The International Schools Review Forum

Hello. I am new to this site and have thus far been very impressed with the amount of information on it. My question involves experience. My wife and I are a teaching couple. Our issue is that we both went back to school in our late 20's to pursue education degrees (we both have a Master's in Elementary Education). Unfortunately due to tough economic times back in the US education budgets across the country were slashed, and sensing that it might not be the best time to land a job there we decided to try our fortunes elsewhere. We ended up in South Korea were we both teach English at local elementary schools. Now I'm assuming that our experience here counts for very little, if at all. I'm wondering then, given our limited experience, do we stand a chance of finding a job with an international school? We have recently joined TIE and Search but I'm starting to think that I should greatly lower my expectations about finding work. Any advice/opinions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

When you say "teaching english at local elementary schools" in SK, what do you mean by that? Im going to assume you teach ESL, at a non international school...

Your right ESL experience (unless at an international school, where you need to hold a government credential to teach) doesnt count (or counts very little).

It would be hard to say if your expectations are too high, since I dont know what your expectations are. You should be aiming for a tier two school somewhere in Asia (not Japan/Singapore/Hong Kong) would be my reflex answer. Your a teaching couple, but in the same field so your basically competing against one another, unless a school has 2 vacant primary school positions open (which hiring you would be a nice benefit for a school). You could also apply independently and one of you become a trailing spouse, hoping something opens up (or a position is "created" for the trailing spouse).

deleted