I've completed the teacher ready course and am applying for positions. Currently, according to the FLDOE website my status of eligibility is ELIGIBLE for a professional 5 year teaching certificate. In Florida the process is to apply for schools and then do the background check before issuance of a professional certificate. The FLDOE website says that teachers not seeking Florida employment should do the background check before issuance of the certificate.

Should I go ahead and start applying for jobs now with only the status of eligibility? How about DODEA overseas, or do they need the professional certificate to be officially completed? Should I wait several weeks for the certificate to be finalized in possibly weeks or months to start applying?

Are there any current or former recruiters? What should I put on a resume? Any tips would be appreciated.

Cheers for that info Psyguy. I appreciate your help!

Actually, my master's specializes in elementary reading and literacy, so I do have a quite a few credits in elementary education, but I'm not sure if some of the courses will count specifically as elementary education as opposed to general education. Is there any way to have my credits evaluated in order to find out how many more I need to complete? I know I'm not far off and I will be completing the math and science methods courses shortly.

Hi guys,

I have a few questions maybe some of you can shed some light on. I'm looking into DODEA.

To be eligible for DODEA, I understand that I need specific credits in teaching methods for science, math, reading and language arts. I'm already covered in reading and language arts because of my master degree and I'm planning to do two courses to cover the science and math. I also understand that 3 credit hours are necessary in art OR pe OR music which can be waived if it has been taught for at least a year.

My questions are:

1) Having been working at my bilingual school in Thailand, as opposed to a US school, am I eligible to waive the art/pe/music requirement? I do teach both pe and art at my school.

2) When is the recruiting season for DODEA?

3) I have a master degree in education, a bachelor degree in English, a professional teaching license form Florida (in about 4-6 weeks after my background check is complete) and I've been teaching in Thailand for nearly three years now (two as a homeroom teacher in a Bilingual school in Thailand). Will this experience count for anything since it's not a US school or a US curriculum? (The curriculum is actually British).

If anyone can give me some answers I would appreciate it.

Here's what i'm doing and it's very similar to what you want to do.

1st) I'm in the process of finishing my BA in English and working as an English camp teacher in Thailand.

2nd) After the BA is finished i'm planning to do a Master of Science in Education through Buffalo State University at their overseas location in Bangkok. The price of the course is very inexpensive for a master degree and if you complete the TEFL certificate through their affilite university it counts as 9 grad credits, leaving the cost at about $10000 for a fully accredited US university master degreethat only takes about a year to finish.

3rd) Please note however that this master degree does not include stateside licensure (although it does include a license to teach in Thailand), so i'm also planning to complete the teacher ready program (which by the way will require you to go back to the states at least one time to take tests)

If everything goes according to plan then by the end of next year i will have an alternative teaching license and master degree in education.

A teaching license and a couple years of teaching experience in the states will pull in a lot more money and job opportunities for you, and a master degree will certainly help but if you are like me and absolutely cannot wait to leave the states this isn't a bad path to take either.

Thanks, i appreciate the responses.

I'm almost finished with my B.A. in English right now and i'm trying to figure out my next step. I'm planning to work here in Bangkok teaching English. I'm also planning to attend Buffalo State's Master of Science in Education program in Bangkok and plan to get a stateside teaching license as well. So my question would be:

Is a 2-day AP workshop in English lit and composition worth the money ($400US)? What about an IB workshop? would that be good enough on my resume to justify the time and money spent on it ($600US)?