Say I'd like to teach at one of these top notch Tier 1 International Schools, problem is I don't have the experience, so how do I go about doing so?
A) Work a few years in my native country, or
B) Try to find work at one of these tier 2 or tier 3 International schools for a few years and then apply to work at a better one.
My question is, are these two methods of gaining experience considered equal to a prospective Tier 1 International School recruiter?
Is all experience born equal?
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wrldtrvlr123
- Posts: 1173
- Joined: Sat Feb 06, 2010 10:59 am
- Location: Japan
Re: Is all experience born equal?
I would say it would vary widely from school to school or even admin to admin. Some will value a base of training and experience in your home country before moving into international schools while others may not care and/or would prefer international school experience.
If the experience is in your home country, then the admin can expect a certain amount of standardization from your experience and training while int'l schools can vary dramatically in their quality and expectations of teachers. Some admin may see a candidate with only experience at lower tier int;l schools and question how solid their knowledge and skill base really is. Others may like that you have seen and dealt with a variety of experiences (especially if that included something that would be useful in their school such as IB training and experience).
Other opinions may differ but to me the safest and best course is a couple of years in your home country and then starting int'l teaching. BUT I don't think either one is a career maker or breaker.
If the experience is in your home country, then the admin can expect a certain amount of standardization from your experience and training while int'l schools can vary dramatically in their quality and expectations of teachers. Some admin may see a candidate with only experience at lower tier int;l schools and question how solid their knowledge and skill base really is. Others may like that you have seen and dealt with a variety of experiences (especially if that included something that would be useful in their school such as IB training and experience).
Other opinions may differ but to me the safest and best course is a couple of years in your home country and then starting int'l teaching. BUT I don't think either one is a career maker or breaker.
Response
You really need both. Typical career track for an entry level IT is around 6 years at the early end, allowing for the rule that you can move up locally or mover laterally across regions. You need to start domestically with 2 years experience getting your teacher voice, and actually putting into practice all that professional education stuff you learned in your educator preparation program. ISs are not typically staffed and resourced to mentor a new teacher, nor do they have the luxury of you making mistakes, and "learning" parents pay a lot of money and they dont want some intern and trainee responsible for getting their child into a top tier tertiary institution.
Some pathways to take that increase your marketability include:
1) Experience working at a private/independent school, as the vast majority of ISs are essentially private/independent schools. Showing you can work in that culture and environment is an assert.
2) Developing cross curriculum experience in national curriculum (American, British) and International curriculum (such as IB) are very valuable.
3) Showing adaptability with international experiences and teaching (dont want you pulling a runner because your in a foreign place and its not like home).
4) Keeping your logistical factors low (such as having kids).
5) Developing soft skills that are applicable to many aspects of living in a foreign country and in a different culture.
6) Networking with people who will be in a position to make referrals and references, including parents and students. and building contacts at ISs who can provide an inside track when an IS is recruiting.
7) Creating a teacher face that essentially means being VERY likable. Doing the bauble head, and being able to go along and get along.
Some pathways to take that increase your marketability include:
1) Experience working at a private/independent school, as the vast majority of ISs are essentially private/independent schools. Showing you can work in that culture and environment is an assert.
2) Developing cross curriculum experience in national curriculum (American, British) and International curriculum (such as IB) are very valuable.
3) Showing adaptability with international experiences and teaching (dont want you pulling a runner because your in a foreign place and its not like home).
4) Keeping your logistical factors low (such as having kids).
5) Developing soft skills that are applicable to many aspects of living in a foreign country and in a different culture.
6) Networking with people who will be in a position to make referrals and references, including parents and students. and building contacts at ISs who can provide an inside track when an IS is recruiting.
7) Creating a teacher face that essentially means being VERY likable. Doing the bauble head, and being able to go along and get along.
Re: Is all experience born equal?
Thank you both for the advice/information
@Psyguy... So you're suggestion is at least 2 years back home, and then start working my way up the international ladder?
Regarding #2, since I'm an American, after some domestic experience, in getting my first 'lower-tiered' international school gig I should look for schools with a non-American curriculum to expand my, 'curriculum base' for lack of better words?
@Psyguy... So you're suggestion is at least 2 years back home, and then start working my way up the international ladder?
Regarding #2, since I'm an American, after some domestic experience, in getting my first 'lower-tiered' international school gig I should look for schools with a non-American curriculum to expand my, 'curriculum base' for lack of better words?
Re: Is all experience born equal?
LUwahoo, most of the recruiting agencies require a minimum of two years teaching experience in order to register with them. If you look at various schools' Websites, you'll find they often prefer a minimum amount of experience as well. Most people will have at least two or more years experience teaching domestically. If you can get some AP experience (assuming you're secondary) while you're at it, all the better. It won't necessarily make you a shoe-in, but you'll have a track record working with upper-level students. Public school teaching is perfectly acceptable for building experience.
