Haha. I’m aware of the contributors on this forum WeDoDude. I always look forward to, and respect, your thoughts on DODEA subjects.

I assumed that all government jobs had to be announced. So maybe I’m wrong there. I know, and understand, that hiring is done primarily in June and through the summer, but was hoping to get lucky and find something for January. This was based on the (maybe) wrong assumption that many of these schools were shorthanded in the special education area. We’ll see what happens once I am active in the system.

PsyGuy- Thanks for the detailed rundown. I should have done a search of the forum. I’ve taught secondary social studies overseas on and off since 2004, so am familiar generally with “how things workâ€

I have a few questions that hopefully those of you teaching internationally and/or at a DODEA school can help answer.

I’m certified K-6 elementary, and 7-12 social studies, and have a M. Ed. I’ve taught overseas. I’m back in university and in the process of getting a K-12 special education endorsement to my teaching license.

I’ll be finished with school in December; so have begun doing some research on special education jobs overseas. I downloaded at State Department document listing every school that has some sort of program. I’ve checked at least 200 school websites so far. One thing I’ve noticed is that most schools have just a “resource room,â€

I went to UNI with zero expectations. Besides the lack of "real" teaching experience, I had a non-teaching spouse. Two huge strikes against me. But I got a job.

Go to the UNI fair. You will get an offer or two. Head straight for the Middle East schools tables. Or any school located in a less than ideal location, or in a country packed with "international schools" like China.

What I saw at the UNI open cattle call was pretty funny. Everyone headed straight for the dream/fantasy location schools. Costa Rica, Bahamas, Spain... (There must have been 50 people waiting in the line for the school in Costa Rica. It had two openings.) I went straight to the area that had Egyptian schools. Those directors were just sitting there looking bored, no one going up to them.

I was in a similar situation when I began looking for work internationally. I had just received my M. Ed., but had no teaching experience in the U.S. beyond student teaching. I went to the UNI fair and found that very few schools were interested. Like you I’d student taught for a year in my master’s program. I then went on and student taught another semester to get my secondary teaching endorsement. I tried to point this out when talking to directors, to no avail.

I did get a few interviews with second tier schools, and while waiting for the interviews to start I walked around the conference room and talked to just about every director there. All of them said, “Come back and see me after you’ve got two years under your belt.â€

Honestly, very little of what you’re being asked to do sounds out of the ordinary to me. When I began teaching overseas I was shocked, and admittedly pleasantly surprised, at how little of my time was required before, during, and after school compared to teaching in America.

A lot of the things you mention, like meeting parents, dinners, and so on, are pretty typical for the international schools I’ve been at. I looked at it like this: I’m being paid very good money at a very good school where parents are paying A LOT of money to send their kids. Of course there are going to be meet and greets, dinners, nighttime assemblies, and so on. It’s part of the job, and it’s part of the international school culture. Grade level meetings, meetings over certain students, staff meetings… are pretty vital to the functioning of a healthy school. Everybody needs to be on the same page.

Its not always fun. But it is what it is.

Weekends are a different matter. I always considered my weekends to be sacred. There were teachers who would be at the school every weekend running clubs and such. They always volunteered for those gigs though. Every once in a while I may be asked to be a chaperone on a sports team trip somewhere, and when I taught AP history I’d have Saturday study sessions as exam time approached. I enjoyed the trips (free!), and was willing to put in a few extra hours so my students would do well on their AP exam. No big deal, and it certainly wasn’t every weekend.

I guess it depends on how you view “free time.â€

UNI Fair, a long, long time ago:
I had a number of strikes against me at the time- just out of university so no experience, and a non-teaching spouse. There were very few schools even interested in interviewing me.

I walk into the hotel room for my interview. The room is FULL of shopping bags. And junk food. (I mean everywhere.) In the room is the director and her daughter. The first ten minutes are spent having them show me all the stuff they’ve purchased to take home with them. Five minutes is spent taking to her daughter while the director chats on the phone. The last five minutes are taken up by the director telling me about the school. The only question I was asked is, “do you have any questions?â€

This is five years too late, and odds are good Lorie no longer even looks at this forum, but I thought I'd fill her in, and maybe help out anyone who stumbles across this and is curious about UAS. Tom is gone now. he's a principal at United World College in New Mexico. I worked for him at UAS in Montevideo.

Everything everyone has said above is true. He was an excellent boss, a good guy, great to work for. And his musical tastes were quite good. But as Tom's gone that's not all that important anymore.

UAS, when I worked there, was a pretty great school. I saw none of the issues Lorrie mentioned. Staff morale was great. From what I'd heard, Tom did a bit of house cleaning after he got to the school, and some of the less than stellar teachers were let go. This did create some bad feelings. (See the ISR director reviews for Tom.) I saw or experienced no resentment between overseas and local staff. The local staff were all VERY friendly and made me feel at home. They were also excellent teachers. The school was still having some financial issues when I was there. Barely keeping its head above the water as far as money goes, but beyond a salary that could have been a bit better considering the high cost of living in Montevideo, I never got an "oh my god the ship is sinking" vibe. I never wanted for supplies or financial help while I was there.

I loved every minute of my time at UAS and in Uruguay.