I'm an experienced teacher who is beginning the process of looking for a job overseas. I've registered with Search Associates but thought I'd ask what this forum thinks about my chances of getting an offer, plus would love any advice you have to improve my chances. Here's what I think is important to know about me:
1. I'm 56 healthy years old
2. My husband would come with me, he will be a retired us gov't employee with his own pension & health insurance
3. We will have no children with us
4. I have 6 years of primary teaching experience and 6 years experience as a reading specialist and literacy coordinator (that is my current job. I'd love a job as a reading specialist, but would also consider K-3 elementary teaching
5. I work in a public school division that is IB K-12 so I have some IB (PYP) training
6. We are looking mostly at Europe and South America, but are also open to Asia & Africa
7. I have never taught internationally
I am registered for the Search Associates Cambridge job fair but really have no idea how marketable I am. Any thoughts you have would be greatly appreciated-thanks!
What are my chances?
Re: What are my chances?
OK, some thoughts...
First - you age will exclude you from some places, as some governments have a limit of 55 and others higher (China, for example, is 60.) That might be an issue for some schools who want you to stay longer, others might be less bothered about that.
You will have a trailing spouse, but not in the normal sense in that (a) he is self sufficient, and (b) his health insurance will cover him abroad. Assuming this is the case, you will need to make sure that schools are aware of this and that they do not have to worry about covering him. I don't know anything about the health insurance, but could it be extended to you too? Might make you a cheaper hire! One question a school might ask is what he will do - a bored spouse can sour the experience. Could he bring something extra to the school, depending on his role, or even working in admin?
Are you teaching PYP at the moment? You have the training but schools look for the experience as much as that.
Europe is more difficult to get into but there are tons of schools in Asia & Africa which would consider you. Try to keep as open a mind as possible and you are more likely to be successful.
First - you age will exclude you from some places, as some governments have a limit of 55 and others higher (China, for example, is 60.) That might be an issue for some schools who want you to stay longer, others might be less bothered about that.
You will have a trailing spouse, but not in the normal sense in that (a) he is self sufficient, and (b) his health insurance will cover him abroad. Assuming this is the case, you will need to make sure that schools are aware of this and that they do not have to worry about covering him. I don't know anything about the health insurance, but could it be extended to you too? Might make you a cheaper hire! One question a school might ask is what he will do - a bored spouse can sour the experience. Could he bring something extra to the school, depending on his role, or even working in admin?
Are you teaching PYP at the moment? You have the training but schools look for the experience as much as that.
Europe is more difficult to get into but there are tons of schools in Asia & Africa which would consider you. Try to keep as open a mind as possible and you are more likely to be successful.
Response
What are your goals, specifically your long term goals?
When you get a resume like yours, and then a hint of the story behind the resume, when youre applying for a WE position it sounds like a retiree couple looking to do that living in the EU dream they have always had and this is the way they get it funded. Same scenario and you pitch it the LCSA it sounds more like you are retiring and the teaching is more a side hustle. Same scenario in Asia and it sounds like padding the retirement/pension portfolio while reducing expenses. For Africa it sounds like Peace Corp lite.
Your have some serious logistic issues, actually you have one and its your age, and youre already passed the expiration point. As @expatscot indicated there are a number of ISs (not an insignificant number) that simply cant get a visa for you, and other your getting really close to it, but your still not the preference point at your age (unless you can go into leadership).
You still have a trailing spouse, few recruiters or leadership are going to believe that your spouses insurance will work overseas for anything except maybe emergency care, even then, the ISs worth going too are the ones that are going to follow the comp policy, meaning if spouses get insurance they get insurance. Unless your spouse can flip a resume and make the two of you a teaching couple, you have a trailing spouse.
Reading specialist isnt a very common vacancy, it exists but its very niche. The issue is that reading specialist is usually categorized as a language acquisition issue, not a remedial reading issue, thus usually its the ESOL department that handles reading. The other issue is that from the recruitment side of the issue is that reading specialists are used to higher comp than ESOL ITs, ESOL costs less and is more flexible. You just dont get deep mature reading issues in IE, the same way you dont find higher spectrum SEN/SPED in IE.
