The International Schools Review Forum

Hi! I am new to the international teaching. My husband and I will be attending the Cambridge fair next Thursday and of course I am very nervous and excited at the same time! Please respond and let me know if you think we have a good chance to land a job. I have 9 years of teaching experience in Texas. I have taught 4th grade for 4 years, 3rd grade for 3 years, and Kindergarten for 2 years. I have also been a language support teacher for a few months and have a masters in Educational Leadership. I am a certified bilingual teacher in grades PK-4. My husband has taught 4 years in Texas and holds the same certification as I do. He is fully bilingual in Spanish and English and is looking for a Spanish position. He has a dual citizenship from the US and Colombia.

Please let me know if we are marketable. Thank you !

I'm new to the international teaching scene myself, but have been doing a ton of research--reading blogs, reading old postings on here, etc.

From what you stated, it sounds like you and your husband have a good chance at getting a job. You both sound well-rounded and you both have many years of experience. With both of your backgrounds in Spanish, you might also be able to teach that subject which would probably help your chances. I'm also guessing that if you applied to teach in a Spanish-speaking country, that you both would be highly desirable.

Again, I really am not basing this on anything but my own research. That said, I recommend searching this forum for similar conversations. It seems like every-other posting on here is titled "what are my chances?????!!!!!" If you search the forum and read the responses others have received, it might help to allay your fears.

Oh thank you so much!!!! I just want some honest feedback. We have a lot of work to do this weekend to get ready for the fair. My hubby would be leaving his engineering career to go back into teaching if we do get an opportunity. He's definitely ready to be back in the classroom. You don't know what you have until you lose it. That being said, it's risky because we are also giving up and leaving a "good" life here in the states. Only the higher being above knows what are desting has in store for us. :)

Good luck to you too! Bogota Colombia is a great place!

Good luck to you and yours! Are you going to the UNI fair?

[quote="abarisme"]Hi! I am new to the international teaching. My husband and I will be attending the Cambridge fair next Thursday and of course I am very nervous and excited at the same time! Please respond and let me know if you think we have a good chance to land a job. I have 9 years of teaching experience in Texas. I have taught 4th grade for 4 years, 3rd grade for 3 years, and Kindergarten for 2 years. I have also been a language support teacher for a few months and have a masters in Educational Leadership. I am a certified bilingual teacher in grades PK-4. My husband has taught 4 years in Texas and holds the same certification as I do. He is fully bilingual in Spanish and English and is looking for a Spanish position. He has a dual citizenship from the US and Colombia.

Please let me know if we are marketable. Thank you ![/quote]

Hi. You don't actually say what your certifications are (I am assuming Elementary?). You also don't say whether you have education degrees in your area of certification.

None of those are deal breakers, but could give you a moderate advantage or disadvantage at some schools.

Regardless, you should attact some interest from schools looking for ES positions. The only sticking point could be whether your husband has a certification and experience in teaching Spanish. If not, how attractive he is to schools will depend on the candidate pool at the fair.

If his main certification and experience is in Elementary, you could also get some interest from schools looking to fill multiple ES positions. The only downside could be that many schools hold back ES positions for the other half of teaching couples for hard to fill positions like HS Math, Science etc.

In any case, you should certainly get some interest at the fair and if you have an open mind, could very well walk away with jobs. Good luck!

Thank you for your advice! I so appreciate it. :)

I got your request, and have just been mulling it over. Its just your a very border line candidate. To put it simply, your qualified, your husband isnt. That added together with a few logistics issues doesnt make you a very competitive couple.

The Good: For an ES (primary) school position your more then amply qualified and competitive. You have plenty of experience and an advance degree. :)

The Bad: You dont have IS or IB experience. Your two primary school teachers which means you are either competing against each other or you need a school with A LOT of primary school vacancies. The reason is that IS's tend to save a couple primary school positions for teaching couples where the stronger teacher is in a hard to find/High Demand field like math, science, etc.

The Ugly: Your husband isnt certified in Spanish, so any decent IS isnt going to hire him to teach Spanish (its a regulation and accreditation issue). Second as far as elementary hes been out of the classroom for too long (as an engineer). Hes really just a trailing spouse.

Advice: I dont know how open or flexible you are, but there is a school somewhere for everyone if they will accept anything. That said you arent going to get any of the top tier schools really interested in you.

You need to approach recruiting solo, instead of a teaching couple. Hubby is dead weight. Up sell yourself as a great primary teacher with many years of experience and special populations experience as well. Figure out what the school can do for hubby after the contract is signed but dont think of it as a deal breaker.

Thanks PsyGuy for your honest advice. We will see what happens at the job fair! I wished my associate would have advised my husband to get his Spanish certification. According to her, we were both very marketable. :/

They say that to everyone they accept. The ring of truth to it, is sure your marketable... to someone somewhere, but those arent usually the places most international teachers have in mind when they think "international teacher".

Hey Psyguy! You were wrong!!!! hehehehe Just giving you a hard time. You were actually right with the many things you did say, but my husband and i landed a wonderful opportunity!!!!!!! :)

We're excited and nervous at the same time! Of course, it is a hard situation for my parents (latino parents can sometimes be overbearing), and really this is the only things that kind of brings me down. I guess it's normal.

Cheers!

This was a strange year, but Im glad it worked in your favor. If i have to be wrong, Im glad its at times like this. So where are you going?

Hi PsyGuy-

We landed a job at the International School of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia! We're excited! We got lucky!

[quote="abarisme"]Hi PsyGuy-

We landed a job at the International School of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia! We're excited! We got lucky![/quote]


Congrats! <trying not to turn too green with envy>

"a job" did only one of you get hired (I assumed it would be you) or did both of you get positions?

ISM is a great school, you really did VERY well for yourselves, even with a trailing spouse you would be able to live very well on one salary.

Again, if Im going to be wrong Im glad Im wrong with things like this.

Thank you!

We both got hired at the Elementary school in ISKL. :)

We obviously made a good impression at the interview.