The International Schools Review Forum

Hello!

I am looking into teaching abroad. Come May 2015 I will have completed my second year of teaching Special Education in America. I am curious about the certification needed to teach abroad... More so, about the IB certificate.

I graduated from a 4 year University with my teaching license for Virginia. I am certified to teach K-12 Special Education... Kind of broad I know.

If you all were in my position, how would you go about becoming more marketable in the international school scene?

Thanks for the help

I was in pretty much the same situation (certified in SPED K-12 with 2 years experience when I went to my first job fair). As far as certifications, you are just fine right now. An IB qualification would show that you are interested in IB and making an effort but most IB schools seem to value experience teaching IB more than any kind of training, etc. If they are really interested in you then paying for you to be trained is just seen as a good investment (and SPED teachers are kind of a different animal anyways).

What will make you more marketable? More experience in successfully helping students to learn. Most jobs will be for learning support/resource room type positions so hopefully that is what you are doing now (although I had been teaching a self-contained class of more involved students and sold myself as being able to work with any student). Being able to do assessments, facilitate inclusion, tutor in math and science would also be helpful in some cases.

Other things would be coaching a sport, training/experience in reading interventions and experience working with a wide range of grades and/or secondary experience.

In short (unless it's too late for that), sell whatever you have that makes you a good learning support/resource room candidate as most schools will be taking students that can primarily function in the mainstream setting with a little extra support. Although research any prospective schools on the off chance they offer a more in depth/comprehensive type of program. Good luck!

Thanks for the response.

So about applying for jobs... Would the fairs be the best bet or applying directly?

Definitely apply directly and see what kind of response you get. You may also want to register with Search Associates and get yourself accepted to a Fair. You can always decide not to go later on.

I don't know why you think need IB credentials as a special ed teacher. I say this as an IB teacher who knows nothing about special ed. I could be colossally ignorant, I just have no idea.

But here's one thing that is clearly in your favor: at least you have a healthy stateside market for your services. Many of us who teach English, social studies, and the humanities couldn't get a job back home if our lives depended on it, creating a much more competitive overseas labor market than would otherwise exist.