PYP training isnt worth much of anything, have you actually taught PYP, if so your going to want to put together a quick portfolio showing you have and can do PYP. For PYP experience matters so much that everything else doesnt matter. No PYP practitioner believes that any workshop is equivalent to that first year (and the second year to a lessor extent) of working in PYP classroom. So if you cant say "I taught PYP X year" then everything after that goes in the same category as 'training, no experience'.
Further, logistically primary is a saturated market, and steal meet stone, there are a LOT of young and younger primary ITs in the market, who will be cheaper than you. Why hire you and all your logistical issues when there are plenty of young, pretty, perky, flossy, primary DTs/ITs who are easier to take advantage of?
My suggestions would be:
1) Minimize your spouse to the point of spinning your application as single. I would be proactive about that to the point of saying your spouse is likely to remain behind for professional reasons, and if you can avoid bringing it up do that. Either the issue of your spouse doesnt matter so there isnt any need to bring it up, or it does matter but in your spouses position its not a burden to the IS. The issue is that screening doesnt give you a lot of room to explain, your application needs to be sorted your either single, or married, and no one is going to make a half dozen different categories for that one factor. You want to be in the pile thats the most marketable so if you cant flip the spouse into making you a teaching couple, you want to be in the single pile.
2) You need to spin your application to convey that you have PYP/IB experience, even if your campus, or your service room (I dont know how you deliver service if its a general ed classroom, resource or inclusion, etc.) if you can put that IB logo on your resume and you can spin your classroom as PYP and then show that, that will be a much stronger application.
3) You need to make a pivoting decision. Either focus on (1) Primary/elementary and that race with all the 20 something yoga princesses OR (2) Reading Specialist and if Reading Specialist than (A) Focusing on the few niche vacancies at upper tier ISs with a high probability of being unsuccessful or those lower tier ISs that are looking for "literacy coaches", OR (B) Librarian.
If you pursue reading specialist than you need to move quickly on either adding an ESOL credential because rudimentary reading as discussed above is typically classified as a language acquisition issue, and ESOL will also expand your marketability. The other option is to move into librarian, since that role often works with reading deficiencies, as whats common is you will have 1 or 2 students whose issues arent ESOL and arent SPED/SEN and as the librarian you end up doing pull out with these couple students. Its also the role of the librarian to formulate a comprehensive whole IS reading program outside the classroom. When ISs get the 'Reading Across the Curriculum' Pop.Ed, they usually dump it on the librarian before exploring handling a specialist (and most ISs never get to hiring the specialist. As such you will want to explore adding a librarian credential, and spinning your resume towards an all IS reading campaign (there are leadership looking for the next thing to do, and handing them such an opportunity on a platter, might be an easy sale for them).
When you get a resume like yours, and then a hint of the story behind the resume, when youre applying for a WE position it sounds like a retiree couple looking to do that living in the EU dream they have always had and this is the way they get it funded. Same scenario and you pitch it the LCSA it sounds more like you are retiring and the teaching is more a side hustle. Same scenario in Asia and it sounds like padding the retirement/pension portfolio while reducing expenses. For Africa it sounds like Peace Corp lite.
Your have some serious logistic issues, actually you have one and its your age, and youre already passed the expiration point. As @expatscot indicated there are a number of ISs (not an insignificant number) that simply cant get a visa for you, and other your getting really close to it, but your still not the preference point at your age (unless you can go into leadership).
You still have a trailing spouse, few recruiters or leadership are going to believe that your spouses insurance will work overseas for anything except maybe emergency care, even then, the ISs worth going too are the ones that are going to follow the comp policy, meaning if spouses get insurance they get insurance. Unless your spouse can flip a resume and make the two of you a teaching couple, you have a trailing spouse.
Reading specialist isnt a very common vacancy, it exists but its very niche. The issue is that reading specialist is usually categorized as a language acquisition issue, not a remedial reading issue, thus usually its the ESOL department that handles reading. The other issue is that from the recruitment side of the issue is that reading specialists are used to higher comp than ESOL ITs, ESOL costs less and is more flexible. You just dont get deep mature reading issues in IE, the same way you dont find higher spectrum SEN/SPED in IE.
