Search found 320 matches

by mamava
Thu Sep 26, 2019 4:07 pm
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: changing schools, same city
Replies: 5
Views: 8806

Re: changing schools, same city

You should be able to to change jobs within the same city--unless there is some national law that prohibits it...and you may need to leave the country and re-enter on your new work visa sponsored by your new school.

Keep in mind, though, that you may be considered a local hire--even top tier schools will often consider a foreign teacher a local hire which will dramatically affect your benefits.
by mamava
Fri Sep 13, 2019 1:17 pm
Forum: Forum 2. Ask Recruiting Questions, Share Information. What's on Your Mind?
Topic: Need Assistance w/ Job Search and the Entire Process
Replies: 11
Views: 35067

Re: Need Assistance w/ Job Search and the Entire Process

Regarding the IB system, one way is to start out in MS rather than HS. Some large schools have non-IB teachers for grades 9-10 but most of them do require teachers to teach IB as well. If you have strong credentials and are a good hire, some schools will hire and train you.

British schools are quite different--I worked at a school that was extremely snobby and closed to non-Brits (I'm an American) and I don't think I would have been hired except I teach special ed. I know other teachers who had worked at British schools with US background and we currently have an outstanding chemistry teacher at my school teaching SL and HL bio and chem and this is her first stint out of the UK system. So it's possible!
by mamava
Fri Sep 13, 2019 1:13 pm
Forum: Forum 2. Ask Recruiting Questions, Share Information. What's on Your Mind?
Topic: School social worker looking for an IS position
Replies: 6
Views: 22715

Re: School social worker looking for an IS position

1. There aren't social worker positions in overseas schools.

2. If you have special ed. background, you may find schools willing to hire you on your experience, even though you don't have a license--although the teachers that I have known in that situation do have classroom or subject area teaching licenses. You will likely have a difficult time, though--academic support teachers have to teach as well as manage.

3. As well, some schools may consider you for a guidance counselor based on your background rather than your credential. Some countries may put up visa blocks, in that they can be picky about the credentials matching the job description.

4. Is your husband going to be teaching? If not, you would be carrying 4 dependents and that's a lot for most international schools. Even though your twins are young, they would need insurance, housing, flights, etc. and most school cap at 1 dependent per teacher, with some doing 3 dependents per teaching couple. QSI and ME schools are more generous with that number.

It's always good to give things a shot. You have good experience and I think some schools would consider you for guidance, less so for academic support. For HS counselors, they are generally looking for that college counseling experience, so that could limit you if you don't have that. Some schools have HS college counseling and HS social/emotional counselors, but those are bigger schools and will more likely have more (licensed) applicants. You never know until you try!
by mamava
Fri Aug 16, 2019 3:08 pm
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: What do families do during summer vacation?
Replies: 9
Views: 11301

Re: What do families do during summer vacation?

For a long time we kept our house and rented it out and did the "stay with relatives" thing. 2 years ago, we sold it and bought a townhouse--no upkeep, no lawn work, no snowplowing--and we LOVE it. We do go home now twice a year, but now we have 1 college grad, 1 in college, and 1 heading off next year-- 2 of the 3 have had their whole lives overseas basically. We pay minimal utilities, turn the TV and internet on and off when we're there. Our kids have really loved feeling like they have a base in the States. My college son uses it on breaks. It has helped them feel grounded, especially as we have moved to new countries. I wish we would have done it sooner, to be honest--it's been worth the cost.

Our house is not located in an area where we could AirBnB it, but I know know several others who have purchased townhouses/condos in desirable vacation areas and just blocked off the times they would be using it. A couple other friends have townhouses that are near universities and rent them out to visiting professors whose schedules pretty closely match their own.
by mamava
Sun Aug 11, 2019 9:04 pm
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: Recruiters wary of teachers with admin aspirations?
Replies: 6
Views: 9554

Re: Recruiters wary of teachers with admin aspirations?

When you are interviewing, admin are looking for a good fit for that position for a few years...ideally beyond the initial contract. They would naturally be wary of someone who is looking at a teaching position as a stepping stone to something else.

So...don't advertise yourself as that. Some schools are very willing to promote from within...and others have a clear pattern of not doing that, no matter who's already there and how capable they may be. Asking that question--what is your track record of promoting from within--is a good question. Just be prepared that schools will be less than honest.

Best rule of thumb--be fully committed to the job you're interviewing for.
by mamava
Thu Jun 13, 2019 10:17 pm
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: Cheating on Exam
Replies: 6
Views: 7559

Re: Cheating on Exam

Most teachers I work with who hand back tests like that scan them before handing them back. That way, if a student tries to change anything, there is a scanned copy of the original test.

Penalizing the whole class would of course cause problems. Deal with the students who are at issue and leave the rest alone.
by mamava
Sat May 18, 2019 3:28 pm
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: Excess baggage?
Replies: 10
Views: 12682

Re: Excess baggage?

