Hi All
My wife and I are a UK qualified teaching couple-I am currently a middle manager leading KS2 and my wife is currently in EYS.
Between us we have experience of four well respected international schools (PYP, IPC and Singapore curriculum) and 8 years UK curriculum experience.
We have no children and have applied to a number of schools with most of them that we have applied to offering us some great contracts and benefits.
I feel that we are highly desirable on the International scene but could we be being a little too arrogant in waiting for the 'big hitters' to come along and offer us something?
I really do not want to come across as arrogant but I am also confident in the fact that we are good 'value for money!'
All comments welcomed!
Are we being too arrogant?
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wrldtrvlr123
- Posts: 1173
- Joined: Sat Feb 06, 2010 10:59 am
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Re: Are we being too arrogant?
[quote="vechio"]Hi All
My wife and I are a UK qualified teaching couple-I am currently a middle manager leading KS2 and my wife is currently in EYS.
Between us we have experience of four well respected international schools (PYP, IPC and Singapore curriculum) and 8 years UK curriculum experience.
We have no children and have applied to a number of schools with most of them that we have applied to offering us some great contracts and benefits.
I feel that we are highly desirable on the International scene but could we be being a little too arrogant in waiting for the 'big hitters' to come along and offer us something?
I really do not want to come across as arrogant but I am also confident in the fact that we are good 'value for money!'
All comments welcomed![/quote]
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Have you applied to any big hitters with openings in your respective areas? If so, what was the response?
What are your dream schools/countries? Does there seem to be a reasonable number of relevant openings in those places? Sometimes its just bad timing.
I had a long and distinguished list of schools this past year that found me intriguing enough to interview but not quite enough to make the offer. It turned out perfectly though as I ended up getting my dream gig which would have been really awkward had I accepted any of those other offers (had they been made :S).
My wife and I are a UK qualified teaching couple-I am currently a middle manager leading KS2 and my wife is currently in EYS.
Between us we have experience of four well respected international schools (PYP, IPC and Singapore curriculum) and 8 years UK curriculum experience.
We have no children and have applied to a number of schools with most of them that we have applied to offering us some great contracts and benefits.
I feel that we are highly desirable on the International scene but could we be being a little too arrogant in waiting for the 'big hitters' to come along and offer us something?
I really do not want to come across as arrogant but I am also confident in the fact that we are good 'value for money!'
All comments welcomed![/quote]
------------------------------------------
Have you applied to any big hitters with openings in your respective areas? If so, what was the response?
What are your dream schools/countries? Does there seem to be a reasonable number of relevant openings in those places? Sometimes its just bad timing.
I had a long and distinguished list of schools this past year that found me intriguing enough to interview but not quite enough to make the offer. It turned out perfectly though as I ended up getting my dream gig which would have been really awkward had I accepted any of those other offers (had they been made :S).
Reply
IPC is a scam, and the Singapore curriculum would only be marketable to Singapore based curriculum schools. Your UK experience would be beneficial and marketable to other British schools. How much of that experience is IB/PYP? How long have you been in administration?
What's the rest of your resumes look like?
If your looking at tier one schools I think your competitive, but if your holding out for elite schools I think your going to be disappointed.
What's the rest of your resumes look like?
If your looking at tier one schools I think your competitive, but if your holding out for elite schools I think your going to be disappointed.
Again I will repeat:
Getting a job at a top IS is as much luck as anything else. EVERY IS, even the so called "Top Tier" hire people every year with little or no experience, single teachers with dependents and a non-working spouse, people who have broken contracts. You know, the "young 22 year old fresh out of college hired by the lecherous school head" type of thing or the "one of my teachers says he is good so I'll hire him" baloney that goes on all too often.
Just apply every and anywhere you would like to work and see what happens.
And again, there a a lot of IS admin types who are not competent enough to hire the "best" people available. And if you continue to put much stock in whether or not these people think you are good teachers, you will just become more and more disappointed and insecure.
Getting a job at a top IS is as much luck as anything else. EVERY IS, even the so called "Top Tier" hire people every year with little or no experience, single teachers with dependents and a non-working spouse, people who have broken contracts. You know, the "young 22 year old fresh out of college hired by the lecherous school head" type of thing or the "one of my teachers says he is good so I'll hire him" baloney that goes on all too often.
Just apply every and anywhere you would like to work and see what happens.
And again, there a a lot of IS admin types who are not competent enough to hire the "best" people available. And if you continue to put much stock in whether or not these people think you are good teachers, you will just become more and more disappointed and insecure.
I have to agree with Senator in terms of luck and circumstances- although I don't see young teachers hired at top schools to be a result poor administrators. Nor do think the reccomendation of a current faculty member to be "baloney." I am at one of the first tier schools, and it is my first international school. I had no IB experience; I came straight out of US public schools. I did have a masters degree and had 15+ years experience, but that is not the case with all of our hires.
Anyway, over the last five years I have found there are two factors with a vast majority of the hires at my school (including myself):
1. They know someone already here who advocates for them.
2. They do something special/amazing IN ADDITION to being a great teachers.
Fair or not, those items make all the difference.
Anyway, over the last five years I have found there are two factors with a vast majority of the hires at my school (including myself):
1. They know someone already here who advocates for them.
2. They do something special/amazing IN ADDITION to being a great teachers.
Fair or not, those items make all the difference.
Last edited by pikefish on Fri Dec 04, 2015 5:25 am, edited 2 times in total.
[quote="IAMBOG"]What do you mean by special/amazing? Do you mean in terms of extra-curricular activities?[/quote]
Sometimes it is school realted (coaching, service learning, club leadership, etc...). Sometimes it has nothing with school extra-curriculars. My school gets literally hundreds of applications for a very small number of openings each year. I know plenty of those resumes come from truly great classroom teachers. My point is that the admin team here looks for something else that makes the applicant something special in addition to being a great teacher, and in many cases that "something special" is not what that teacher did at their previous school. It is often more about what they do in their personal life, not their professional life.
Sometimes it is school realted (coaching, service learning, club leadership, etc...). Sometimes it has nothing with school extra-curriculars. My school gets literally hundreds of applications for a very small number of openings each year. I know plenty of those resumes come from truly great classroom teachers. My point is that the admin team here looks for something else that makes the applicant something special in addition to being a great teacher, and in many cases that "something special" is not what that teacher did at their previous school. It is often more about what they do in their personal life, not their professional life.
My limited experience so far would support that, pikefish. I just signed on with a school for next year, my first international teaching position and it's what would be called a "first tier" school. During the interviews, I was surprised at the questions they asked about the things I'd debated whether or not to include in my application and cover letter, like volunteer work and my particular approach to an education issue that I thought might be difficult to put on paper, or might be controversial. It turns out, it seems, that those things I went ahead and included ended up working for me.
I have no doubt, either, that I just got darn lucky as well.
I have no doubt, either, that I just got darn lucky as well.