Come on, Pink.
It sounds like you know what this means but you are hoping that it doesn't.

I was offered a job at a school in Saudi. I e-mailed several teachers whose names I found on the website - I did not know them nor did they know me.
I got several replies back that convinced me that this school was hiding some things that I should have been told about.

Needless to say, I rejected the contract offer.

Trust an international school administrator? If the school is a good one then the admin person would love for you to contact teachers at the school.

Would you buy a house or car based solely on what one person told you?

Listen to your heart and use your common sense. I think you know the answer to your question.

Have a renter pay only a portion of your mortgage. Find someone decent and trustworthy who would appreciate living in a nice house for only a few hundred dollars and you cover the rest of the mortgage.

Will two of you be working overseas? If so, maybe you should be concerned why the school you will work for pays so little that you cannot cover your whole mortgage while you are away.

Good for you, Mathteach!

Hey, Max, IBRULES, and Topteacher,

I have been accused of being a bit too "honest' in some reviews, but I have never responded directly to any of the less than courteous personal replies some of my posts have received - unlike the three of you.

This is why I let international school teaching - TOO MAY OVERINFLATED EGOS!

Thanks to you three for adding yet another reason to support my decision to return home to teach.

Let me give you the other side of the coin:

My wife and I returned to the U.S. (New England) in July 2008 after 6 years teaching high school math at an international school in China. I am now teaching math at a public high school in Massachusetts. While discipline and motivation issues arise more frequently than overseas, class sizes are a bit larger (INTERNATIONAL SCHOOLS ALSO ARE INCREASING CLASS SIZES EVERY YEAR), and it takes more energy to get your students interested in the concepts, these are not more than any REAL TEACHER can handle. My belief is that unless you have spent some time in the trenches of public schools you are not a real teacher - sorry to all of the private school types.

I will save over $20,000 this year (which is more than a lot of the international school crowd will save or even earn), live in a beautiful home in a beautiful part of the country with trees, forests, ocean, and CLEAN AIR AND STREETS, and while I won't travel to Laos, Indonesia, Cambodia, or any of the other wonderful and exciting countries I saw while working overseas, I could afford to during the summer. Instead I will explore the greatest country on earth - the United States of America - and enjoy experiences that are every bit as exciting and stimulating as those my wife and I experienced while in Asia.

So my point is life is what you make it. REAL TEACHERS can teach and thrive anywhere. So if you choose to work overseas, Great. Just stop tearing down the American school system because we all know that the problems of the international school circuit are just as numerous as those of her U.S. counterpart.

Note: People who have not taught for at least 5 years in the public school system and have no basis for comparison need not reply or comment. Thank you.

Good for you, Panglosser.
The IBO is just a business with the sole purpose not being education, but making money - anyone want to buy an IBO logo coffee cup?
The language used in all IBO documents is purposely vague and abstract to divert attention from its vapid content as well as to prevent IBO from having to maintain a solid, concrete, educational philosophy.
By the way, can anyone tell me the number of schools that have actually been NOT ACCEPTED into the IBO "family" - other than because they could not afford the hefty joining fee?
Let's forget these silly gimmicks and get back to teaching kids in a creative, exciting way.

Only you would know whether or not you are incompetent. You do seem to fall into that other category of international school teachers: apologists for the system.
Saying "all schools have problems" or "no school is nirvana" is just a person's way of justifying his/her lack of courage in striving to make positive changes within that system.
The sad truth is that it is not only incompetent administration that is responsible, it is the scared and frightened teachers who are content to stick their heads in the sand, collect their salaries (rent included, of course, maybe even tax free) and allow such a corrupt system to flourish.
Read the postings on this site. Has it ever occurred to you that the single main reason why the negative ones outnumber the positive ones is because MOST international school teachers have not had many positive experiences at their schools?

As an international teacher who has finally had enough and is returning to the U.S in June, let me state a few facts:
1. MOST - not all - of the internationals are in the poor to mediocre range
2. The majority of international administrators could not maintain employment in the U.S. public school system as they cannot handle dealing with unions, a wide and large parent community, a large budget. For example, the "great" Dennis Larkin of Shanghai American School only has to deal with around 3000 students total. That was how many students attended the last public high school I taught at. Most international schools have far fewer students than SAS.
3. The majority of international teachers fall into 2 categories: superteachers who don't have any other life outside of school and incompetents who cannot make it in their own countries for a variety of reasons. This results in members of both these categories wanting to stay at their schools and in the international system so badly that they NEVER speak out about anything, resulting in even more power for ignorant and corrupt administrators.
International teaching is no longer the great deal it once was and the system is declining every year in that the playing field is continually shifting more and more toward admin and away from teachers.

DON"T GO!
There are now so many schools looking for teachers that you cannot be blackballed to the point of not being able to find a job. Forget Search, try ISS (not much better, but...) UNI, maybe TIE. Life is too short to work where you are not happy. And if the school misrepresented something even before you started work, it is only just the beginning.
Please tell us the school so the rest will be able to know the truth.