Terrible feedback on joyjobs dated 2013.

There are a plethora ... just check out the paid site, and also various reviews on British Expats (etc) .. mostly fairly accurate even though sometimes dated.

The majority will be family proprietory businesses that pay around MYR 5000 monthly before tax for a classroom teacher, and possibly offer shared accommodation. Expect about 24 hours plus face to face teaching weekly + duties.

The students will be lovely, and so will the parents, in general.

If money is no object, do some good in the world and volunteer at the UNHCR school.

Good luck!

As well as money, there is enormous prestige attached to starting a school, as our profession in an honorable one. Then, you are the owner and can be free to impose your idiosyncratic views on how you want to run it.

Case study 1. A school offering dual IGCSE and IB MYP Certification. Owner: 'IB MYP is wishy-washy".

Case study 2. A school upgrades its facilities to state of the art Interactive whiteboards in every class. Teachers directed to teach by PowerPoint, require a student to initial and date the final slide every lesson as evidence the lesson was taught, save to PDF and print a hard copy for the files.

I can't wait to build a school of my own!

I have done this and am about to do so again. You do not loose those hard-won classroom management skills, in fact you will have improved after reflecting on the pedagogies that you will have promoted to teachers for a few years. Now, after leading a bilingual international school, no classroom teaching involved, I am planning again to take a position which will require me to teach a few classes.

Working with students keeps you grounded, in my opinion. Too long away from them, you forget children are still operating with differently-wired brains from adults. Secondly, it is too easy for an administrative team to sometimes forget the intense pressure assessment and reporting cycles place on teachers: and there is nothing like annotating a stack of 30 essays to remind you.

The best educational leaders are people with a deep knowledge and a practical understanding of pedagogy. Leadership is far more than hounding people with less experience than you to meet deadlines; it is about transforming the way they view the process of learning and managing teams to reflect together and develop strategies so children in their classrooms learn best. The best synergy links the work of the educators in the classroom with the strategic support of a an experienced administrative team.

We all know administrators in very large systems who are now decades away from direct relationships with students, but the most credible administrators are those who can be easily re-imagined relating to students as well as to their professional colleagues.

I would completely agree that any teaching requires content! But any experienced teacher, of (for example, science) takes a statement like 'genetics describes how information is transferred down generations' (using an AC content example) and instantly recognises that this may require the teaching of Mendelian genetics, Punnett squares, interpreting family trees (this is what is meant by pedagogical content knowledge). A teacher of MYP is encouraged to also examine problematic knowledge with her students, perhaps around genetic testing/ manipulation etc. .... how genetic information informs the science of cladistics and the limits of that knowledge for understanding evolution ... on and on according to the what engages your class, and thereby connect the 'textbook stuff' to what is happening in the ever changing world of contemporary scientific research, and making the learning authentic. And this applies to all MYP subjects.

Until I experienced the IGCSE as taught in Asia several years ago, I had never come across a system where teachers actually refused to discuss science knowledge with their students they deemed was 'beyond the scope' of the syllabus, where students spent hours and weeks practising old exam papers downloaded from extremepapers.com. And this comes at a price: these chilkdren may score well at the 'skill' of completing an external exam, but can they communicate and synthesise their thoughts in an argumentative or persuasive essay? Can they design their own investigation into a phenomenon?

Alas, there is but 24 hours in a day, so the decision is how to spend it. Which toolbox prepares students better for future education in the modern world?

I cannot deny that there are excellent teachers out there who can turn a rigid syllabus into something alive and interesting, but now in my second international school, I have also witnessed the reverse, and it is disappointing.

The only advantage of UK type syllabus offers is that it will quickly provide you with 'pedagogical content knowledge'- the range of strategies to teach the types of content that is common to many courses around the world. This can be an advantage if you really have no idea - for a year or two - to get you started. But then what? You are not an automaton, and your lovely students are not all identical robots. Let's leave that thinking in the past century, where it belongs.

With IB courses (particularly PYP/ MYP) get ready to fly! Start thinking about the broad concepts behind these ideas. Look at other constructivist curricula world wide (e.g. - Australian Curriculum/ some of the new material coming out of the USA ) and you will start to understand 'Big Ideas'/ 'Key Concepts'/ Marco Concepts' as the recurring themes guiding your planning, not the life measured out with coffee spoons with a few extra factoids thrown in as students 'progress' to the following year. When you start thinking from this perspective, the scope of your courses is limited only by the interest of your students, and your focus shifts to learning yourself.

In addition to Kath Murdoch I also recommend books by Lynn Erickson.

