Approaching IB schools without IB experience

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jimmycajun
Posts: 23
Joined: Sat Sep 26, 2015 10:56 am

Approaching IB schools without IB experience

Post by jimmycajun »

Just wondering if anyone has some solid advice about how to market yourself to IB schools without IB experience?

It seems as though the general rule is no amount of training will substitute for experience when it comes to IB. Without going down the training/certification road, I have come across the following approaches:

1) Do your homework. Learn about the IB program and what programs/subjects you are interested in teaching. Become familiar with format, expectations, jargon, etc. Learn what it means to walk the walk and talk the talk.
2) Try to implement aspects of the IB, ie. methods, topics, qualities of learner profile,etc. When it comes to applying to schools, although you don't have IB experience, you can show you are aware of what the program is all about and have evidence of implementing some IB characteristics in your classroom.
3) Target lower tier/lesser known IB schools. I've heard some upper IB tier schools will not even consider you as a candidate if you don't have IB classroom experience.

People talk about getting lucky and how schools sometime "take a chance" on teachers without IB experience, but when you broke into the IB circuit, did you actively do anything to market yourself specifically towards IB schools? Or did most just get lucky?

JC
durianfan
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Joined: Mon Sep 20, 2010 9:54 pm
Location: Thailand

Re: Approaching IB schools without IB experience

Post by durianfan »

I paid for training myself but honestly it didn't really help.

Target 3rd tier schools. That's really your only hope unless you know someone who can get you into a better IB school. Do your two years at a 3rd tier school in an undesirable location and then move somewhere better.
Rhysboy

Re: Approaching IB schools without IB experience

Post by Rhysboy »

I think all three of the approaches that you have described will help you get into an IB school.
One that you haven't mentioned is taking an online IB course; there are (were?) some online IB course providers that had courses that provided an introduction to the IB. I did an introduction to teaching MYP science course online, it wasn't cheap and of course I had to pay for it myself. It does however show schools that you are serious about teaching the IB. The company was called TripleAlearning if I remember correctly.
sid
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Joined: Sat Dec 02, 2006 11:44 am

Re: Approaching IB schools without IB experience

Post by sid »

IB schools generally want teachers with IB experience, but remember that there are more IB schools each year. The number of needed teachers is greater than the number of available IB teachers. So schools pretty much have to take on newbies each year. Do your homework as suggested above, and get yourself to the front of the line.
vandsmith
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Joined: Sat Oct 25, 2014 12:16 am

Re: Approaching IB schools without IB experience

Post by vandsmith »

lots of schools hire teachers without IB experience. they then generally send them, or host, workshops to give them some training. there isn't a substitute for classroom experience teaching it but i don't think you should be worried about it. personally, i wouldn't pay for IB training but you're free to do as you like. but like i said, schools will send you or bring someone in for training (depending on your location, there are usually workshops to be found).

good luck.

v.
chilagringa
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Joined: Sun Apr 24, 2011 7:19 pm

Re: Approaching IB schools without IB experience

Post by chilagringa »

My school (a good one by most measures) hires IB newbies all the time. However, for high school it usually hires people for non-IB high school classes first, then eventually people can move into DP courses. Maybe apply at a big school that doesn't only teach IB?
steve416
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Joined: Sat Nov 02, 2013 5:13 am

Re: Approaching IB schools without IB experience

Post by steve416 »

*disclaimer* I am quite inexperienced so this is all opinion with little substance.

It is certainly possible to get hired by a IB school with no IB experience the question is more how "likely" it is. I personally found breaking into the pyp difficult. I only had 2 years exp at the time but found that out of the way lower tier schools were the only plausible option. If you are in a more employable position than I was (am!) then perhaps your experience will be different. The way I think of it is there is little incentive for a school to hire someone without experience if they have the option to hire IB trained/experienced people, you are just more expensive. The exception would be I suppose if you bring something else to the table that the school really values.

I have ended up at a small not for profit in a rather out of the way place which in the scheme of my choices actually seems like an okay result all things considered. I of course tried to write my CV in a way that appealed to the IB ethos but it seemed to make little difference.
vandsmith
Posts: 348
Joined: Sat Oct 25, 2014 12:16 am

