chemteacher101 wrote:
"where the Principal seemed like he was trying to convince me not to go to that country..."

This definitely happened to my wife and I once. We were prepared to interview for jobs in Santa Cruz, Bolivia and the very first question the director had was "do you have kids?" When we said yes he proceeded to tell us the school wasn't for us or our kids and explained why.

Based on my experience in Shanghai you can make more than 40-50K/year in China and you can easily save more than 50% of your total salary. At the moment the devaluation of the RMB has taken a big chunk out of salaries and the cost of western goods has gone up noticeably but if your goal is to save a significant sum, then it is very doable.

Psyguy is correct, delivery has been a staple of Chinese life for years. The mere fact that 1,000,000 delivery drivers are employed China wide attests to it’s popularity. However it has grown tremendously in the past five years and you can buy almost anything you would find in a brick and mortar store online, plus specialty items that you would never find.

There has to be a SNL skit in here somewhere.

ironically the school I have enjoyed working at the most is in Laos, illustrating once again that one teacher’s list is just that, one teacher’s list.

SJ, still sharing?

It’s a whole grain

I think having a shared overseas experience with your sister will be something that both of you will treasure for the rest of your lives. One of the things that my wife and I find difficult is that our families really don't care about our experiences other than that we are happy and healthy (which of course is important).

I live in Shanghai so my comparison is definitely not apples to apples but I think your salary is low and your benefits package is left wanting as well. However, there is more to life than salary and benefits and if this fits in with your and your spouse's life plan then go for it and take advantage of time with your sister.

I would say having an ES teaching spouse may or may not make you more marketable to individual schools but as a whole probably doesn't have any impact.

ILMathTeachr wrote:
> I'm curious how well lifelong career IS teachers are able to really save for retirement.

In the same way many people do back home, by living within your means and planning for the future.

Part of the plan is to find a school you are comfortable with and stick with it. Moving from school to school and correspondingly up and down the pay scale hurts your savings. Even moving hurts your savings, my spouse and I are always shocked at how much it costs to move and set up a household in a new country.

My experience says just to start filing. I moved out of the United States in the '80s and didn't file again for 20+ years when I knew I wanted to buy a house in the US in the near future. Thirteen years later I have dutifully filed every year and not drawn any undo attention.

Every teacher is marketable, its just a matter of whether the conditions at one of the thousands of international schools around the world is suitable for your family. I agree with Senator, if this is a move you are committed to then you just need to make the jump.

We have instructional coaches at the ES and in the secondary and they work in very different ways. In the ES they are directing learning and serving up lessons and placing a lot of demands on teachers, primarily of teachers' time for meetings. In the secondary the coaches take their cues from the teachers and are assisting teachers in developing lesson plans and generating ideas for the classroom. If you don't have time to meet one week its not a big deal. Luckily I teach in the MS so I have a great relationship with our subject coach.

PsyGuy wrote:

> We have different experiences.

Exactly my point