I would third the Ethiopia recommendation. It's a beautiful and relatively safe country surrounded by extremely dangerous ones. I've also heard there is a good school in Addis Ababa.

@Shawanda if you do indeed have as much experience as you stated, I don't think you have any reason to be worried about finding a comfortable place to work for next year. I think what @Eion_Paidraig was commenting on was the fact that for some unknown reason its not working right now. You should branch out and try to find a resource or mentor that can be of service to you. As a colleague, I'd be happy to look over your resumé/cover letter. Feel free to PM me. I have a significantly less experience than you but I think I'm pretty good at sketching out a decent CV.

My associate keeps pretty good contact with me. In my humble opinion, SA is what you make out of it. I made sure I was clear from the beginning what my greater career ambitions were, and they have done a nice job advising me on which schools/areas of the word to target in order to realize those goals.

Thank you for the clarification and advice on which path to choose.

@Sid
Strangely, I don't have a strong preference for either "bigunns" or "littleuns." I'm still pretty green in the education field so experience with a curriculum that could bolster my resume is more important to me than age group.

@psyguy

I'm happy to hear that you don't believe CC is going away. I've come to really like the curriculum over the past two years of using the standards. However, I haven't taught IB and perhaps I will come to like it if given the chance to become familiar with the program.

How picky are you guys being with where you are applying? I've gotten a decent response rate 1/8 or so from schools in China/SEA albeit mostly from "lower tier" schools. Several of them I have interviewed with and said a polite "no" to but it helped my confidence and my interview game has improved throughout the fall.

So, I am in the process of interviewing with several schools that offer four distinct curricula.

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The first is (IBDP) English. Yet to be decided if it is English A or English B.

The second, (IMYC) Language Arts/Humanities.

The third, (PYP) Elementary English.

The fourth, (Common Core) Secondary English/ESL. From what I have gleaned, it would entail something similar to an English B class.

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All the schools seem to have similar savings potential and seem like nice places to work/live. Which of these curricula would be the most useful down the line to? I'm a little concerned Common Core won't be around much longer. It would be a shame to put in 4 or 5 years only to have the curriculum abandoned. I would like to build experience in a curriculum that will add some value to my fairly young resume (currently only 2 years of Common Core experience in the states). Any other recommendations for curricula that are especially desirable? Thanks!

I've had six so far this fall and two more later this week. However, I have applied to just about every position that I am qualified for. I turned down 3 schools, wasn't offered a position by a fourth and am waiting to hear back on two. I have a feeling that I will accept a job by either of these last two schools if they make an offer.

@joe30

I agree completely with this post.

Hey guys,

Thank you for all your advice. Just and update. I had the interview a few days ago, surprisingly, IB wasn't even a topic that came up during our conversation. The interview was shorter than other ones that I have had so far this season but I think it went well. They asked very standard "teaching" questions. Nothing too specific about my content area or curriculum. I wonder if those sorts of questions would be covered in a second interview. Hopefully, I am lucky enough to find out.. I'll let you know how it goes.

Never understood the conservative stance on abolishing Common Core. It's an opt-in curriculum. Any state can choose not to teach it if they develop their own.

Today things were very depressed at my school here in Charlotte, NC. I feel the school was affected especially hard because we have a 70%+ Latino student body. Last year, when ICE raids picked up, student attendance dropped dramatically. I hope nothing like last year happens again, though now I am less hopeful.

I just need a quick space to vent. It is so frustrating when schools have their own application system on their website. After spending hours carefully filling out ISS/SA/TIE/Other profiles and applications, to be petitioned to by half the schools to complete their own versions is endlessly irking. I understand this is for their connivence, and I do imagine the mass of emails from potential hires some HR departments collect must be enormous, but it takes so much time from an applicants point of view. I am also a little hesitant to leave my references' contact information, I hope these schools wait to contact them until they are ready to offer a position or else my referees will also be filling out pages and pages of unnecessary online forms. Anyone else out there share these same frustrations?

@psyguy

"light"

I'll run a few google searches on "making the PYP happen," as you advised. Interesting take on how I should approach the interview, I think you are probably right. I don't want to give the impression I'm an expert, however, I want to sound like I know of IB and a be able to answer questions with a few "buzzwords". After the short amount of reading I have done on IB this weekend, it actually sounds pretty similar to what I am already doing at my current school.

@fine dude

Looks like a great resource. Thanks!

Hey all,

I was offered a Skype interview at a solid 2nd tier IB school in a desirable SEA location for next week. I don't have any experience teaching IB and I wanted to know if anyone had suggestions on how to approach the interview or resources I could find online to help me prepare. The position is part of the PYP program and I would be teaching EAL. So far this hiring season, I secured had a couple Skype interviews and and both went well. Because of these early interviews, I feel pretty comfortable with many of the standard pedagogy/personal questions, but I feel a little unprepared for questions regarding IB curricula. I have posted on the forum a few times recently but I will add some of my experience below in case it is useful.

BA English
MA MS.ED (Currently completing remotely through a top school in US)
2 Years Elementary EAL experience in domestic school (USA)
--FWIW--
US Soccer Federation Coaching Cert.
Google Educator Level 1 Cert
2 years at ESL Cram School experience

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Thanks for any advice ahead of time!