Re: Approaching IB schools without IB experience

Post by vandsmith »

steve416 wrote:
> *disclaimer* I am quite inexperienced so this is all opinion with little
> substance.
>
> It is certainly possible to get hired by a IB school with no IB experience
> the question is more how "likely" it is. I personally found
> breaking into the pyp difficult. I only had 2 years exp at the time but
> found that out of the way lower tier schools were the only plausible
> option. If you are in a more employable position than I was (am!) then
> perhaps your experience will be different. The way I think of it is there
> is little incentive for a school to hire someone without experience if they
> have the option to hire IB trained/experienced people, you are just more
> expensive. The exception would be I suppose if you bring something else to
> the table that the school really values.
>
> I have ended up at a small not for profit in a rather out of the way place
> which in the scheme of my choices actually seems like an okay result all
> things considered. I of course tried to write my CV in a way that appealed
> to the IB ethos but it seemed to make little difference.


that's one way of looking at it, but remember that experienced IB teachers also usually command a higher salary step. depending on how much you go up each year, it could make sense for schools to train newbies in the IB than to pay more for an experienced teacher. really good schools will want you to have that experience and don't mind paying for it. other schools want newbies because they don't cost as much, and you can train/not train as you like.

v.
shadowjack
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Re: Approaching IB schools without IB experience

Post by shadowjack »

How to get hired at an IB school with no experience.

This applies more to primary and MYP.

Practice being an inquiry based learning teacher. Instead of teaching the students, you need to guide them, with micro-lessons on important skills that they need to inculcate, but keeping in ming that your units or UOI (primary) should be student centered, have a clear inquiry statement (what they are learning about and how it links to greater concepts outside of "because it is in the book"), and you should also be willing to ask students questions when they ask you questions.

This is something that develops over time. I don't "teach" students. I guide them through a process of learning, providing some materials and having them research others, that are equally as relevant to their learning needs and the learning task. This got me into an IB school which to date has sent me or paid for me to do 3 workshops in the past two years with several more lined up for this year.

This is just my experience. Yours might vary.
sciteach
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Joined: Sat Dec 13, 2014 7:49 am

Re: Approaching IB schools without IB experience

Post by sciteach »

I agree with shadow jack - but I'm used to using the jargon word of facilitator to describe what I do in the classroom. My first school is what was considered a Tier 3 school (I now think it's Tier 2 as it's improved with time) which gave me MYP training. I've also seen excellent teachers picked up by Tier 1 schools but they tend to know someone at the school who can vouch for them.

Quite often in international education - it's not what you know but who you know.

As such - I strongly suggest starting a little down the list is desirable schools and state that you are willing to complete IB training before you start as a possible trade off. I don't think that completing IB training out of your own pocket is totally worthwhile and I'd only go to official IB training given by the IB as the others could be given by just about anyone! This of course does not mean you don't apply for your dream job - but cast your net far and wide...
Nomads
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Joined: Mon Nov 04, 2013 2:08 pm

Re: Approaching IB schools without IB experience

Post by Nomads »

chilagringa's advice is good. Find a larger high school that offer IB Diploma. Get hired for grade 9 and 10 classes. Show them you are a great teacher and interested in IB. They will then pay for your training and move you into IB when the space opens up.

As an administrator, this is one of my strategies to get IB teachers. I would rather put a great teacher I know well into the IB program, then hire an experienced IB teacher who is good but not great.

Of course, the ultimate would be to hire a great, experienced IB teacher, but those folks can almost pick the school they want.
PsyGuy
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Location: Northern Europe

Response

Post by PsyGuy »

Most of those points are pretty much what i have contributed in the past. I didnt really break into IB, and many ITs I know didnt break into IB ISs either what happened is they got hired to teach in the national or local program of the IS and the IS had an additional IB program (DIP) and then got trained somewhere around their second year and got offered an IB course to fill a schedule and if your good at it you get more courses.

IB training is worthless especially level 1 workshops for already western teachers. Its expensive and has little value in recruiting. F2F workshops at least allow you to network and meet other IB educators who might be in a position to recommend you, online training is nothing more then a certificate that isnt worth much.

There are third tier IB ISs it really depends what you teach in them. Many recruiters and leadership will be hesitant about your IB indoctrination coming from a low tier IS, its worse than a newbie, they have to train and practice out the bad meds/peds you likely learned. The exceptions are PYP and DIP, if you have high scores to show.

IB trained experienced ITs are not "more expensive" an IB teacher with 2 years experience is going to be on the same step scale as a non-IB IT. I am not aware of any ISs that have a separate IB/non-IB salary scale. Of course there is the cost of training to meet the IBO PD requirements but while $800 USD is costly to us to an IS its the standard allocation of what most ISs budget for PD whether its IB or not.

I would generally agree with @Nomad, you can teach/train meds/peds and curriculum systems a LOT easier and with more success than you can best practices in a classroom. My only caveat to that is long time ITs regardless of what you train them to do tend to just wrap whatever they were going to do anyway in what ever curriculum package they give you. they arent really "IB educators" they are educators who go through the motions.
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