Don't relegate yourself to the bottom or even the middle--and don't fret too much about the much-vaunted "tier" system, which is highly subjective-- in your search. Seek out the best locations/schools/packages that work for you. Those will be *your* top-tier schools. Some schools will indeed provide mentorship with veteran teachers, and will also train you for IB teaching.
Don't relegate yourself to the bottom or even the middle--and don't fret too much about the much-vaunted "tier" system, which is highly subjective-- in your search. Seek out the best locations/schools/packages that work for you. Those will be *your* top-tier schools. Some schools will indeed provide mentorship with veteran teachers, and will also train you for IB teaching.
Re: Is all experience born equal?
I'm anxious to get out there. Even if it wasn't a great school, just having the opportunity to teach History abroad would make it worth it. I could grit out 2-3 years if I really had to, and I would think something better would be available. Maybe I'll get lucky and hit gold with the first school and find a nice fit.
Never really know until you go I suppose.
Never really know until you go I suppose.
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shadowjack
- Posts: 2140
- Joined: Sat Oct 06, 2012 9:49 am
Re: Is all experience born equal?
LUWahoo,
unless you are dying - I mean dying - to teach internationally, you will have more support to be at home and teach your two years, with more legal protection for you.
just my 2 cents
shad
unless you are dying - I mean dying - to teach internationally, you will have more support to be at home and teach your two years, with more legal protection for you.
just my 2 cents
shad
Reply
@LUWahoo
You pretty much have too, the bar to entry into IT is two years. Premium agencies require it (if you dont have two years your considered an intern), and most schools have a two year minimum. experience requirement as well. There are people who enter early, but they go to places in S.A. that pay pennies or the go to bottom tier schools in the ME.
I wouldnt wait until your an IT to get international curriculum experience, you can start now looking for an IB school, and even finding a British school state side isnt impossible, especially if your open to relocation.
AP would be very beneficial to get but a school rarely gives a new teacher an AP class.
Many teachers each year have this plan "I want to go to Europe, or Japan" or somewhere highly desirable like an elite tier school, and then they get to a fair and spend 6 months sending applications and grow frustrated when there is no interest in them at all. Aim high, but stop long enough to get some low hanging fruit as a backup, or have a safety plan.
ISs are not really resourced to provide a noob teacher with the mentoring and induction needed, and the schools that will are likely to be very bad experiences.
You pretty much have too, the bar to entry into IT is two years. Premium agencies require it (if you dont have two years your considered an intern), and most schools have a two year minimum. experience requirement as well. There are people who enter early, but they go to places in S.A. that pay pennies or the go to bottom tier schools in the ME.
I wouldnt wait until your an IT to get international curriculum experience, you can start now looking for an IB school, and even finding a British school state side isnt impossible, especially if your open to relocation.
AP would be very beneficial to get but a school rarely gives a new teacher an AP class.
Many teachers each year have this plan "I want to go to Europe, or Japan" or somewhere highly desirable like an elite tier school, and then they get to a fair and spend 6 months sending applications and grow frustrated when there is no interest in them at all. Aim high, but stop long enough to get some low hanging fruit as a backup, or have a safety plan.
ISs are not really resourced to provide a noob teacher with the mentoring and induction needed, and the schools that will are likely to be very bad experiences.
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lookingforlefty
- Posts: 35
- Joined: Tue Mar 04, 2014 12:15 pm
Re: Is all experience born equal?
PsyGuy is right on with his advice, but are you sure you want to do this at all?
Most international schools are not the "first-tier" places you hear about on here. In that context, I think of teaching as more a job, less a career. Think of it as part of the service industry. It's not hard to do, the pay is really poor compared to real professions, you have little job security, and working conditions are generally poor. There are a handful of schools at the top where things are better, and sometimes they are way better. Otherwise the only good jobs in the field are in administration, and therefore there is a great mass of people who will do literally anything to get that brass ring.
The main assets you'll need for this job in some ways aren't that much different than what you'd need to do sales, or bartending. Some combination of being young, cheap, attractive, likeable, producing proven results (scores), having rare skills/qualifications or being married to one who does (eg high level math/science), and being a boss's favourite is necessary to survive or thrive. You don't need all of those things, but if you don't have some, you need the others. Oh, and being white should be on that list, too.
I don't think you need much training or support to do a job like this. You can either do the job or you can't. Getting high scores consistently requires a bit of cleverness, and is also a factor of how good your students are to begin with. I don't think test preparation is rocket science.
You said you want to be a history teacher, I suppose in the US or Canada, but you're not already? You're probably not getting a history job in the public system because generally there aren't any. I really don't know how you'd break in. You could go teach the IB for some bad, desperate school and maybe your career will get better, although it probably won't. If you have more of those things I mentioned, the better your chances are.
