The International Schools Review Forum

Quick and dirty run down: love our school, hate the city it's in. This will be our second year here.

Husband: math teacher all the way through AP Calculus. Has taken the AP Calculus course. At the end of this year, two years of experience, plus a few years of working part-time at a university teaching math.

Me: elementary and middle/high school language arts teacher. Taught fifth grade last year. Will teach language arts part-time this year, as I'm on partial maternity leave. Two years of experience at the end of this year.

One dependent.

Would we be good candidates for Search Cambridge? Or should we suck it up and do a third year in a city that really makes me want to throw in the towel and go home? Or is there some other option I haven't thought of yet?

I would say you'd both be able to get jobs elsewhere pretty easily (math teachers are very much in demand). With all the great places there are to live, there's just no reason to stay past your contract. Good to hear you really like your school.

Remember that it's not the fair per se, but which one has the most openings you're interested in and are qualified for.

[quote="heyteach"]I would say you'd both be able to get jobs elsewhere pretty easily (math teachers are very much in demand). With all the great places there are to live, there's just no reason to stay past your contract. Good to hear you really like your school.

Remember that it's not the fair per se, but which one has the most openings you're interested in and are qualified for.[/quote]

I often read that it's best to go to the fair with the most openings. How can you find out which fair that is? If you wait to see more current info on openings shortly before the fair, isn't it too late to get an invite, make reservations, etc.?

Plus many schools pull-out of fairs at the last minute. So I agree, it's near futile trying to attend a fair based on the job openings in your field

So what other criteria would you go by in choosing a fair?

I used Search last year and made a spreadsheet of all the positions I was interested in and which fairs those schools were attending. That helped me considerably. Of course things can change--schools fill positions, new positions open up, assignments change. But I still think this advice--which I got from my Search rep-- makes the most sense.

I would just focus on one of the big fairs to maximize the options. Or if money's an issue, the cheapest option from wherever I was at the time. Much of it is a roll of the dice anyway.

Youd be fine candidates for the Search Cambridge fair. Even more so if your last 2 years have given you IB experience.

You should go to the earliest "big" fair you can those are the Bangkok, London, Boston (Cambridge) fairs. Your field (elementary and math) are almost always in demand, if not know, at some point in the near future they will be. Elementary is so common any fair will be fine, the bigger it is the more opportunities available. You dont say where you want to go, so Im going to assume your pretty open to anywhere thats better then where you are. Whats most important is that you get in front of as many recruiters and interview with as many schools as possible, so when they do have/want/need teachers like you your on their hiring list.

Would we really have much of a chance at Bangkok with our qualifications? (See the first post in this thread for our qualifications.) I don't want to waste a pretty sizable chunk of change to end up sitting in our hotel room with no interviews or offers.

No, not in my experience. Your husbands math is in demand, and your a teaching couple, with me dependent, all strong factors. You only have 2 years experience though, which is the "minimum", and you don't have IB experience. You also have a difficult combination, you reall need school that has a math an art vacancie. If you'd really hate going, spending the money and coming back with nothing, more then interviews then don't go.

Teachers like you go to Bangkok, for the opportunity to interview early, with the hope of getting called later. If you have to leave with an offer, I don't see it happening. BKK is very early, and your border line candidates, schools aren't going to throw themselves at you. Your going to get interviews, but your going to hear a lot of "were waiting".

If you were a primary teacher, with husband being a math teacher, and had 5+ years of experience and had IB experience, id be comfortable saying you'd leave with an offer, but you don't.

Where did I say that I'm an art teacher? I said I'm certified for elementary and English language arts, k-12. Does that change anything?

I saw language arts and just read it as art. Yeah it changes things in your favor, but not enough to tip the scale. Its mainly the lack of experience, husbands got 2 and youve got 1, since your only teaching part time this coming year. I think youd go to BKK and get interviews, but that early in the year your going to be a schools backup, and those dont often pay out.

I think youd be much more successful at BOS, and would very likely leave with an offer from a top tier 2 school or even bottom tier 1 school, with a better then decent chance of Germany even.