Your ESL experience will not count. Your museum teaching experience will not count. Schools at the Bangkok fair will definitely not want to hire your husband because of his lack of certification. I'd say your best bet is the middle east or somewhere in rural China, but probably only you since you have no IB, AP, or IGCSE experience.

Not to be mean, but I'm wondering how you even got an invitation to the Bangkok fair since you are clearly not competitive. I'd try and go to one of the later fairs - you'll have more luck.

I think it depends on the country, not necessarily the school. China and Korea for sure do drug tests.

I cannot count how many times this has happened to me. The school interviews me a few times, everything sounds promising, and then the emails abruptly stop. If they hired someone else, the least they could do is respond and say so.

I would definitely place them in top tier, although the bottom of the 3. They still have an excellent package and salary. They are nowhere near the 2nd tier international schools in Bangkok, though.

My top choice. Definitely top-tier, IB school. I spoke to one of the admins at the fair and he said they were only interviewing people with a minimum of 6 years of IB experience and proven IB test results.

I applied there yesterday, but I probably don't have much of a chance, as I'm one of those teachers with a trailing spouse.

The $1600 deductible for their medical insurance plan is the big red flag. As one reviewer noted - the insurance plan is only for emergency care.

They are completely upfront about the workload on their website, though. You will have to work extra hours and more than a few weekends.

Normal for China. I'm sure that worse things happen.

It's far. You would need a car to get to central Bangkok - a good hour away if there's no traffic. Could be double that if there is traffic. The good thing is that it's really near fashion island, where you can find pretty much everything in terms of food and shopping. Best to talk to current teachers to find out what the lifestyle is like.

Definitely not top tier, but still pretty good I think. But it's very far from central Bangkok - out in the middle of nowhere.

^Was thinking the same. ASB is considered top tier, right? They hosted the flat classroom conference last year, they are a tablet school, and one of my IB workshop leaders works there (who wrote the course companion and part of the subject guide for Language & Literature). Salary and benefits also make it look good enough to be considered top-tier.

Yeah, 10-12k is low. Even the lower end international schools pay at least 20k per month.

I was certified in California - never did the BTSA. They counted my years of overseas teaching towards the Clear, although requirements may have changed now. But like PsyGuy said, if she has a Utah credential, so that doesn't matter I think. Best to contact the CCTC (California Commission on Teacher Credentialing) - www.ctc.ca.gov - to make sure. It will list all the requirements there.

I agree - I hate the whole job fair business. I'm hoping that it will go away soon, when schools realize that they can actually save money by doing video conferences. And it is very archaic - the whole folder system at the fair, I mean, you can't even pay the Search fee via credit card! Who ever heard of such a thing?

But for me, going to the fair is actually better. I live in a city in northern China, and the internet is terribly slow. Skype doesn't really work very well so I'm hoping that I either get hired at the fair or that a school will interview me via telephone.

I'm from California too. What your wife has is a provisional credential. It's still a teaching credential, and she can still get hired as a teacher - much different than say, a 30-day emergency credential. She has 5 years to take those CLAD classes and get her Clear - but why doesn't she do that now?

I don't think the fact that she has a provisional credential will matter much, but your dependents will.

If I were you I'd stay where you are and try to get your wife hired your school somehow.

The problem is that once you've chosen your associate, you pretty much have to go to the fair that they are organizing. So if you choose Williams or Deelman, you go to the BKK fair, but they don't have many invitations for the Cambridge fair (I already asked, and they said that they only handed out a few, and the waiting list is very long).

I'd much rather go to the Cambridge fair, but I can't because I'm with Williams. I have 2 years of IB experience (English), lots of qualifications and a few IB workshops under my belt. But I have a trailing spouse so I'm not really competitive. I emailed both Williams and the associate in charge of the Cambridge fair. They both said the same thing: I'd be better off going to the BKK fair. I'd love to go to the Cambridge fair even though it would be costly, so I just hope that I can get something at the BKK fair.