I guess my point is, you can probably figure out a way to do this job. The real issue is, I bet you're young and probably have better options.
Most international schools are not the "first-tier" places you hear about on here. In that context, I think of teaching as more a job, less a career. Think of it as part of the service industry. It's not hard to do, the pay is really poor compared to real professions, you have little job security, and working conditions are generally poor. There are a handful of schools at the top where things are better, and sometimes they are way better. Otherwise the only good jobs in the field are in administration, and therefore there is a great mass of people who will do literally anything to get that brass ring.
The main assets you'll need for this job in some ways aren't that much different than what you'd need to do sales, or bartending. Some combination of being young, cheap, attractive, likeable, producing proven results (scores), having rare skills/qualifications or being married to one who does (eg high level math/science), and being a boss's favourite is necessary to survive or thrive. You don't need all of those things, but if you don't have some, you need the others. Oh, and being white should be on that list, too.
I don't think you need much training or support to do a job like this. You can either do the job or you can't. Getting high scores consistently requires a bit of cleverness, and is also a factor of how good your students are to begin with. I don't think test preparation is rocket science.
You said you want to be a history teacher, I suppose in the US or Canada, but you're not already? You're probably not getting a history job in the public system because generally there aren't any. I really don't know how you'd break in. You could go teach the IB for some bad, desperate school and maybe your career will get better, although it probably won't. If you have more of those things I mentioned, the better your chances are.
I guess my point is, you can probably figure out a way to do this job. The real issue is, I bet you're young and probably have better options.
Discussion
I would add that as a history teacher (sorry I missed that) and nothing else without connections your teaching career is a non-starter. As lookingforlefty indicated there arent any single subject history jobs in the the states (not without being a REALLY good coach) or again having connections. Assuming you get certified you will just look, and look, and look, and maybe substitute some, but eventually youll have to pay the bills and move on. I know teachers that got certified in art and music that still have never taught outside their field experience simply because there are so few jobs and the people who get them when a vacancy does appear have a connection with someone in the district or school who can hire them. Without that experience your not going to be competitive in IE and being only a history teacher in addition is going to literally put your resume at the very bottom of the pile, and its going to be a big pile, even at the bottom tier schools your not going to be the only option.
Lastly, if the reason you want to do IE is the travel and living overseas, being an ESOL teacher will accomplish the same thing a lot faster, cheaper and easier, and in the really large pool of third tier schools pays/compensates you about the same. If thats what your looking for try this:
jobs.theguardian.com/employer/4529983/abci/
You get to go to Austria, all expenses paid teach English for 3 months and you get a Trinity TESOL certificate, the only negative is there is no salary, youre essentially an unpaid intern.
Lastly, if the reason you want to do IE is the travel and living overseas, being an ESOL teacher will accomplish the same thing a lot faster, cheaper and easier, and in the really large pool of third tier schools pays/compensates you about the same. If thats what your looking for try this:
jobs.theguardian.com/employer/4529983/abci/
You get to go to Austria, all expenses paid teach English for 3 months and you get a Trinity TESOL certificate, the only negative is there is no salary, youre essentially an unpaid intern.
Re: Reply
PsyGuy wrote:
> @LUWahoo
> Many teachers each year have this plan "I want to go to Europe, or
> Japan" or somewhere highly desirable like an elite tier school, and
> then they get to a fair and spend 6 months sending applications and grow
> frustrated when there is no interest in them at all. Aim high, but stop
> long enough to get some low hanging fruit as a backup, or have a safety
> plan.
I was considering doing the Celta this winter, but I'm not sure how interested in teaching English I am, seems like teaching ESOL would be something I could do later (get certified over the summer/winter) on if IT wore on me.
> @LUWahoo
> Many teachers each year have this plan "I want to go to Europe, or
> Japan" or somewhere highly desirable like an elite tier school, and
> then they get to a fair and spend 6 months sending applications and grow
> frustrated when there is no interest in them at all. Aim high, but stop
> long enough to get some low hanging fruit as a backup, or have a safety
> plan.
I was considering doing the Celta this winter, but I'm not sure how interested in teaching English I am, seems like teaching ESOL would be something I could do later (get certified over the summer/winter) on if IT wore on me.
Re: Is all experience born equal?
lookingforlefty wrote:
> PsyGuy is right on with his advice, but are you sure you want to do this at
> all?
Yes
> You said you want to be a history teacher, I suppose in the US or Canada,
> but you're not already? You're probably not getting a history job in the
> public system because generally there aren't any. I really don't know how
> you'd break in. You could go teach the IB for some bad, desperate school
> and maybe your career will get better, although it probably won't. If you
> have more of those things I mentioned, the better your chances are.
