have been outlined by other posters.

QSI is a good starter school for your first IT experience or if you have a large family or trailing spouse. If you have lots of experience, I would look for something else. One final thing to say -- you don't have to worry about them screwing you. You will get what you are promised. It isn't a great contract or a lot of pay, but there are no problems with being paid on time, being renewed if you are doing your job, getting promised bonuses if you meet the requirements, etc. With all the shady schools out there you could do a lot worse.

1st position - hired at end of February
2nd position - hired at end of January

But to add to the picture, I have a friend who has had four different positions and was hired for all of them in April. He never bothers with Search and just uses TIE and applies directly to the schools. He doesn't start looking in earnest until February usually.

So...there is definitely still hope! You may not get your dream school, but you can still get a solid school that will get you the experience you need to be more competitive for your next recruiting cycle. Keep up the applications and stay positive. I know it is hard -- the recruiting process is brutal and can really wear you down as it drags on. But again, there is still plenty of hope. Schools hire up until August and you can find some real gems that come up late because of last minute resignations, new positions, maternity leave, etc.

I don't have personal experience in the UAE, but can give a quick answer to the dependents question. If you are hired as an overseas hire, your children's tuition is covered by the school. One issue you might have is that some schools will only cover one child per working teacher, so with two dependents but only one teacher, you might only have one child covered. Many schools will cover two kids regardless, so this might not be a problem.

As for the school helping spouses find work -- this doesn't happen. You are on your own to find work.

I have been in Singapore and $100,000+ savings seems a bit ridiculous. You would have to do no travel, only eat at hawker stalls, and pretty much eliminate all alcohol (except the occasional hawker stall beer). Also, savings potential definitely depends on the school and their benefits. Some have good housing benefits that cover a reasonable place, others give amounts that might only cover half. Singapore is expensive, but the salaries for teachers are much better than any other country I've been in. The increased cost of living is more than made up for with the increased salary. You do have to limit how much you eat out at restaurants, however. This is a quick way to eat through your money. We were able to save an entire salary and still eat out probably once per week in a nice restaurant. We also traveled extensively. Additionally, it seemed that many expats expected to have a car. If you think this is a requirement than the cost of living does seem ridiculous. However, the public transport system is excellent and always expanding and taxis are quite reasonable.

We are currently in SE Asia and as a couple with no kids, we are able to save $60,000/year. We subscribe to the Shadowjack philosophy of life as well -- we are not sitting at home doing nothing in order to save. We travel during every vacation and try to see as much of the world as possible. We definitely save for retirement as much as we can, but not to the detriment of our current quality of life.

QSI doesn't give a housing allowance. They provide housing of their choice. Depending on who the director is, you might be able to find your own place and have the school secure it for you, but most schools have moved away from this...With QSI you can plan on your housing being covered, but you cannot assume anything about the quality of said housing. Some locations have huge disparities in the quality of the housing. I can't speak for Shekou specifically, however.

I haven't worked at CIS, but I have worked at another international school in Singapore. I can't comment on the working conditions at CIS, but I can comment on the amounts listed in relation to costs in Singapore.

59,000 SGD seems a bit low, but it would definitely cover cost of living if there are two salaries. With the way my partner and I lived while in Singapore, we would have been able to live off one of those salaries and save the other, but we don't have children, a car, and we limited how much we went out to restaurants. The housing amount is quite low if it is for both of you. If both were to get the housing allowance, you could find a nice place, but if it is for the both of you, you won't find much for 2000SGD/month. It would depend on your needs -- you could probably get a small one-bedroom place, but two or more bedroom condos would be probably another S$1000/month. The flight home allowance is low and probably wouldn't cover a whole ticket, but the fact that they offer it every year is a plus. Most schools offer closer to 3000USD, but only give it ever other year.

I've known teachers from CIS and they didn't complain too much, but alot of them I knew because they started at CIS and then moved to another school with a better package. I wouldn't rule it out, but I would be aware of the costs associated with Singapore.

Film is not a very common IB offering at most schools. I've only worked at one school that offered it and it was only offered because a teacher already there pushed for it. According to the last IB statistical bulletin for the May session out of roughly 130,000 candidates, just over 2,000 took IB Film. I highly doubt a school would advertise for a Film position by itself. You are probably more likely to get into a school in a related position and then take over Film from a departing teacher or push to add the course offering.