The International Schools Review Forum

I've sat on some hiring committees at my school, and the best candidate we hired had a photo-album style portfolio that he used as a tool during the interview. Reealizing that no one was taking the time to look through his portfolio, he changed it so that whenever he answered a question, he flipped to the relevant page in his portfolio to show a picture that helped display his skills. (For example, when he was asked about his experiences with technology, he showed a photo of his classroom, with students using the technology available.)

He was not only really good at directing the interview, instead of just answering questions, he has also proven to be one of the best teachers in my department.

Well okay then...I better get my swag on and start thinking!

Moose - I've got that kind of portfolio! Thanks for the idea!

PsyGuy - So were these wedding invites (or cards, flash drives, etc) made by the teacher seeking employment - OR - were they made by the school that was recruiting? Were they handed out at a Fair, or were they sent in advance of the fair? I enjoy reading your advise on ISR and appreciate your advice with me.

These "wedding invites" were created by a teacher/candidate for a fair.

The flash drives come from the schools. They are 1 or 2 GB drives with the school name and logo, and usually have a video presentation, link to the schools website and some other promotional material.

At the fairs everyone has a folder (both the schools and the candidates). So thats how they exchange "numbers" and invites with one another. Schools have all kinds of promotional swag from flash drives, to key chains, pens, pencils, post cards, etc, etc.

I'm a single guy now, but I eventually want to have a wife and kid. Is it a good idea to find the ideal school first, get settled in, and start the family at that point? I'm not real interested in being forever alone. I don't want to go back to the states either.

I came to Egypt with a wife (also a teacher) and one child. We now have two kids. There is no right and wrong way to do it, however, whatever you do, try and make sure you don't end up with more dependents than teachers in your clan. Most schools will accept one dependent per teacher. We are two teachers and we have two kids. We're going to stop now. Our biology teacher has offered to give me a vasectomy for a very reasonable price.

Ok, I was kidding about the last bit.

My girlfriend is not a teacher, therefore she will count as one dependent. So, eventually I'll have a difficult time when we want to have kids. I guess we can wait to have kids until we get to our ideal country and location, then set up for the long term there. That's my plan at least.

Not many schools are going to support a partner who is not your spouse.

It depends what your long term goal is. My wife and I retrained as teachers in order to teach overseas. My wife will be on maternity leave for 2012-2013, so we'll be down to one salary for a year. Unlike Canada, we'll be able to survive on that one salary if we're a bit careful.

But for us, the benefits of working overseas are the sun, the travel and the money earned by both of us. If there was only one salary coming in I'm not sure it would be worth it. My wife's salary is the savings, my salary is the living expenses and holidays.

Has your partner thought about training as a teacher? Financially, it effectively doubles your joint salary.

I should have clarified. I signed my contract and I'm good to go. We will have to do the long distance thing for a while until we get married, maybe next summer. I won't try to bring her until we are married. She is trained as a teacher (high school chemistry), but she's not from a Western country so I doubt her degree counts for much in the eyes of an international school. We might try to upgrade her degree at some point if possible.

If you are a western trained teacher, then they may make an exception for your wife, particularly if she is working toward upgrade. It is easier to upgrade at home than overseas (well, this is true in my home country - I don't think you could upgrade from abroad).

I'll give you a couple of examples at my school; the grade 5 teacher's wife got a job in the nursery. I'm sure she isn't paid what we are paid, but it will all be savings. The chemistry teacher's (who is not 'western', but has a western one year B.Ed.) wife got a job as a support teacher. Again, she's not a teacher, so is not paid on the same scale.

So, school's will try to fit in partners where they can, but, if your partner got a teaching cert. from a western country her salary would likely be double or triple the salary of the above positions.

Wow, thats good news! I never considered that she could work in a minor role at the school. She would enjoy that I think. After I finish my Masters then we could redirect the cash flow to get her additional training. All this is still years away, but good to know.

P.S. I'll be in Egypt too, come this August ;)

What school? Where will you be living?

I'll be at American International School Egypt. I'll probably choose to live in Maadi. Hope things dont start kicking off, although I think that is wishful thinking.

@ tgear2008

Foreign transcripts can be converted to English and credits can be certified or found lacking compared to American degrees. Then you would know what needs to be done for American certification - maybe less than you think.

There are expats in school positions such as librarian assistant, paraprofessional, secretary, registrar...and subs...

See, thats what I love about forums like this. Thanks, hadn't thought about that. Of course, all this is rather new.