The International Schools Review Forum

I know that ESL positions are much rarer in international schools since the majority of the students are internaitonal students with experience speaking English but looking through TIE there seems like there is consistently a few dozen positions out there. I was wondering how difficult it is to crack into those positions specifically in South America.

For reference my work experience/resume:

3 Years working as ESL Coordinator (head of department)/ESL Teacher at a Title 1 Public Elementary School in New York City
Masters in Education/TESOL from a well respected college (brick and mortar not online)
1 Year teaching at a pre-school in the US
1 Year teaching English at a public high school in Chile
2 Years teaching Business English in Egypt

I am certified to teach ESL in NY and as a classroom teacher in NY but I would much rather work as an ESL teacher than in the classroom. With my background does it seem feasible to find a decent ESL position or will I have much more luck working in the classroom under my common branch certificate.

I'm not sure who told you ESOL positions were rare in IT. They're not. I've worked on multiple continents in several countries at schools of varying tier levels, and they all had ESOL teachers. Of course there are more ES teachers than ESOL, but that doesn't make ESOL rare. Especially as more schools pop up, and fewer companies are sending families abroad, at least to certain places, the pool of native English speakers is shrinking even at Tier 1 schools.

Your list of experience suggests to me that you'd be more competitive as an ESOL teacher because that's where most of your experience is. Good luck!

With your Masters and experience, it will be possible to find an ESL position in an international school.

It depends how you define an IS. Top tier schools tend to have small if any ESOL department especially if they are mainly an embassy school and primarily serve native English speakers, in which case even then an ESOL teacher may have a dual appointment as a reading teacher.

Lower and Mid tier schools with a significant non English speaking population do aggressively hire ESOL ITs. IT being a lose definition, the issue is that lower third tier schools will happily hire a local ESOL teacher to teach at their school on a local package just as easily as a professional IT. That makes you less competitive. They know that come the start of the year they can staff an ESOL classroom quickly, easily, and cheaply.

Your marketable at a second tier IS and given the hardship nature (package) of S.A. you would be more marketable as an ESOL teacher compared to that of an HRT.

For what it's worth, my former tier 1 school in Beijing has 2 EAL teachers K-2, 3 teachers for 3-5, 3 teachers for middle school and 1 for high school.

@mamava

That staffing pattern fits a developmental reading model.

Those EAL positions are supported by 10 LS teachers, including early reading specialists, so they are actual EAL teachers that work with children to develop English language skills, especial academic language proficiency. They are not reading specialists.

mamava wrote:
> Those EAL positions are supported by 10 LS teachers, including early reading specialists,
> so they are actual EAL teachers that work with children to develop English language
> skills, especial academic language proficiency. They are not reading specialists.
------------------
Your experience is much closer to the reality. Schools like ISBKK, ISBrussels and ISBeijing (just to stick the ISB theme) etc, all have full time ESL teachers and even separate departments. To the OP, ESL is neither rare nor restricted to lower tier schools.

wrldtrvlr123 wrote:
> mamava wrote:
> > Those EAL positions are supported by 10 LS teachers, including early reading
> specialists,
> > so they are actual EAL teachers that work with children to develop English
> language
> > skills, especial academic language proficiency. They are not reading
> specialists.
> ------------------
> Your experience is much closer to the reality. Schools like ISBKK, ISBrussels and
> ISBeijing (just to stick the ISB theme) etc, all have full time ESL teachers and even
> separate departments. To the OP, ESL is neither rare nor restricted to lower tier
> schools.

Yes, that's like my experience as well. My Tier 2 school in the ME had 1 ESOL teacher for lower elementary, 1 ESOL teacher for both upper elementary and middle school, and one .5 ESOL teacher for HS plus 1 LS specialist for elementary and none for secondary.

But in my Tier 1 school in Asia, there were 4 ESOL teachers for lower elementary, 3 for upper elementary, 3 for MS, and 1 for HS. Plus 2 LS specialists for lower elementary, 3 for upper elementary.

While there are definitely schools that use 'reading specialists' (or any Native English speaker) to pull double duty as LS/ESOL, there are also plenty of schools that recognize the differences in those roles and plan their staffing appropriately.

@mamava

I was commenting on the pattern fitting a developmental reading model, irrespective of staffing.

Thanks for the responses. I am glad that it looks like TESOL is a solid option since I really do enjoy working with the population and the ability to work the content in a lot of different ways. I would be targetting the 2016-2017 school year, do most of the SA schools go on the September to Junish schedule or are they the March-December schedule like the public schools in Santiago? If it is the latter when should I start contacting schools for positions?

I know the AASSA is in December would that be the biggest/best fair to go to if I am targeting SA schools?

@jpyaks

Most ISs are on the Fall-Summer (August/September too around June) academic calendar. The general exception is when the IS is reallya local private schools with host nationals and the school follows the regional academic calendar. IE recruiting is basically a year round process.A couple months after the academic term starts ISs require intent letters or returning and departing staff. About 9 months before the new year ISs start recruiting premium rock star teachers. January starts the prime recruiting season with the BKK fair last for about a month and finishes with the BOS fair, then its dump fairs until shortly (1-2 months) before the end of year break/holiday which is when the true domestic schools peak with their recruiting. Some ISs recruit year round.
Contact schools when you find a vacancy for a qualified position, if a IS is advertising it means theyre recruiting.

You go to the best most competitive fair you can, Id prefer UNI over AASSA for S.A. Its not a bad choice though and it ends early leaving you opportunities at super fairs if AASSA doesnt bare fruit.