Thanks for posting, Nomads! It's great to hear from someone who was there.

@Splendid

I've been coming here for years also and the negative reviews are depressing. Aside from the new, for-profit schools opening up all over with their growing pains, I also think ISR is THE place for international teachers to go to complain. There are other communities online where the opinions, advice, and help are much more positive, and I find myself going to them more often now. I am not going to list them; you can find them. Don't forget Facebook.

I worked recently at a school that has only blistering reviews here, even though there are many happy teachers there who keep renewing their contracts. Angry teachers post. Happy teachers don't, and those in between either don't care or, as in my case, worry about anonymity that isn't really anonymous in a small community.

I've been teaching internationally for ages. When I started we didn't have the technology at our fingertips that we have now. We live in a world where every opinion is broadcast without much thought. If you have a complaint, post it online. If you're angry, let it out online, "everyone" does. Unfortunately, more negative posts go online than positive posts. In some places it seems it's not cool to be happy and/or positive. And then there are the people who, for whatever reason, know everything better than everyone else and put down the majority of schools without personal experience with them. It sets a tone.

A lot of good happens in a lot of international schools. I know that because I've seen it personally, not because I've read it online. Wouldn't it be great if a site would celebrate that without being accused of being "cheerleaders?" But we've become too cynical, especially on this site.

@GRC
Thank you for the clarifications and the update. They are very helpful!

Does anyone have any personal experience they could share about Global Recruitment Collaborative (GRC)? They're having a fair in Dubai this November and have an interesting list of participating schools, but I've never heard of them before.
http://www.grcfair.org
Thanks!

In a resignation scenario where the teacher, for personal reasons, finishes only one school year of a contracted two, and admin is supportive and there are no hard feelings or complaints, what can be expected regarding summer pay? Are schools generally willing to complete 12 months pay even though school was in session 10 months, or would they only pay for the months taught because you resigned? I’m sure it could go either way since a contract is broken, but I’m curious if anyone’s done this. Getting an admin’s opinion would also be helpful. Thanks!