Things I like about living in the ME:

*The weather. Winter is pleasant, but I also enjoy the scorching hot temperatures of summer (especially while lying beside the swimming pool).

*Housing. We are in a brand new apartment complex with several pools, several gyms and lots of fitness classes.

*Language. Everything is in English (which is a nice change from China).

*The expat sport scene. I play in two ice hockey leagues. There are also rugby, football and softball leagues that are all pretty well established.

*Luxury items are relatively cheap compared to other places. We splurge on a really nice restaurant once a month or so and it is significantly cheaper than it is back home.

*Money.

Things that I don't like:

*The treatment of imported labour (of the Indian and Filipino variety).

*Dealing with locals (which I rarely have to do)

*The ratio of single women to single men. If I wasn't married, it would be a pretty big downer.

Honestly, my quality of life is pretty good. On weekdays I usually get home at around 4. I'll usually go to the gym if I'm not playing hockey, and then my wife and I will cook a nice dinner (we barbecue on our patio a lot). Our neighbors come by quite a bit. On weekends we might go out for dinner or a drink. We go camping about once a month. We bought a cheap jeep and have been doing a bunch of exploring in the desert.

I teach wonderful kids, with a pretty standard course load, and great opportunities.

However, I think this varies quite a bit depending on where you are. My (personal) quality of life index in the ME goes like this:

UAE (Abu Dhabi/Dubai)/Israel
Oman/Jordan
Qatar (Doha)
Saudi Arabia/Egypt/Kuwait
Lebanon/Yemen/Iraq/Syria

There range between top and bottom is pretty huge.

I had a really a positive experience and will vouch that the admin in Dalian and Shanghai and Tianjin are all good people.

Most are DP Econ/DP Business or DP Econ and MYP Humanities.

Big schools will occasionally have only econ teachers, but not having a degree in economics is a pretty big knock against you.

The fee for SA or ISS exists primarily to screen out candidates who are not committed. Revenue primarily comes from the school. If you aren't willing to pay the $300, you aren't really "seriously looking into it as an option".

Google anything works on an infrequent and unpredictable basis in China. For example, Google will not work for roughly the week before or the week after June 4th every year. Google refuses to keep their servers in China (where the government would have access to them), so they have issues with the Great Firewall.

I am an ex-MLIS teacher, although not at the Wuhan campus.

The established schools (Dalian, Tianjin and Wuhan) are tier 2 schools. The recent expansion schools (Luoyang, Chongqing, and the 2 Shanghai schools) are arguably tier-3 schools, but with a few more years to establish themselves I suspect that will change. At the other flagship schools, the students are roughly 85% national and 15% international (largely from South Korea, Russia, Mongolia and Japan). This may be lower at Wuhan as it is further from any border.

The salary is roughly comparable to a teacher back home (if you don't include the pension), and is paid in Canadian dollars. This makes it easy to send money back to Canada, but also means the salary becomes worse as the RMB appreciates. I made less (in RMB) in my last year than I did in my first year despite several raises. Taxes are roughly 13%.

Considering I pay approximately $2000 a year for housing, I don't find the lack of accommodations in the contract a big deal.

The flight allowance is actually more generous than $1500. The school will pay the entire cost of the flight, if they book the flight for you. $1500 is what they offer if you choose to book the flight yourself (for example, if you'd rather travel over the summer rather than return to Canada).

The workload is on the high side (in terms of contract hours, actual working hours, and class sizes). The past 2 years, we have worked about 10 Saturdays throughout the course of the year. However, the vacations are long (5 weeks for the Chinese New Year, and two other 9 day vacations), so there are extensive opportunities to travel compared to other international schools in the area.

I have nothing but positive thing to say about current administration from top to bottom. The current principal at Wuhan is a great guy (although he won't be there next year as he is transferring to the Foreign National School).

I'd argue it is a great place to launch your IS career, especially as a new graduate from BC.

I hope this helps - if you have any other questions, feel free to give me a PM.

Theoretically it is in effect, but whether they are actually enforcing/collecting it varies from province to province.

Shan gao huangdi yuan.

I am currently paying it as of this year.

Practically?

University credit is often awarded for HL courses.
If a student moves frequently, the curriculum is consistent between countries (at the DP level).

Pedagogically?
It is more rigorous than most national curriculums (at the DP level).
Arguably more student centred.

[quote="1kingston"]@Sitka
that's awesome I had no idea about those schools! It seems there are a bunch of them. Are these not considered international schools? that's so cool and thanks for the info. I wonder if I could apply to a BC school in Korea even though I am from Ontario, I'll look into it.
[/quote]

To work at a BC school, you need to have your BC certification. Depending on where your certification is from (within Canada), it can be difficult or easy to get. There is an agreement with Alberta which makes the process relatively hassle-free. Ontario is relatively easy as well. The process takes about 45 days to transfer.

Canadian curriculum schools are a good place to get your first experience due to a shortage of BC-certified teachers abroad. Nearly every school hires brand new teachers every year.

I hope that helps. If you have any more specific questions, feel free to shoot me a PM.

I was in the same boat three years ago (except with a British Columbia certificate). Many of the Canadian curriculum schools will let you jump right in without experience. That is where I started.

http://cicic.ca/716/canadian-schools-ou ... ada.canada

Ours does. Exactly half.

I've done several (doing a second round with department heads and so on right now). I have the feeling it is the lull before the storm though. Economics teacher, for what it is worth.

Cheers.