Where should I do my student teaching?

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Midori4040
Posts: 14
Joined: Sun Mar 06, 2016 7:07 am

Where should I do my student teaching?

Post by Midori4040 »

I have two solid leads to do my student teaching, this upcoming Fall.

I am starting Teacher Ready in August and will specialize in SPED/ESOL/Social Studies. I already have a masters in Counseling.

My goal is to become a 1:1 Learning Support Coordinator in an International School and then return to the States one day (5-10 years from now) to finish my career there.

My question is this: Which international school should I pursue to do my student teaching?

One lead is in a British school in Thailand. I haven't joined the site and paid to see if it's Tier 2 or 3, but I know it's not Tier 1. They've been very receptive to me coming to intern there, I have a volunteer visa secured and I think I'd find a job as a counselor there at the new school they're building in January.

The other lead is in Western Europe at a very good Tier 1 school. It's an American School. The likelihood of me getting hired, I would think, will be more competitive, even having accomplished my field experience at their school. But, it's Tier 1.

Would my prospects of one day being able to return to the States be affected positively or negatively, depending on the school I student teach at or would it be a moot point, having gained several years as an international counselor or teacher?

Also, how negatively do schools in the States look at international student teaching and subsequent career as a counselor or teacher? Will I be less viable having not had any experience in the States?

Thank you for your feedback.
PsyGuy
Posts: 10789
Joined: Wed Oct 12, 2011 9:51 am
Location: Northern Europe

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Post by PsyGuy »

We need some additional information:

1) How are you going to support yourself on a volunteer visa, or is this going to be in and out for you (fly in for a few months then fly out)?
2) Does the BS have a vacancy to fill that you can move into immediately?
3) What is the Visa status fore the WE IS? Is it student, volunteer, work?
4) What will you specifically be teaching and how? Well it be resource ESOL/SPED/SEN/LS/LD, or will it be inclusion? Tracking a single student from class to class for 5 days is basically walking or will you have a social studies classroom for 5 days, or something in between?
5) What indications have you felt out from the AS? Are they just willing to help you with the field experience or is this an audition for an appointment?
6) What if any indications/discussions have you had about leadership providing you a reference? Would the 1st tier IS principal (or the BS for that matter) write you one after only 5 days of clinical practicum?

The field experience for Teach Ready is only 5 days you dont learn anything nor demonstrate anything in 5 days.
Based solely on the limited information you have provided, assuming its accurate the only tangible factor being the quality of the IS, then the tier one AS in WE is the best option. Everything else you have provided is either unknown or a lot of maybe.

In general negatively. Working at an IS even a top tier IS is little more than a private DS to a principal in the states. There isnt a single IS (outside DoDDS) that practices SPED to the degree required and mandated in a public DS in the States. Further, your not going to get the exposure or experience across the entire spectrum of SPED needs. You will mostly find mild needs and a little ED. You arent going to find moderate, severe, multi needs students. You wont have any significant experience with visual or auditory needs, you wont have any experience in life skills or a BMU. You wont be upto date on regulatory law, or adjudication, etc.. The SPED/SEN/LS/LD you find in ISs is 'Sped. lite'. The DTs that make it to coordinator/director/HOD of DE SPED departments are those who have worked their way up from the trenches. Walking into a DS for a leadership SPED position in the States with "I was coordinator at IS Genovia", is going to get you a smile and a giggle, they will know in about 2 minutes you dont have the experience to run a SPED department/division.

Additionally...

None of the premium agencies use terminology in their profile page about their tier, except to state that they are "a top tier school". Not a single one would ever state they were 2nd or 3rd tier.

Your not specializing if your EPP/ITT program includes ESOL, SPED, and Social Studies. If you state that your goal is on primary aged ED students in adaptive SPED then your specializing. Otherwise someone looked at your transcripts and said "this is what you can do" and you said "okay".

The position you describe "1:1 Learning Support Coordinator" with a real international population is something you would find at only the largest ISs and those are going to be elite tier ISs. In smaller ISs that role is often part of the counselors and at moderate sized ISs is performed as the administrative part of the HODs tasking. Your not going to find yourself with an office doing only administrative/leadership tasks unless your the counselor or in a very large IS.

After obtaining your teaching certificate in FL, I would strongly advise applying for school counselor in D.C. through transcript - with your masters in counseling. If approved you wont have to complete another EPP/ITT program, since in IE what you want to do is really counselor. In which case career/uni counselor training/experience, or UNI admissions enrollment management is something I strongly recommend that you want to look into.
Midori4040
Posts: 14
Joined: Sun Mar 06, 2016 7:07 am

Re: Where should I do my student teaching?

