Teacher Ready - a few questions

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edmunder
Posts: 4
Joined: Thu May 19, 2016 2:31 am

Teacher Ready - a few questions

Post by edmunder »

I have recently read through the first 5 pages of posts in this forum and I'm so thankful for all the great information. It was like a class in International Schools.

There is a post below about the differences between Teach Now and Teacher Ready. That I learned a lot from. Actually at least a dozen different topics.
http://internationalschoolsreview.com/v ... f=1&t=5990

I'm interested in Teacher Ready because I have already signed on for work this September at a great university in Guangzhou. So I will be employed until late June 2017. I would like to transition to teaching at a high school level in the future.

Me:
Early 30's, American
BA History, no minor sadly.
More than a decade in Asia, mostly China.
Worked at universities the entire time.

I have been tutoring AP Literature and History for the past few years and really enjoyed the time with students more than Academic writing and Intensive reading courses at the university.

I can do Teacher Ready because there are several International Schools in Guangzhou. I think I could get 5 days in one of them. There is a US State Department Website that lists International Schools in Guangzhou.

http://www.state.gov/m/a/os/155608.htm

American International School Guangzhou (PS-12) http://www.aisgz.org/
The British School of Guangzhou (PK-YR13) http://www.nordangliaeducation.com/our- ... /guangzhou
Utahloy International School (K-12) http://www.utahloy.com


There is also another list here of different schools.

http://www.expatarrivals.com/china/guan ... -guangzhou

Guangzhou Nanfang International School http://www.gnischina.org/
广州南方国际学校

My Question:

Teacher Ready has said on its website that they will help students find a placement to do their student teaching. They will call/contact local International Schools to help arrange the 5 day teaching. There also are monthly/weekly class visits necessary to do the coursework.

If it was inside the US I believe them. Outside the US I'm not so sure. What do you think? There do appear to be many international schools, though some are British or Canadian, which must have different school systems.

I would like to do the Secondary Social Studies Teaching Certificate. I would like to teach History, though I know that market is probably a bit saturated. I would also consider getting a Masters in another teachable science. I took many science classes in university for fun: would an MA in biology be helpful so that I could also teach that subject? That would be several years down the line though. Now I need to focus on the task ahead. I have 12 months free time until June 2017 and its a 9 month program.

Thank you for taking a look at this.
PsyGuy
Posts: 10789
Joined: Wed Oct 12, 2011 9:51 am
Location: Northern Europe

Response

Post by PsyGuy »

It depends where you are, Teach Ready has been around long enough and worked with a number of ISs with past students that they have some established relationships, and will reach out under certain scenarios. It is still largely up to you to identify and secure a cooperating IS.

Yes there are weekly observations, but they are just that observations. Thats not a difficult sell to an AS (American School) to have a guest intern observe classes.

CANs DE system is more like the USA system, and AUS is more like the UK system. Classroom based meds/peds doesnt differ significantly. The lexicon is different, etc.., but the performance, production, and preparation skills for any daily lesson are very much the same. Teaching is about creating a system (classroom) with rules, routines, expectations and culture, and then injecting tasking projects (lessons) into it. Regardless of the curriculum half of an ITs/DTs tasking is creating that environmental system thats conducive to those tasking projects, ITs/DTs refer to these constructs as classroom management and classroom organization.

History is not a bit saturated its very saturated. History is the most common social studies course. You should have a stronger foundation in World history than American history. You should also explore what other SS courses you would be competent to teach such as economics/business studies, social sciences (psychology). Geography is also a popular course in BSs.
The FL certification in SS is a composite certification in all general social studies.

You may find a UNI that will admit you into a Masters program in Biology, but I highly doubt it. More likely a Masters in Science Education. You do not need a masters degree in a teaching field to be qualified to teach it. You can add additional subjects by taking the appropriate FTCE exam in FL. Secondary biology as any subject is at most, little more than the 1st year (freshman) UNI general education course in the subject.
Biology is over saturated as well, not as much as history, but there are a lot of science ITs teaching a range of courses who have biology backgrounds. Chem and Phys are the in demand subjects areas.
edmunder
Posts: 4
Joined: Thu May 19, 2016 2:31 am

Re: Teacher Ready - a few questions

Post by edmunder »

Thank you for the help PsyGuy.

A few more questions for @PsyGuy or others.

For my BA I took mostly history courses. I think I had 3 Psych courses: Into, Abnormal, and Psych of Language where I tutored at a local elementary school to study language acquisition. Would 9 credits be enough to teach Psych? I never took any economics, geography classes, sadly.

I'm still a bit up in the air about whether to try the Teach Now program. I honestly need more than 5 days practice teaching, but it might be a hard sell to the school.

Is it an advantage for me to get a spot doing observations and student teaching at a school that I won't need a visa, salary, etc? I will already be living in Guangzhou, with a roof over my head and a lot of free time each week to be at their school. I can follow PsyGuy's recommendation in another post by looking at the schools website, seeing which activities they offer, selling myself as someone who can help them with those activities/classes. I can also sell myself as a TA to whoever needs the help. Eventually I will need a classroom though: a week for Teacher Ready or much better for me, 200 hours which is 4 hours a day for 10 weeks, or other configurations.

Also, would it be a good idea to take the Praxis World &US History and Psychology tests to show that I can teach these subjects. There is a testing center in the city so it shouldn't be an issue. I may very well do the Teach Now program as it seems much better than going to Florida, though I do go back to the US most summers.
PsyGuy
Posts: 10789
Joined: Wed Oct 12, 2011 9:51 am
Location: Northern Europe

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Post by PsyGuy »

@edmunder

DIP/AP/A* level psychology is equivalent to 1st year UNI general psychology. Youre likely qualified, but there isnt any demand for psy ITs, there are often plenty of ITs with degrees in psy.

Your putting the cart before the horse, its what you can find that matters. Explore the ISs in the GZ region, and see which ISs will cooperate with you and to what degree. You may very well not find an IS in GZ that is willing too cooperate with you for 3 months. You may not find an IS that will even let you do 5 days plus observations.

You dont understand Chinese immigration and labor law. You could likely do Teach Ready on your ES work visa, but not 3 months doing clinical practice, your work visa allows you to work for your sponsoring employer, you would need some other status to do a 3 month clinical practice. You would need a local university to support the activity or permission from your ES or some other arrangement.

"Classroom" is a very morphic construct. There are many unconventional and non-traditional classrooms outside of the image of a room with desks and chairs and a smart board.

A PRAXIS exam in history isnt going to mean anything when you have a degree/major in history. The psy PRAXIS exam will not be applicable to the Teach Now program (or Teach Ready) and there is enough IT labor that many ISs dont have to make such compromises in hiring a psy IT.
Really you have a much more restricted location, find out what opportunities you have there first and then move from there.
cms989
Posts: 73
Joined: Tue Feb 24, 2015 6:07 pm

Re: Teacher Ready - a few questions

Post by cms989 »

TeacherReady found me an IS post in Vietnam, a great one. I gave them my top three and they got my top school. You are assigned a person who searches for you and makes the calls.

If it were me I would have no concerns about being able to find a post, Guangzhou is a big place.
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