Of course, it's impossible to answer "how many bags." It's like asking "how long is a piece of string?" At our current location, our "shipping allowance" covered almost nothing in terms of shipping and we were discouraged from doing a shipment. We (a family of 4) ended up bring 26 bags....we each got 2, so that was 14 additional bags via Delta. I think people were allowed up to something like 10 bags PER PERSON. Our relocation allowance covered it. We brought RUGS, appliances, breakables, etc. The decision is what is available in country and what you really feel you need. In our case, our current country doesn't have an IKEA and regular household items are far more expensive than they are in the States so we brought it with us. Easy, peasy. We did a lot of research and asked a lot of questions to balance what we brought, what we could get and what we really needed.
by mamava
Tue Apr 09, 2019 10:05 am
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: Trailing Spouse
Replies: 10
Views: 11238

Re: Trailing Spouse

I don't think it's a big problem, hiring-wise and, fwiw, the teachers I knew that had affairs or were cheated on were teaching couples! It's definitely something to think about as a trailing husband about what to do. The majority of trailing spouses in the international community (not just teaching) are women so it can be hard to find your niche. Some of our trailing spouses sub or offer extracurriculars or coach. Where we live in South America, there are a lot of things -- hiking clubs, gyms, dancing, rowing, sports teams, etc. so once the language barrier is breached a bit it's a busy place. When we lived in China, it was much different--the trailing men I knew struggled quite a bit because so many things were catered for wives and it was much harder to break into local activities. My advice would be not to wait until you land--start researching expat options before you land so you know if the location is viable for a spouse.
by mamava
Tue Apr 09, 2019 7:36 am
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: Would a TEFL certificate be helpful for getting hired?
Replies: 12
Views: 11518

Re: Would a TEFL certificate be helpful for getting hired?

You can keep applying with your credentials as they are, but it will limit you and, moving forward, the lack of formal licensing will limit you in terms of moving up to more quality schools. I would look at Master's Degrees that will wrap in degree qualifications in the program, so that by the time you finish the coursework, you would have to student teach and then you'd have the necessary components to be licensed. If you are a German national, I'm not sure if you can be licensed in the States or if you have to be licensed in your own country, but I'm sure there are programs where you can get both the degree and the licensing qualifications all in one. Without that, good schools will probably steer clear of you, even with more experience.

Good luck!
by mamava
Wed Mar 13, 2019 6:11 am
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: Reapplying at a school
Replies: 5
Views: 6444

Re: Reapplying at a school

My husband and I interviewed at our current school twice. The first time my husband interviewed as an administrator and me as a teacher. The 2nd time we applied both as teachers--and I applied for the same job as I had the first time, and we were hired. We interviewed both times with the same people, too.
by mamava
Mon Mar 11, 2019 1:54 pm
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: Late start working toward a retirement
Replies: 34
Views: 31979

Re: Late start working toward a retirement

I would agree w/Psyguy. We did China for 5 years and then Saudi for 2 and in those 7 years we'll be able to send our 3 kids to college debt-free. There are some bennies as a working couple, but if you are careful, it should be easy to sock quite a bit away in the ME. Good luck!
by mamava
Thu Mar 07, 2019 8:33 am
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: Male applicant for Primary job at an advantage, or not?
Replies: 60
Views: 54790

Re: Male applicant for Primary job at an advantage, or not?

For what it's worth, I worked at an elite Chinese school. At the time I was hired there were 2 elementary male teachers and a 3rd was hired in my pool. When I left 4 years later, there was an overt commitment to hire more men at the elementary level at each grade level. They would not have hired a substandard man just to get a gender balance, but I would say that a good male elementary/primary teacher was going to move to the top of the pile at that time. I would suspect that would be true in any school that wanted to make that move.
by mamava
Sat Feb 16, 2019 11:43 am
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: Laziest Students in Asia?
Replies: 36
Views: 36655

Re: Laziest Students in Asia?

I worked in China for 5 years and Chinese students were very hardworking--they pushed themselves hard and their parents pushed harder. There wasn't a lot of room to be a slacker.
Not sure why the question was asked, or why it matters categorizing students by race or ethnicity.
by mamava
Wed Jan 30, 2019 1:46 pm
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: Why do recruiters/schools hire so quickly?
Replies: 10
Views: 10975

Re: Why do recruiters/schools hire so quickly?

They do hire fast, but often people have already sent in CVs and documentation. They can look at Search, ISS, contact references, check people out through connections, etc. all before the fair. One of the reasons why so many schools like to hire before the fairs, so they have more time, but a lot checking goes on behind the scenes. On that first day, when you make the rounds to try to land the interviews, they are already starting that checking if they haven't already.
by mamava
Wed Jan 30, 2019 1:43 pm
Forum: Forum 1. From Questions About ISS & Search to Anything and Everything About International Teaching
Topic: Advice for a college professor looking to teach abroad?
Replies: 35
Views: 39596

Re: Advice for a college professor looking to teach abroad?

Because he's a science teacher, he may have some leverage not having actual classroom HS experience...but any quality schools would ask questions about pedagogy, current trends, IB/AP, etc. Yes, answers can be looked up and rattled off, but it's important to be authentic and honest.

You also have 3 dependents along--very elite schools may carry that load, QSI schools will, Middle East schools (many) will--but that is definitely not the norm. So that's another tick in the negative box. As people say, you don't know if you don't try, but those factors, plus nearing the end of the big hiring season, will make your chances harder.

Lower--the 3rd tier--schools might be willing, but you always have to look at whether those schools are good places for your own kids to spend time and be educated.

Salary and qualifications aside, it's the family size that is a bigger issue, esp. if you won't consider the ME. European schools may not offer enough $$ for adequate housing for a family that size, or may not be affordable on 1 salary. Everyone always talks about how much you make and save working overseas, but if you don't have school fees, or benefits aren't provided to your dependents, you'll spend A LOT of money in that respect with tuition, housing, insurance, flights, etc.