Some people are.

I was referring to any meaningful contact with a school (email, phone, Skype, etc.) that demonstrates their interest. For us, it's only been schools that we had already contacted through Search. We also have a website, and I keep an eye on the stats to see how often people visit, where they're from, and what information they're after, but I don't consider that a nibble. It's more a frustration, or maybe an obsession. :)

Txteach, vettievette, shadowjack, I'm so glad to hear your thoughts on this issue. As I've mentioned before, I'm at a high-needs district in the south, and I can't help but feel guilty when I think about moving to an IS. I mentioned my job search this week to one of my coworkers, a person I consider to be a friend and mentor, and he shook his head and said, "You are good for this school." He was clearly disappointed in me. But... as important as it is to reach the kids on the bottom of the barrel, so to speak, isn't it equally important to help shape the minds of people with power? The kids who'll be going to top universities and leading the businesses and governments of the future? That's an opportunity to make real change...

Still, it's hard to think about leaving these kids. Thank you for your thoughtful contributions.

I don't teach abroad (applying this year), but I've lurked around these forums for quite a while. Since no one else is responding, I'll give it a shot.

SPED, Chemistry, and Physics are all solid high-need fields. With three years of experience, you shouldn't have trouble finding something. Mr. Bookshelf has 4 years of experience teaching Bio & Chem, and we've been fairly pleased with the attention we've gotten so far. Quick question, though: You say you've taught a lot of different things. How many of those three years of experience are actually relevant to the jobs you'll be trying to get?

Single with no dependents is good. Many schools prefer couples, but I've also seen some that want singles, especially boarding schools. Either way, you'd be in the top two groups.

We also work at a Title 1 district with lots of focus on SPED. People seem to appreciate our experiences here. Seems like there's a movement toward offering more services in some international schools.

We also both studied abroad in university. It's worth mentioning in your application or interview, as it seems to ease recruiters' fears about your ability to adjust.

I'll refrain from telling you how to conduct your job search or where you're likely to end up. Hopefully someone more knowledgeable will reply soon.

Yep, I'm all about real-world, exploratory learning. 0_o

Mr. BookshelfAmy and I just went through our first round of international school interviews. Some of them were totally focused on teaching philosophy & classroom management, and some were just about getting to know the recruiter to see if it was a good personality match. All of them included a discussion of the country & living situation, eg. "How would you handle teaching with no electricity?".

One thing I will add to escapeartist's wonderful list: be prepared for personal questions, the sort of thing that would be illegal to ask in the States (and, I presume, the UK). Depending on your age & personal situation, you may be asked about health, family situation, etc. One person asked us if we plan to get pregnant soon, and if so, where we would want to give birth. (To which I replied, "Nothing takes me away from my students. NOTHING.")

In an effort to provide some concrete information, I found a few sources you might want to check out.

First, ISR actually has a table of information provided by school recruiters all over the world showing age limits for hiring. Handy, right?
http://www.internationalschoolsreview.c ... rticle.htm

You might also want to check out their other articles on teaching over 50:
http://www.internationalschoolsreview.c ... 2.htm#over

I also found this map showing retirement ages around the world. (Disclaimer: there is no indication that information on this site is reliable.) On the sidebar, click "Is it mandatory to retire at the statutory retirement age?" It'll give you some idea of how policies affect the locals, which might indicate how visa policies look.
http://chartsbin.com/view/2468

Hope that helps!

Makes sense. I was hoping, since there are so few schools, that people could say the top one or two schools in each of those four regions. But it seems like you're saying DOS schools are good, QSI schools are less good, and there aren't enough schools for there to be another group. Right?

Anyone else want to weigh in?

I'm just trying to a feel for the region, I guess.

I hope this isn't too big of a question...
There doesn't seem to be a ton of information out there about schools in Eastern Europe. I've read some old posts on ISR, and it seems like a good place to end up, even if it is a smaller market and therefore more competitive.

Are there any particularly good or bad schools? Is the list of CEESA and/or DOS-assisted schools a good indicator of school quality? What would you say is the best school in each part of Eastern Europe?

For clarity's sake, let's use About.com's groupings of Eastern European nations.

So... What is your impression of the best school/s in:

The Baltics: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania
Central Europe: Czech Rep., Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia
The Balkans & Southeast: Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Albania, Croatia
"Eastern" Eastern Europe: Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Romania, Moldova

Anyone?

Redvaldo,
It seems like most schools are waiting for the fairs. I emailed a school with openings for both of us; the director looked at our website quite a bit and then wrote me back to say, "Sorry, those vacancies will be tentative until February. Check back then." This coupled with about thirty schools who haven't said anything at all.

The only reason we got this interview now is that the school is small and only has a couple vacancies, and they wanted to skip the fairs. (Also, my husband teaches Chemistry, which, from what I hear, is like having a golden ticket.) I'm flabbergasted that this has all happened so early.

Anyway, second interview's done. Now we're just... waiting.

Ha ha! You're quite welcome. Anyone looking for a good librarian? :)

Comes from this thread called "Obtaining an interview at the fair":

http://internationalschoolsreview.com/v ... sc&start=0

There used to be a contributor on this forum called Ichiro; it's named after him (her?). It refers to an eye-catching gimmick used to get recruiters' attention at fairs, like a dollar bill with your face on it that says "Redeem for one great teacher," or a hot pink resume with pictures of your students doing awesome things.

We have a second interview scheduled with a school we really like. It's kind of funny because it's only our third interview altogether, but it's one of our top five schools. If they offer, I think we'll accept. Won't say any more about it right now....

Poor Captain Underpants. He'll never live that down.

Hey, can you guys stop? I appreciate both of your comments, but this is getting silly.