The International Schools Review Forum

I'll add my two cents...

My wife and I created double-sided "ichiros" on thick card stock (1 side for her and 1 side for me) that gave brief highlights of our educational philosophies, education, certification, and several pictures of us in the classroom or things our students have done.

These were invaluable for us at the fair in London. We had more than a few recruiters say something like , "Oh, I remember you." And that's the point of it isn't it? We lined up at least 3 interviews, because someone recognized us...we stood out. Out of those three interviews we had two job offers and the third interview we cancelled when we got the dream offer. Not a bad average. Also, we were contacted by a top school in a bar after they saw our ichiro with another recruiter (we didnt apply, because there wasnt a position for both of us). They sought us out, and recognized us, because of that flashy piece of paper.

We didn't bring portfolios, but we did direct recruiters to our blogs and we mentioned them in our interviews. Whether or not they visited them, I don't know. Our ichiros may have been sufficient portfolio-wise.

@buffalofan

By next year it should be 4 years IB and no kids. I would still reccommend the BKK fair if you get an invite. For many of the elite schools thats the only fair that matters. If you want a chance at those schools thats the fair you have to go to. Candidates do get offers at the BKK fair and once those vacancies are gone they are gone.
You would likely be the most successful at the London fair though as far as actual attention. If you really wanted to feel like a top candidates the BOS fair would have you very busy.

[quote="cdn"]I'll add my two cents...

My wife and I created double-sided "ichiros" on thick card stock (1 side for her and 1 side for me) that gave brief highlights of our educational philosophies, education, certification, and several pictures of us in the classroom or things our students have done.

These were invaluable for us at the fair in London. We had more than a few recruiters say something like , "Oh, I remember you." And that's the point of it isn't it? We lined up at least 3 interviews, because someone recognized us...we stood out. Out of those three interviews we had two job offers and the third interview we cancelled when we got the dream offer. Not a bad average. Also, we were contacted by a top school in a bar after they saw our ichiro with another recruiter (we didnt apply, because there wasnt a position for both of us). They sought us out, and recognized us, because of that flashy piece of paper.

We didn't bring portfolios, but we did direct recruiters to our blogs and we mentioned them in our interviews. Whether or not they visited them, I don't know. Our ichiros may have been sufficient portfolio-wise.[/quote]


Hi cdn, thanks for that advice! I'm certainly trying to take on board as many tips as possible!

One thing I'm unsure on is how some colleagues with the same experience as me have managed to get at least an interview. Maybe the recruiters are scared they can't pronounce my name! ha.

Is there any chance I could see the example of the 'ichiros' ? or examples you may have followed?

We didn't follow any specific examples, but we made them based on some info we found on here. My wife is very creative, and she makes a lot of stuff for her classroom herself (and she sells or gives away a lot of it on teacherspayteachers and teaches notebook too). If you leave me an email I can send you a PDF example of what we used. I might put it up on my teaching blog too, so if I do that I'll just post the link here.

Pippafrit,
I find Wordpress.com is great for blogs....easy to use, multiple themes to select from, numerous tools, etc.

See what you think.

Lopaka

Pippafrit, if you are coming to China next year and are going to blog, come prepared with a VPN. In general blogs are blocked here, including Wordpress.

^I'll second that. I live in China and it's unbelievable how much the great firewall blocks. Facebook, google, any type of blog, youtube...even gmail has been blocked for the past few weeks. I use Astrill VPN to get around the firewall.

Pippa -

I use blogger, and so does my wife. There is a huge teaching community out there using blogger specifically. It makes it slightly easier to follow websites. I know that is why my wife switched from Wordpress to blogger.

Having said that, Lopaka is right. Wordpress offers up a lot more customization options.

Contact me...or give me an e-mail for my blog link.

Too many weird spam problems when I posted it here.

I would be very careful with open blogs, its common for an admin to google a teacher, and you have to be extremely diligent about what you post online and constantly sanitize it for content. One teacher last year didnt get a position because they made a trend on their blog about preferring warm weather. It was felt the candidate wouldnt be happy with the cold. Its completely trivial, but when your trying to select from hundreds of resumes and get the short list of finalists down to a handful, very small and at times trivial details make the difference.

Will look through the blog cdn, thanks :)

CDN - you are going to a great school. I have a couple of friends there from here - they started last year at the new place. Very cool - small small world :-)