Thanks guys.

What I mean as semi-retirement is working a few hours a day so I can pay all my bills overseas and not touch my portfolio or other income streams for a few years until full retirement - or I could stay teaching ESOL.

Have any International School teachers retired then stayed overseas to teach English as a second language. This seems like it would be an ideal situation for a teacher seeking a semi-retirement while still living overseas. The money seems pretty good for what appears to be teaching fewer hours in much more relaxed conditions than a lot of international schools.

Any ideas?

Yes, on paper Malaysia may seem like a place where schools offer lower salaries - especially in the last few years - but their EPF pension plan can get you a lot of cash on the back end when you leave. And Malaysia is beautiful, modern, and, with Air Asia, cheap to fly out of for vacation.

Why is the salary so low? The stated salary at American School of Kuwait is 36,000. This seems like nothing.

wrldtrvlr123 and PsyGuy,

Thank you for taking the trouble to provide your information. You have both been a lot of help.

Thanks, PsyGuy

Sounds even more serendipitous than a job fair.

How do DOD teaching jobs compare with decent international school teaching jobs?

Then how do you get a teaching job?

Psyguy:

Do you know the recruitment website for Department of Defense schools?

Those 20 and 30's people walk around with that sense of unearned entitlement - a very different thing from genuine confidence -
that comes from a lifetime of being told that everything they have ever done is "SUPER, JUST AWESOME!" - and their bedroom shelves are lined with the last place and participation trophies to prove it.

They have lived their lives in a youth oriented culture and seeing image and marketing tricks TRUMP substance, and they believe that being young and verbose equates to being smart and capable.

These children usually do no better or worse at job fairs, worse in regard to top schools that still want quality and not just BS artists.

I do sympathize with you about job fairs in your fifties. My last one was in my mid-40's and though I got enough offers, I still wanted to puke.

@ OZGRAD:

I was in the tribe of people who went into teaching because I love to teach and think it a a much more noble profession than most others. I passed up jobs as actuaries and in applied mathematics and statistics (and the money that came with them) because I wanted to teach - not because I backed into it.

And it irritates me that so many incompetents slide into my world. Simple enough for you?

@ Walter

"Grumpy"? Man, if that ain't the pot calling the kettle black.

You didn't even like that gecko/Gordon Gekko bit, huh?

I actually would love to work with a guy like you, baby.

@REU

Well if you aren't claiming that new IT's are incompetent, I am.

There seems to be 2 tribes of newbies: The young ones who seem to have as their only skill set being able to suck up to their superiors, and the older ones who couldn't hack "the real world" so they thought they might give teaching a go (since, after all, anyone can teach, right?). This second tribe is even more skilled at ass kissing, due to their years of humiliating themselves in the corporate world, and as bad, know how to screw over their colleagues.

The first tribe can be forgiven due to the fact that they grew up with enough tech toys to turn their attentions spans to something on par with a gecko and their moral compasses even with Gordon Gekko. They know they are inferior to adults so they use their only skill, butt smooching and flattery, learned from many hours watching "Housewives of (fill in the blank)".

The second tribe is simply beneath contempt.

A thing to keep in mind is that being negative is a far cry from voicing valid concerns.

I had a real d_bag assistant principal who was that "special" mix of arrogance and hopeless incompetence that so many international schools seem to employ - in both admin and teaching positions. He would foul up time after time and whenever anyone spoke up his first and only line of defense was to call these people negative.

It is ok to voice complaints then discuss ways to make things better. If the discussion devolves into complaint after complaint without any productive attempt at finding solutions, then you need to find other people to hang out with.

L.L. Bean sells great tropic weight chinos, cargo pants, and shorts. I wore the chinos as work pants - they look very good - in VERY humid southern China and Kuala Lumpur.

Your expectations are very unrealistic except for positions at a handful of top schools. A VERY small handful.

No school in KL, to my knowledge, comes close to what you want, except maybe the savings potential due to the EPF - still a stretch due to your kids and desire to travel.

And your need to be "in and out of school" would cross out any of those few schools.

Are you new to the world of recent international education? I can't think of any other reason for you to be so naive.

Stay where you are.

4 Bedroom house with a garden?!

Come on, man.