I can understand why staff morale can be an issue: many for-profit schools have owners who are not educators, micro-managing or inserting their points of view, sometimes randomly.

Yet you will be able to make a considerable difference. As a Head, you should at least attempt to move into a leadership role of some sort (e.g., coordinator, pedagogical leader). You will have more respect the higher the position, and with your experience, you will be know and understand how to manage change successfully. You can also expect more respect from the school's owners, and that in itself will help you introduce new ideas.

Of course, as several posters have said, there are excellent amazing international schools out there too, and you may be lucky enough to land a job in one of those.

But if not, there are more of those other types of schools, where a wealthy family has the urge to make a difference, without appreciating teachers and education do not run like a factory. The impact you make in this type of school, provided the owners listen, is likely to be very much greater. And do not dismiss it: these schools to have many, many students who deserve good teaching.

Best of luck!

I recently came across this; the school offering these is Fairview.

http://www.stcconsortium.co.uk/blog/ma- ... -malaysia/

This may or may not be useful:

I am fortunate to have enjoyed a fantastic work history, which I felt my future employers needed to know to fully understand how I should be able to epitomise their schools. Then I recently I sent my 7 page c.v. to a friend (we were considering jointly approaching a school with two leadership positions, explaining we have worked very well together in the past). She took one look and said 'Yike's, that is way too long! I've slimmed mine to 2 pages and am now getting interviews.'

Two weeks ago someone on this forum recommended joyjobs. This company's first advice is to 'put your c.v. on a diet', the second on what to say if you are completely ancient (like on the wrong side of 50, like me). After a haircut and a professional photograph, I've already been approached by one of the schools I applied for (and the other jobs have only just closed).I do recommend this site.

You only need one buyer to make a sale.

There is a same sex female couple at my school in Malaysia, staff and students about 80% Muslim. There could be other issues for you at this school, but if interested, please contact me privately.

Dear Josephine

There is a qualitative difference between 'for profit' and 'the school is a business and must therefore be sustainable' - which would be philosophically appropriate for any private school.

The difference is that some owners of 'for profit' schools are not qualified educators themselves. They are people 'playing at' school based on their own experiences sometime mid-20th century, and they do not value teachers as professionals who work with children/ young people. Immediately this results in a philosophical clash between how to provide the best learning for students (i.e., through quality teachers, who should be encouraged of stay many years - and that requires recognising that these professionals should be trusted and provided with some real ownership of the curriculum/ student welfare etc).

Do reflect on teacherguy's experience and some of the posts you are considering. Some 'for profit' owners are relatively benign and genuinely well-meaning, and some schools espouse missions that may align with yours philosophically and politically. In the end, small for-profit enterprises can be professionally isolating because they are not aligned with big systems (eg US state education), and big chains of for-profit enterprises may just treat you like a cog in a machine. Consider every year of you professional life as precious, and reflect carefully what you will gain from it. Being prepared to work in very poor school with unprofessional practice could be a black mark on your cv.

I am a member of the Australian Council of Educational Leaders (ACEL), mainly because a transformational principal at a former school encouraged and paid for the middle management tier* to attend at least one professional learning workshop offered by this organisation annually. ACEL also produces a range of professional readings and online journals.... including access to a subsidised 'book of the month'. In addition, they regularly advertise networking conferences; currently for example, they are promoting The First Asia Pacific Congress on Creating Inclusive Schools and another event called Being A Global Digital Citizen. Even if you miss attending, you will have access to papers and possibly more. ACEL also offers mentoring/coaching for new leaders - which is very important for isolated schools.

I feel sure that from your USA context, there must be similar very worth while organisations, but if not, there is nothing to stop anyone join this one.

* A decade later, a number of us are now working as deputies or principals, at least two of us in International Schools.

I agree with the previous poster: go for it: you have the right amount of experience and educational background.

I suggest joining a professional association for educational leadership, particularly one that provides regular professional readings/ journals. In long-established education systems (and perhaps also high-quality schools), your promotion should incorporate leadership training and sustained, personalised coaching, and transitions should be seamless. I have yet to see this concept considered in either of my recent international schools, and others I hear about, and therefore I recommend to begin to do this yourself, start reflecting on case studies of school improvement. There are differences between leadership and management; and regular reading will help you hone your personal philosophy.

I think some of the issues discussed in forums around 'Should I join an international school without classroom experience in my home country' topics identify similar dilemmas, if your are promoted within the relatively isolated context of an international school.

If more international schools were prepared to invest in their educational leaders, you would not see so many posts complaining about the poor quality of their admin. Aim to be the kind of leader teachers rave about, and it won't harm your school either!