Post by Midori4040 »

Thank you for breaking this down for me and letting me think critically about some considerations between my two options that I hadn't previously considered.

I'm leaning towards pursuing the American School in Western Europe. I don't need a visa for the school in Western Europe because I'm an EU citizen. The Thailand situation is more dicey. I'll be required to do border runs in order to keep my visa legitimate during the time I'm there.

The potential job opening in Thailand is a rumor. It's if the school extension gets built in time.

Out of all of the time you took to give such a thoughtful response, you've hit the nail on the head: I want to pursue counseling above all else in an international school. I'm really only obtaining the SPED/ESOL/Social Studies state certification to help bolster my chances of getting hired in an international setting. I understand that SPED in an IS vs. US school are night and day.

My question to you is this: What did you mean by this?

"After obtaining your teaching certificate in FL, I would strongly advise applying for school counselor in D.C. through transcript"

I'm planning on doing Teacher Ready and testing in SPED, ESOL and Social Studies. Florida also offers a test for Guidance and Counseling and I meet the requirements with ONE exception. My practicum during my masters needs to be cleared by the state DOE. They're difficult to deal with over the phone, however, a school counselor friend of mine in Florida has explained that if my clinical supervisor can write a letter stating that I had practicum experience with school aged children, the DOE would accept that in lieu of a masters in school counseling.

However, if there's another path you're speaking of, please let me know.
PsyGuy
Posts: 10789
Joined: Wed Oct 12, 2011 9:51 am
Location: Northern Europe

Response

Post by PsyGuy »

@Midori4040

Im sure you realize at some level that the Thailand position has significant risks with little described benefits of those risks.

D.C. is one of the only states that provides a route to certification through transcript ana1ysis. A similar process to what you describe is available to you in FL, though the D.C. pathway is more transparent and organized. Assuming you meet the academic requirements and the field experience, D.C. will issue you a regular credential as a school counselor.

What you need to explore and answer for yourself is one very simple question: What will you get and have at the end of your 5 days field experience and program?

If all your going to have is a certification, than you dont have very high expectations, and Id advise to keep them interested but keep looking. If the Thai IS was offering something more tangible, than that would be a stronger position for your resume than the AS in the WE, if all that AS IS is offering is a place to complete your program. You need to feel out what they are thinking? Is this an audition for a vacancy? You work with them throughout the year and finish your program at the end of the year in Spring and if they like you, you get an offer? If not an offer, will the HOS/Leadership members provide you references? Would you be in a position based on your assignment to obtain co-worker references or letters of support?

What position are they interested in placing you in and what role? It would be to your benefit to do SPED, this is going to provide you some preparation in some of the tasking of a counselor, but in addition its going to put you in contact with the most number of the staff and faculty. You could potentially obtain references from both the secondary and primary principals, the HOS and the HOD for SPED. If you teach social studies an HOD reference doesnt mean much and you miss out on the primary principal. If you teach ESOL depending on the IS you may only really have a potential reference from the HOS, and ESOL is much more difficult to market, its generally considered poison and 1st tier ISs dont generally have large ESOL populations.

I understand you want to get onto the IE circuit, and SPED is the best match as an IT, but understand and this is crucial, every day you spend in a classroom creating lessons, marking assessments and teaching is a day you are not counseling. You can do pretty much anything for about a year in IE, after which your marketability falls. 3, 4, 5 plus years in a classroom and you wont be a competitive counselor.

A number of posts and discussions have appeared on this forum, and there is significant disagreement on what a counselors tasking is mostly in regard to the MH (mental health) aspect, setting that aside what is in demand as far as counselor services is career/Uni counseling, its either a separate job in itself or a major tasking responsibility of a whole IS counselor. There really isnt much training or practice you find in many school counselor programs. If a counselor is what you want to be, youd be far better off spending a year or two in the admission or enrollment services division of the best UNI or college you could find, even if you did it on a volunteer or part time basis. Spend a year as an admissions officer at an "Ivy" and you dont need a counselor credential there are ISs that will hire you without much more than a resume and a cursory interview. If you were an admissions officer at Harvard, OxBridge, Sorbonne, McGill, etc the assumption is you either have contacts that can get their students in or you know how the system works, or both. Parents will flat out pay you $10K for a reference, email, phone call.

If you really want to fast track into a counselor position marry someone in leadership who can make it happen.

Figure out what you want and what you can get out of your placements first.
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