Returning to teaching after 5 year hiatus

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animamundi
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Jun 17, 2015 2:05 pm

Returning to teaching after 5 year hiatus

Post by animamundi »

Hi all. This is my first post after lurking for a few weeks and loving the information in this forum.

I'm very interested in becoming an international teacher but am unsure of my prospects because I have been out of the classroom for 5 years. While teaching, I worked part time as a professional photographer and artists (doing weekend and summer jobs). I eventually left teaching to pursue my photography/art business full-time and have been marginally successful over the years, but at this point in my life I'd really like to return to teaching full time. I've lived in several countries outside the U.S., and have traveled extensively over the years (28 countries, 5 continents). I feel confident I would enjoy being an IT and could handle the challenges of living the ex-pat lifestyle. My goal is to find a position for 2016-2017 school year.

I'd love some feedback on what you think of my prospects and advice you have for putting the best spin on my hiatus as I feel my art/creativity experience is an asset to my teaching.

Here's a bit about me:

I'm in my mid-40's
Have a BSEd (K-8 cert)
12 years teaching experience in the same school district doing:
1 yr. Title I Reading Teacher 2-3 grade
5 yrs. 4th & 5th gr. self contained
3 yrs. 6th, 7th, 8th gr. Social Studies
3 yrs. Gifted services - elementary and middle school 6th, 7th, 8th gr. via Humanities Project Based classroom
Certifications/Endorsements in:
Elementary
ESL (I live in an area with a high ESL population)
Library Science
Gifted
animamundi
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Jun 17, 2015 2:05 pm

Re: Returning to teaching after 5 year hiatus

Post by animamundi »

Anyone? I would be thankful for any and all thoughts on my prospects. This is such a huge life change I'm facing. Thank you!
newhere
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat Mar 21, 2015 10:42 am

Re: Returning to teaching after 5 year hiatus

Post by newhere »

Hi There!

Where exactly in the world would you like to go?

I think your best bet is to sign up for one of the international job fairs: Search, ISS, AASSA, UNI, etc. You have experience in elementary edu. (self-contained) and middle school social studies/humanities. Your background will be interesting/an asset to some schools, yet others may prefer consistent classroom experience. You never know what they're thinking.

Once you apply to those organizations, your information will be in the database. You may get interviews and offers before the fairs, but you may need to physically show up and sell yourself. Tieonline is another decent option without the need for travel.

You stand as good of a chance as anyone; you never know what schools are specifically looking for.

Check out some of the aforementioned organizations/websites and good luck! :)
wrldtrvlr123
Posts: 1173
Joined: Sat Feb 06, 2010 10:59 am
Location: Japan

Re: Returning to teaching after 5 year hiatus

Post by wrldtrvlr123 »

Hi. I would agree that many schools would find your experience and qualifications interesting and potentially useful. I would also second that some/many principals would be concerned that you have been out of the classroom (and away from education) for 5 years.

I would register with Search Associates (or one of the other big recruiting agencies), send out some applications/letters of interests and see what happens. In the meantime, if you want to get back into teaching as an IT then you should start getting back into the classroom anyway you can (teaching job, substituting). That may go some way towards addressing the potential concern about recent classroom experience.
PsyGuy
Posts: 10789
Joined: Wed Oct 12, 2011 9:51 am
Location: Northern Europe

Response

Post by PsyGuy »

The biggest issue against you is the 5 year absence from the classroom. The rule is you can pretty much do anything for one year and its not a problem, after that your marketability begins dropping.

Your qualifications arent very marketable, you are essentially a primary and ESOL IT. Social studies for lower secondary isnt very marketable. While lower secondary vacancies do exist there is a saturated pool of social studies and humanities teachers who have all full secondary qualification and experience, and you have no experience or even a qualification in school leaving (SL) courses.

Gifted and Talented (G&T) is very rare, it creates a huge admissions issue for ISs, as every parent wants their child in the G&T program, such that many ISs describe their whole school approach as serving all students as if they are G&T. The closest you generally see is an IS having a general diploma track and an DIP/AP/A levels track, they dont describe those students though as G&T. You could easily say that the inquiry approach by the IB is a G&T program, since thats what it looks like.

The Library Science is interesting and its a separate route than a standard IT, there are a lot of ISs that are hiring for Librarians, either an IS is going to want you or it isnt. I dont know enough about your experience and background to determine your marketability.

At this point I would hold off on one of the premium agencies, your long lapse of classroom experience is going to be significant challenge, and your certifications are going to have low utility. ISs generally save primary positions that arent part of a teaching couple until later in the recruiting year, and ESOL have the most marketability at local host nation ISs that are predominately low tier ISs.
The general advice is one premium agency and one job service agency, and I would start with the job service agency such as TIE and see what utility your application gets. As you get closer to the BOS fair then you can consider a premium agency. I would go through the registration progress, such as applying and getting your references in, but delay the actual payment until later with the condition that your associate provide an invitation to the BOS fair.
animamundi
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Jun 17, 2015 2:05 pm

Re: Returning to teaching after 5 year hiatus

Post by animamundi »

Thanks for the replies. I found them very helpful. I've signed up with TIEonline, and will eventually sign with Search as well.