PYP training isnt worth much of anything, have you actually taught PYP, if so your going to want to put together a quick portfolio showing you have and can do PYP. For PYP experience matters so much that everything else doesnt matter. No PYP practitioner believes that any workshop is equivalent to that first year (and the second year to a lessor extent) of working in PYP classroom. So if you cant say "I taught PYP X year" then everything after that goes in the same category as 'training, no experience'.
Further, logistically primary is a saturated market, and steal meet stone, there are a LOT of young and younger primary ITs in the market, who will be cheaper than you. Why hire you and all your logistical issues when there are plenty of young, pretty, perky, flossy, primary DTs/ITs who are easier to take advantage of?
My suggestions would be:
1) Minimize your spouse to the point of spinning your application as single. I would be proactive about that to the point of saying your spouse is likely to remain behind for professional reasons, and if you can avoid bringing it up do that. Either the issue of your spouse doesnt matter so there isnt any need to bring it up, or it does matter but in your spouses position its not a burden to the IS. The issue is that screening doesnt give you a lot of room to explain, your application needs to be sorted your either single, or married, and no one is going to make a half dozen different categories for that one factor. You want to be in the pile thats the most marketable so if you cant flip the spouse into making you a teaching couple, you want to be in the single pile.
2) You need to spin your application to convey that you have PYP/IB experience, even if your campus, or your service room (I dont know how you deliver service if its a general ed classroom, resource or inclusion, etc.) if you can put that IB logo on your resume and you can spin your classroom as PYP and then show that, that will be a much stronger application.
3) You need to make a pivoting decision. Either focus on (1) Primary/elementary and that race with all the 20 something yoga princesses OR (2) Reading Specialist and if Reading Specialist than (A) Focusing on the few niche vacancies at upper tier ISs with a high probability of being unsuccessful or those lower tier ISs that are looking for "literacy coaches", OR (B) Librarian.
If you pursue reading specialist than you need to move quickly on either adding an ESOL credential because rudimentary reading as discussed above is typically classified as a language acquisition issue, and ESOL will also expand your marketability. The other option is to move into librarian, since that role often works with reading deficiencies, as whats common is you will have 1 or 2 students whose issues arent ESOL and arent SPED/SEN and as the librarian you end up doing pull out with these couple students. Its also the role of the librarian to formulate a comprehensive whole IS reading program outside the classroom. When ISs get the 'Reading Across the Curriculum' Pop.Ed, they usually dump it on the librarian before exploring handling a specialist (and most ISs never get to hiring the specialist. As such you will want to explore adding a librarian credential, and spinning your resume towards an all IS reading campaign (there are leadership looking for the next thing to do, and handing them such an opportunity on a platter, might be an easy sale for them).
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stellaluna
- Posts: 2
- Joined: Fri Oct 26, 2018 11:38 am
Re: What are my chances?
Thanks so much for the detailed feedback-lot's to think about there. I do have experience teaching PYP so I'll work on making sure that is prominent on my resume & in my application materials. I have no problem saying I'm single on the application but do I explain his circumstances in an interview if possible? I am also covered under his insurance and it is Federal Gov't insurance, but it's a good idea to research the details. Again, thanks for all the great feedback (although I'm a little worried about all the kiddos getting reading support from the librarian!)
Reply
@stellaluna
I wouldnt worry to much about the medical insurance availability through your spouse applying for you. The ISs that will let you undercut that cost to compete for an appointment arent likely to be ISs you want to be at, good quality ISs will provide whatever comp is prescribed in the policy. Its important you check with your spouses provider, and understand that even they might not have full understanding. Even if they do, most regional medical facilities will not be able to bill the insurance. What you will want to do is contact the Embassy or Consulate wherever you are going and finding out what facility the mission uses and then contacting them to see if they will accept your spouses insurance and what limits on care they can provide unique to their situation.
