My two cents- While I think that some of the points that people make about Psyguy have some validity, I would like to raise the question: So what?

You have well-defined, nuanced and progressive views of gender / race / or a region of the world, and Psyguy doesn't, big deal. There are tons of people out there who share Psyguy's views. Deal with it.

Did Psyguy ruin your life with incorrect or unethical advice? Well, I hope you at least learned a lesson from it. Don't be naive or stupid. If you are "new" and you are just going to believe everything you read, good luck with that.

If I sound harsh, it's because I'm tired of all the whining. It's threads like this that waste my time.

Oh, and I think the only thing worse than whining about him is idealizing him.

Turkey
Italy
Spain
Slovenia
Croatia
Morocco
Tunisia
(Okay, almost anywhere in the Med.)
India
Pakistan
Sri Lanka
Myanmar
Vietnam
Laos
Malaysia
Bhutan
Japan
S. America
Africa
Lots more

Wife and I both teach at a Tier 2 school In Asia. After day to day living expenses are paid we have 5k/month in our overseas bank accts. We spend Approx 12k/year on travel. 24k on school loan debt payoff. That leaves about 34-30k/year for the retirement/down payment on a house fund.

Thanks PsyGuy,

I learned something new today. :-)

50,000 people for 200 jobs!?! Seriously? Those are like ISB numbers! OK, actually an average of 250 applicants/job, which is probably lower than what some of the more desirable schools see.

OK, out of curiosity, where does one apply?

While we are on the topic, what is living/working/teaching in a DODDs school like?

I know the clientele would be different from that at most international schools. It's like a government job right? So pay and benefits are pretty solid?

My medium sized Asian school lost 3/hired 3. I think that there may be a connection with Intl teachers staying put, and heads noticing that the talent pools at the job fairs were pretty young.

[quote="seashell"]I'm going home for holiday in 3 weeks time. I haven't been back to Seattle in about 18 months. I am not getting to excited about it yet. Just hope mom meets me at the airport with Reeses Peanut Butter Cups and we stop at Taco Bell on the way home (Hi I'm 12).[/quote]

I'm also from Seattle. I really miss NW beer and wine. I miss Metropolitan Market and Trader Joes. I miss Zoka Cafe. I miss going out on Capital Hill and Ballard, or going to see live music at the Croc. I miss skiing at Alpental. I miss Steve Sherr on NPR. But most of all, I miss my dog.

I don't really miss the rain, long commutes and politics that don't address what's really important to everyone. I'm relieved to be away from Chase bank and their outrageous fees, and dropped calls with AT&T.

[quote="vaellteacher"]There might be something to PsyGuy's post about having consequences if you did not remain anonymous.[/quote]

I'm not sure how many admins are going to give us consequences for talking on ISR... unless you say something that would piss them off, and it has your name attached to it. The admin that I work with sometimes talks with me about things that are on here. As a whole, I feel like most admins could really care less about ISR. On top of that, every teacher I know who recruited this year accessed the site in some way. So all of us would have to be in trouble in the end.

Nice list BocaJrs. I'll have some reading to do.

I also wanted to add this blog post on international schools and leadership. I think it would be great if a bunch of us responded to it.

[url]http://learnedleadership.org/2012/01/24 ... t-leaders/[/url]

I agree that one forum would be better than what we have now.

Has anyone considered having two forums? One, where people post anonymous posts and comments, and things that are sensitive. And a second forum where we can have real profiles, network, share resources, share professional development opportunities, etc. This is a small community, and this would be a really nice added value for all of us. Plus the level of professionalism might go up a little bit at times.

Great topic, I would love to hear others weigh in on the little (or big) annoying things that people from the USA do, that they just don't get.

People from the States calling themselves American is a very valid point to bring up on this thread. As I've lived in Europe and in Asia I have tried to be mindful of that. The problem I often encounter, when someone who isn't a 1st rate English speaker asks me this question, they don't immediately understand, [i]the States[/i] or [i]USA[/i] as a response. They have only been pre-programmed to listen for common terms such as Canada, Germany, America, UK, etc. This puts someone like me in a tough situation.

Once you move to paradise, it can no longer be your paradise. Like anywhere, it depends on what you make of it. Istanbul is truly one of the greatest cities in the world. Location, climate, history, food, people, travel opportunities, and cost of living, are just some of the highlights. I would move to Turkey in a heart beat. The only problem is that it's really hard to find a good school to work at. Roberts College seems to be the top choice. Koc sounds doable, but not great.

Let us know if you are entertaining a job offer.

Plenty of great schools to work in, and new and exciting parts of the world to explore make moving from school to school rewarding personally and professionally. However I feel that teacher retention should be a major factor that one considers when recruiting. When average teacher retention goes over 4 years, it adds a ton of consistency and stability to the overall curriculum and program. When two-years-and-out is the norm, it feels like a lot of time just gets wasted reinventing the wheel. Retention is often a good indicator of quality of location, salary vs cost of living, and teacher morale.

With that said, I also think that when teachers stay somewhere too long, things tend to get a bit ugly.

Hey Psyguy,

First of all, thank you for keeping things lively around here. I love your moxy. With the heat that you are currently getting on other threads, I'm impressed that you are throwing out more possibly-offensive-to-some comments (OK, I think that comment about Africans with AIDS is out of line - but lets not go there, I don't want to police you).

Anyway, the real reason I brought up the Africa thing- have you heard anything about the Lincoln School in Ghana? I recently spoke with an employee there who spoke very highly of the admin, the school and living in Africa in general. Personally, I would give it a shot. Maybe Africa isn't such a bad place, for some.