PsyGuy - Thanks for the detailed response! I understand middle school social studies/humanities is probably out. I have lots of experience teaching it and love that subject more than anything, but the job openings are competitive and I'll probably lose out to those with subject specific graduate degrees. I'm happy to teach upper elementary. I enjoy the age and curriculum of 3-6 graders. I have been doing research on IB and was pleased to read your comment tying the IB approach to the Gifted approach since that's what I've been finding too. I think my experience and education in serving Gifted students will be an asset when transitioning into an IB school. My hope will be that an admin would see the similarities in teaching style and give me a chance. I've read that some schools don't mind training teachers in IB.

wrldtravlr - I've been giving substituting a lot of thought. I have some great connections in my old school district so I will put the word out for long term sub spots throughout this coming year.

newhere - I'm open to going anywhere in the world and have only a few requirements. I'd like to save as much money as possible to set myself up for a comfortable retirement some day. I want to avoid the extreme air pollution. And I want to be in a relatively safe area for a female traveling alone. Right now parts of the Middle East, much of Asia, and a few South American countries fit the bill.

Thanks again for the feedback and if anyone else has any thoughts on returning to teaching, I'd love to hear what you think.
PsyGuy
Posts: 10789
Joined: Wed Oct 12, 2011 9:51 am
Location: Northern Europe

Reply

Post by PsyGuy »

@animamundi

Its not that lower secondary social studies and humanities is out, its that you would have to be competitive at all level secondary which would include school leaving level subjects, which you just arent competitive in. Spend 2 years teaching AP/IGCSE/IB history with good results and then your scenario changes. Only large ISs can safely accommodate an IT thats handicapped at upper secondary level, and large ISs are generally top tier ISs and they can be choosey.

Graduate degrees in social studies and humanities isnt the issue, an ITs experience and demonstrable performance is. There are many highly marketable rock star ITs who dont have gradate degrees in their teaching subject or dont have a graduate degree at all, they are just good at what they do and it shows in their students assessments.

IB is a cult, its a cult I love (they have awesome koolaid) but more of the program is marketing than anything else and the curriculum isnt revolutionary, its nothing that hasnt been taught in ITT programs in western education for decades. You take a program like PYP and look at a UI (Unit of Inquiry) for 'Who we are" that includes language and social studies with a teacher thats a drill &kill or chalk and talk and its looks awe inspiring. Take a stranded subject such as maths with that same class and a western trained teacher and what you would see is very likely to be indistinguishable from a general education curriculum classroom. Students with open books, working on proof problems on paper. IB as a whole is spectacle pageantry for what western trained teachers were taught education would be like when they were in their ITT. Which is where its real strength is because those illusions have significant resource requirements that if you want to be part of the cult an IS or DS needs to procure. Thats really what IB is, a reason to spend money to make pretty classrooms.

IB ISs are split on this, one school of thought is you want to harvest IB expertise from the knowledge pool, because IB is a program where all the value (perceived) is in the experience, you cant really teach it or train it (and its why IB workshops, especially level 1 are so generally bad). The other school of thought is that IB programs are very individualized, and that how an IB practitioner learns IB is based largely on their first experience with it, and an IS will get a lot more utility out of an IT who trains/learns a particular ISs 'way' of practicing IB, rather then adopt to a new 'way' of practicing IB.
In general ISs prefer proven success at DIP, the IB meds/peds isnt as important as having a solid reputation of performance and student success. Many IB ISs make or break their reputation on students results and scores, its not something you play with frivolously.
In MYP an IS is more willing to train and create IB practitioners, at least in the past, and it hasnt changed much with the new MYP program, an IS seeing an IT as a long term investment and not a 2&Go IT would create a lot of utility in training an IT, since IB meds/peds and building the IB philosophy into a schools culture is more the focus. Your making IB citizens in MYP, and growing your own IB faculty is more productive then poaching someone elses.
PYP is just problematic, and there isnt an optimal solution. The PYP program is so very different in implementation from how primary education is approached and practiced, that even if you train faculty early, your first year with a PYP IT is a training year, you have to see them as a long term investment, otherwise on a two year contract they will make a lot of mistakes there first year, and will just be getting comfortable there second year, that they will be out the door and benefiting someone elses PYP program before an IS and leadership is going to see any ROI. The other side of that is that unless your IS has a very 'open' approach to classroom planing, functionally allowing primary teachers to do what they want, you hear a lot of "at my school", "I learned it this way", and "we did it this way" that you lose a lot of utility and productivity in retraining and adopting experienced PYP ITs, so much so that your first year is a retraining year, and again if they are out the door in 2&Go contracts, you never build much structure and stability, and its why certain IB ISs have a reputation as IB training factories.

Substitution/relief teaching doesnt help your resume, its better than doing nothing but ISs wont give you step credit for it, and many wont even consider it at all. Youre better off saying you were doing something else and spinning it into a niche advantage than resorting to being a substitute/relief teacher. If you do use substitute teaching re-frame it as a "short term temporary contract" position.

I would focus on Europe WE, you have to be dedicated to making Asia and the ME a career if your going to fund your retirement all on your own, otherwise WE is an ITs retirement landing.
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