Simple...lack of other options. Where else, other than here and there, can international teachers post?

Most schools are tight with their money whatever they are!

However it is somewhat galling to work your backside off just to see the bosses arriving in a sparkling new Porsche/Mercedes/BMW/Whatever obviously paid for by the school when your last request for basic teaching materials was refused.

[quote="Candycane"]How do you handle a not-so-wonderful stint?
A-Just ride it out
B-Exercise
C-Drink
D-Obsessively look for a new post
E-Other (Please specify below)[/quote]

Many people have been in similar situations to you due to how international recruitment is handled. Even if you kind of like the place if you know you will be leaving in 6 months it can be strange.

I did all of those things you mentioned but one thing that really helps is travelling. Look forward to the weekends and do something utterly unrelated to your job. Travelling, even if not far, is great. Learn a language. Anything...but have those two days at that end of that week focused on doing on something.

Then...before you know it...it has finished.

The problem regarding the OP's question is that there is no one answer of course. There are hundreds if not thousands of schools claiming to be "international". However...what does it mean to be an International School?

Is it the makeup of the student body alone? Maybe one could say a truly international school should have so many kids from so many different countries that the language in school IS in English through necessity and not having any lessons demanded by the host country. There are some of those about but out of those hundreds/thousands claiming to be international schools they must be a very small minority. Taking this to its extremes would lead us to these guys...The United World Colleges.

[url]http://www.uwc.org/[/url]

The downsides to this are of course that these International Schools can operate in a closed environment and they tend to be the most expensive options in town as well. Would they provide the most British/American/Australian/IB-based etc education? Yes. Would they be the best place for your kids to learn the local language and assimilate? Probably not.

So...then there are the "International Schools" who have a load of local students. The thing is...there are good and bad examples of these. I have experience of two. One is truly awful and one is a wonderful place to send children. How do you know which would be best for your kids? Read reviews, ask around etc.

If you will only be in the country for a short while or a year then a truly international school would be the way to go surely. However...if longer...and you really want your kids to become bilingual, for example, and experience the culture as much as possible then a VERY GOOD school with an international education system might be the best. Even so...make sure at least 75% of lessons (other than languages of course) are taught in English I would say. Make sure they have lots of foreign staff.

There are no easy answers I'm afraid but don't write off a school [u]solely [/u]because of the student body. There are some truly "International" schools that have nothing but horror stories too.

Two pages is the ideal length. One page might come across as too unprepared in the eyes of some employers whereas not many are ever likely to want to read more than two.

While it is advisable to go into far greater detail regarding your more recent positions (on a sliding scale approach if you want to consider it like that) try and also think of any things you did that were slightly off the norm.

If you have to look at 50+ CVs/resumes then anything to liven up proceedings helps. Heads seem to love extra-curriculur stuff or anything outside the norm of just teaching in the classroom. Maybe they hope to squeeze something extra out of you for nothing. :twisted:

Does anyone have experience or has heard about the British School in Quito?

I saw them advertising for staff a while back.

Link amended. You should be able to access it easily now by clicking on it.

There is a long thread on the place here...

http://www.tes.co.uk/section/staffroom/ ... 0Overseas/

Nobody has really posted what would be considered a good salary for Central or South America. Can anyone give any ballpark figures for what is considered good and bad for International Schools there?

Just a thought - Should you really pay a recruiter to find you a job? Shouldn't they be getting their money from the employer like most recruitment consultants? Or are International Schools that different?

Just an idea. Do you really need them if you contact schools directly? For example isn't it also possible (but less easy I admit) to arrange face-to-face interviews with schools outside the fairs?

Well...at the risk of being accused of being from joyjobs here is my experience! :lol:

This January when looking for jobs I signed up to both TIE Online and joyjobs. The reason I did this wasn't for the job adverts (well...actually signing up to TIE was) but mainly because I wanted a guide to the whole process. For some reason it seems pretty difficult to get good info on international schools worldwide and I had to rely on TESjobs mainly and places like Dave's ESL cafe as well as the (not very comprehensive) listing of international schools at Wikipedia.

So...there is nothing on joyjobs you can't find elsewhere but it helps to have a list of schools in one place with contact info/job info etc. Mind you quite a few were out of date with broken links etc which was a bit annoying. TIE Online was also good but more American-oriented and I was looking for info on British Schools.

So...the main thing was that I sorted a job for myself in February (school year starts in August at that school so it was six months in advance) without needing to go to a recruitment fair but by contacting schools direct. Search and CIS wanted a fortune and I didn't actually have two years of accredited school experience (I have more in FE colleges/universities in Asia) so they might not have taken me anyway.

If the schools I was offered a position at had a review on here I would have joined here as well. Actually, "Access Academy" in Ningbo, China, the pretend International School, was one of the schools and that has a review on here but it seems to have bad reviews all over the net! For some of the schools I mentioned I had seen their school/advert on joyjobs and they replied along the lines of "what the hell is that?" so I'm guessing they do pilfer adverts from other places! :twisted:

So would I recommend TIE or joyjobs? Not really...they worked for me as I was having trouble finding the info in one place. I don't think it was a rip-off though as it meant I had easy access to schools info and contact details so making it easy for me to send shed-loads of CVs out. I didn't find it so easy to get that kind of info on International Schools when I was are abroad and could only check online. In fact I found this site after I had subscribed to both those websites.

I'd have been able to get a job without them but they both saved time and hassle.

Am I from joyjobs or TIE Online...well, no. I don't know if I would use them again as this was my first time at finding a job with an International School and I don't know if I will need it again or be able to easily find the info next time without needing them. Mind you this is my first post on here so I'd be suspicious too! :wink: