The International Schools Review Forum

ISR readers- I am relying on your wisdom. I have heard mixed opinions on this. The truth is, I am lazy and would rather not create a website for recruiting, but I will make one if I have to. I am active online, and feel recruiters can visit my class website and my Twitter account if they want to see my tech skills.

Also, I feel this may be something more necessary for those trying to break into international school teaching. I feel I am an established IS teacher. I have worked at two elite/1st tier (if we must classify) schools.

I guess my question is- How much do recruiters really look at/value websites that people make for recruiting purposes? Do I really need to have a website for this recruiting season if I want a job at a good school, or can I go for it with just what I feel is a strong resume?

I put a lot of effort into our website in order to get our first international position (in fact our first full time jobs anywhere) and I know it had a positive effect. As we consider moving on, I'm not sure if it will have the same value the second time around. Our resumes are far more rounded now and I don't think we need the extra support). It may simply come down to whether I have the time or not.

The listings service, JoyJobs, sets up a page with my pic and links to my resume. Sending a simple link in an e-mail I find to be very efficient. Your own web page sounds like it would be very slick and impress many. I'm on my third go-round, too. I think your information has to be accessible digitally, one way or another. When I am on the other end, I appreciate it.

What's the best website for international teachers to use to display their resume, portfolio, etc.?

A website won't hurt, but I haven't met an administrator who looks at them, Now I am one of them, yikes! Having said that, I think for a tech job it should almost be required these days.

As a tech teacher, I can show websites I have built. I currently don't have a website active and don't want to create one for a 'dog and pony show'. Not one person has ever asked to see "my website". Might it be a valuable tool? Yes in some cases. Is it essential. Absolutely not.

The one I had before, which I rebuilt about three or four times using Microsoft Expression, served it's purpose, but took a lot of time and involved a steep learning curve at the beginning. Trying to use Expression after using FrontPage was a nightmare, but I learned a hell of a lot, and I'm still able to apply a lot of that knowledge in other areas of my school work.

I still have two Expression websites up, one for job hunting and one for school, however, I am now using Edmodo for school, which has made the school one redundant.

I don't have the time anymore (two young kids), so I might look into Google Sites for our next job hunting one, which is more of a template layout, and seems like a relatively painless exercise and will take far less time to put together.

Both websites were clearly shown on our resumes, right under our email addresses. I know at least a couple of schools have looked at them. I don't know if that prompted them to ask us to interview, but it certainly didn't hurt. They were commented on by both schools. However, given that I've probably sent out 120 resumes in the last couple of years, it's entirely possible the other 118 didn't bother looking at all. But then, we only needed one school to hire us, so it may have been beneficial and may have made the difference.

LOL IAMBOG. Microsoft Expression. As a tech teacher, I have never heard of it or used it. I did play around with FrontPage a bit, but I taught myself to code raw HTML and CSS, and then moved on to DreamWeaver, which IMHO is the way to go, as it generally is much easier to visualize and execute in.

It is interesting seeing the experiences of others!

I know where you live, I'll send you a copy. You might learn something ;-)

http://www.itworld.com/answers/topic/so ... reamweaver

@indogal

YOU dont need a webpage or digital portfolio at your level, especially if you dont want to do the work.

Admins do look at them though its uncommon, typically you will see a view rate around 5% or less. Fine, performing arts and tech teachers get more use out of a webpage/digital portfolio then a humanities or math teacher would.

@Open Communication

I code my own site, and host it through my goggle drive.