There are two approaches when it comes to identifiable demographics. On one side of the spectrum its not uncommon to put in your cover letter your age, ethnicity and marital status or as many ISs get around that is requiring a recent photo, where they can guess at those pretty accurately. Doing this saves you the time of going through the recruiting process just to find out something like your age, etc. is a deal breaker. It can be frustrating that you go through the interview thinking its great and never hearing from them again, because they want someone who is in their 30s not their 50s. The negative to that though, is you spend a year or more recruiting after getting no offers, and barely any interviews that IF anyone is interested its all bottom tier ISs.
Of course you dont want to cross over the line of being labeled deceptive. If asked directly, Id disclose the truth but qualify it quickly that your spouse ill not be traveling with you, and then address any changes much later either after traveling or shortly before.
Why would you be worried? All the "kiddos" will amount to maybe two, and Librarians are trained in reading remediation (not as much as a reading specialist), but they arent clueless. Further your just not understanding the nature of IE.
1) ISs are not the first and last line of support for IE students, its not the scenario where if they dont get it in school they arent going to get it. Most of these students have access to tutors and cram ESs, etc. If there is a reading issue the tiger mom will just mention it to the ES or ET and they will work on it.
2) These kids arent without resources. Usually reading deficiencies are a sign of an underlying SPED/SEN/LD issue or because they are due to a lack of resources in supporting reading in the home. Students in Asia and many other regions do nothing but study, and because they can afford to do nothing but study. They dont have to take care of siblings, or work, or struggle for basic necessities. You wouldnt want the students that have a reading deficiency and are host nationals attending your IS, because that means EVERY option in their DE system was unsuccessful and the only schools left to them are ISs, and the parent had enough coin or influence to get them into the IS, such that they cant be selected out. Youre stuck with them and likely all their behavior issues. There are parents that literally started and built an IS so that their kid would have somewhere to go, and you cant release/select out ownerships son/daughter.
3) Parents dont want their children served in any type of remedial program if they can help it. That type of information goes on transcripts and a developmental reading deficiency will look bad to them. They would much rather an outside resource or provider that doesnt go on a transcript work with their childs reading issue.
4) Reading programs have very high costs compared to service. You just arent going to have enough reading students to justify a FTE position, its too specialized. You either have to be a Language Arts IT who does reading, a SPED/SEN/LD IT that specializes in reading but is still a generalist or an ESOL IT that specializes in reading but is still a generalist. Even in primary where students focus on 'reading' as part of a scheduled day of courses dont see the value in the added cost of a specialists for a subject that can be absorbed by the HRT.
5) Lastly, how would you know? How would you assess for and determine a student with an actual as opposed to a language acquisition problem? These are students whose native language is not English, are you fluent enough and trained to recognize and assess reading deficiencies in a non-English language, because thats what you would have to do to do the diagnostic differential and determine a reading deficiency? Otherwise as far as you know its just a a language acquisition issue. Even if there was a mechanism where the general ed IT could refer a student for services, you wouldnt want that scenario. The Lit./ELA IT will simply use you as a dumping ground for their worst students, and whatever leadership is assigned to that role and referral process will have no idea what they are doing, and you will end up having to liaise with the native language IT who will resent your 'ask' of what is essentially more work, because working with students on their English reading will mean collaboration with whatever their L1 language is as well, and the leadership involved with that is going to want to justify the time and resources especially if they have to sell it to parents, which is going to require more production tasking. Finally, how are you going to address retention and return of students? How do you address outcomes and results? What will happen is you will either be marginalized in a tutoring program thats babysitting, or the criteria are going to be so laxed and/or subjective as to be arbitrary that you are essentially a tutor babysitting until someone says so.
I wouldnt worry to much about the medical insurance availability through your spouse applying for you. The ISs that will let you undercut that cost to compete for an appointment arent likely to be ISs you want to be at, good quality ISs will provide whatever comp is prescribed in the policy. Its important you check with your spouses provider, and understand that even they might not have full understanding. Even if they do, most regional medical facilities will not be able to bill the insurance. What you will want to do is contact the Embassy or Consulate wherever you are going and finding out what facility the mission uses and then contacting them to see if they will accept your spouses insurance and what limits on care they can provide unique to their situation.