I'm confident in my ability to adapt, and I'm willing to hard to correct the errors and bumps I'll hit as any teacher growing their legs. I'm finishing my degree in Social Studies Secondary Education in the U.S. right now.
> PsyGuy is right on with his advice, but are you sure you want to do this at
> all?
Yes
> You said you want to be a history teacher, I suppose in the US or Canada,
> but you're not already? You're probably not getting a history job in the
> public system because generally there aren't any. I really don't know how
> you'd break in. You could go teach the IB for some bad, desperate school
> and maybe your career will get better, although it probably won't. If you
> have more of those things I mentioned, the better your chances are.
I'm confident in my ability to adapt, and I'm willing to hard to correct the errors and bumps I'll hit as any teacher growing their legs. I'm finishing my degree in Social Studies Secondary Education in the U.S. right now.
Re: Discussion
PsyGuy wrote:
> Lastly, if the reason you want to do IE is the travel and living overseas,
> being an ESOL teacher will accomplish the same thing a lot faster, cheaper
> and easier, and in the really large pool of third tier schools
> pays/compensates you about the same. If thats what your looking for try
> this:
I want to do IE so that I can grow and teach a subject I love, in a culture different from the one I grew up on. Travel isn't that important to me, being able to save is. ESOL seems like something I could do later on (CELTA cert over the Summer/Winter) if IT wore on me. The ideal schools I'm looking at down the road are Shanghai American and Hong Kong International (I'm sure I'll add more to that list). Can it really hurt to have experience in that region, even if the experience isn't at a school as good as those mentioned above?
> Lastly, if the reason you want to do IE is the travel and living overseas,
> being an ESOL teacher will accomplish the same thing a lot faster, cheaper
> and easier, and in the really large pool of third tier schools
> pays/compensates you about the same. If thats what your looking for try
> this:
I want to do IE so that I can grow and teach a subject I love, in a culture different from the one I grew up on. Travel isn't that important to me, being able to save is. ESOL seems like something I could do later on (CELTA cert over the Summer/Winter) if IT wore on me. The ideal schools I'm looking at down the road are Shanghai American and Hong Kong International (I'm sure I'll add more to that list). Can it really hurt to have experience in that region, even if the experience isn't at a school as good as those mentioned above?
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chilagringa
- Posts: 335
- Joined: Sun Apr 24, 2011 7:19 pm
Re: Is all experience born equal?
shadowjack wrote:
> LUWahoo,
>
> unless you are dying - I mean dying - to teach internationally, you will
> have more support to be at home and teach your two years, with more legal
> protection for you.
>
What is this mysterious support you mention? I'm a first year public school teacher and I teach in classes I'm not qualified or experienced for, with 35 kids each, and I basically never see any administrators. No one has ever seen me teach. Luckily I make it work, having some experience pre-BEd, but I have no idea how a legitimate first year teacher would survive. Even at my third-tier intl school pre-BEd, I felt much more supported.
> LUWahoo,
>
> unless you are dying - I mean dying - to teach internationally, you will
> have more support to be at home and teach your two years, with more legal
> protection for you.
>
What is this mysterious support you mention? I'm a first year public school teacher and I teach in classes I'm not qualified or experienced for, with 35 kids each, and I basically never see any administrators. No one has ever seen me teach. Luckily I make it work, having some experience pre-BEd, but I have no idea how a legitimate first year teacher would survive. Even at my third-tier intl school pre-BEd, I felt much more supported.
Re: Is all experience born equal?
chilagringa wrote:
> shadowjack wrote:
> > LUWahoo,
> >
> > unless you are dying - I mean dying - to teach internationally, you will
> > have more support to be at home and teach your two years, with more legal
> > protection for you.
> >
>
>
> What is this mysterious support you mention? I'm a first year public school teacher
> and I teach in classes I'm not qualified or experienced for, with 35 kids each, and I
> basically never see any administrators. No one has ever seen me teach. Luckily I make
> it work, having some experience pre-BEd, but I have no idea how a legitimate first
> year teacher would survive. Even at my third-tier intl school pre-BEd, I felt much
> more supported.
In the U.S.?
> shadowjack wrote:
> > LUWahoo,
> >
> > unless you are dying - I mean dying - to teach internationally, you will
> > have more support to be at home and teach your two years, with more legal
> > protection for you.
> >
>
>
> What is this mysterious support you mention? I'm a first year public school teacher
> and I teach in classes I'm not qualified or experienced for, with 35 kids each, and I
> basically never see any administrators. No one has ever seen me teach. Luckily I make
> it work, having some experience pre-BEd, but I have no idea how a legitimate first
> year teacher would survive. Even at my third-tier intl school pre-BEd, I felt much
> more supported.
In the U.S.?