There are two approaches when it comes to identifiable demographics. On one side of the spectrum its not uncommon to put in your cover letter your age, ethnicity and marital status or as many ISs get around that is requiring a recent photo, where they can guess at those pretty accurately. Doing this saves you the time of going through the recruiting process just to find out something like your age, etc. is a deal breaker. It can be frustrating that you go through the interview thinking its great and never hearing from them again, because they want someone who is in their 30s not their 50s. The negative to that though, is you spend a year or more recruiting after getting no offers, and barely any interviews that IF anyone is interested its all bottom tier ISs.
Of course you dont want to cross over the line of being labeled deceptive. If asked directly, Id disclose the truth but qualify it quickly that your spouse ill not be traveling with you, and then address any changes much later either after traveling or shortly before.
Why would you be worried? All the "kiddos" will amount to maybe two, and Librarians are trained in reading remediation (not as much as a reading specialist), but they arent clueless. Further your just not understanding the nature of IE.
1) ISs are not the first and last line of support for IE students, its not the scenario where if they dont get it in school they arent going to get it. Most of these students have access to tutors and cram ESs, etc. If there is a reading issue the tiger mom will just mention it to the ES or ET and they will work on it.
2) These kids arent without resources. Usually reading deficiencies are a sign of an underlying SPED/SEN/LD issue or because they are due to a lack of resources in supporting reading in the home. Students in Asia and many other regions do nothing but study, and because they can afford to do nothing but study. They dont have to take care of siblings, or work, or struggle for basic necessities. You wouldnt want the students that have a reading deficiency and are host nationals attending your IS, because that means EVERY option in their DE system was unsuccessful and the only schools left to them are ISs, and the parent had enough coin or influence to get them into the IS, such that they cant be selected out. Youre stuck with them and likely all their behavior issues. There are parents that literally started and built an IS so that their kid would have somewhere to go, and you cant release/select out ownerships son/daughter.
3) Parents dont want their children served in any type of remedial program if they can help it. That type of information goes on transcripts and a developmental reading deficiency will look bad to them. They would much rather an outside resource or provider that doesnt go on a transcript work with their childs reading issue.
4) Reading programs have very high costs compared to service. You just arent going to have enough reading students to justify a FTE position, its too specialized. You either have to be a Language Arts IT who does reading, a SPED/SEN/LD IT that specializes in reading but is still a generalist or an ESOL IT that specializes in reading but is still a generalist. Even in primary where students focus on 'reading' as part of a scheduled day of courses dont see the value in the added cost of a specialists for a subject that can be absorbed by the HRT.
5) Lastly, how would you know? How would you assess for and determine a student with an actual as opposed to a language acquisition problem? These are students whose native language is not English, are you fluent enough and trained to recognize and assess reading deficiencies in a non-English language, because thats what you would have to do to do the diagnostic differential and determine a reading deficiency? Otherwise as far as you know its just a a language acquisition issue. Even if there was a mechanism where the general ed IT could refer a student for services, you wouldnt want that scenario. The Lit./ELA IT will simply use you as a dumping ground for their worst students, and whatever leadership is assigned to that role and referral process will have no idea what they are doing, and you will end up having to liaise with the native language IT who will resent your 'ask' of what is essentially more work, because working with students on their English reading will mean collaboration with whatever their L1 language is as well, and the leadership involved with that is going to want to justify the time and resources especially if they have to sell it to parents, which is going to require more production tasking. Finally, how are you going to address retention and return of students? How do you address outcomes and results? What will happen is you will either be marginalized in a tutoring program thats babysitting, or the criteria are going to be so laxed and/or subjective as to be arbitrary that you are essentially a tutor babysitting until someone says so.
Re: What are my chances?
You should just go to Atlanta first week of December if you want a sure thing.
Re: What are my chances?
Lots of stuff to think about but in the end if you really want to teach overseas you need to just throw your hat in the ring and see what happens. Nobody can predict with any accuracy what any particular school is looking for in any particular year, but I do know that if you don't apply and put yourself out there you won't be teaching overseas next year.