International Teaching: the Ultimate “Real Job” Adventure

About seven years ago I decided to take the leap, leave my stateside teaching job and get a teaching job overseas. Once I made that decision, though, I found that the process of actually getting from my public school classroom in Georgia to a private international school classroom somewhere in the world was easier said than done.

International Teaching

Unlike in the USA where you fill out an online application, go in for an interview and then start your job in August, getting a job overseas is like, well, it is like a second full-time job. After I successfully completed the process myself, I reflected on it and decided it actually felt a lot like doing a 14 month master’s program. So, I imagined what a program syllabus might look like for the “degree” of “getting an international teaching job” and this is what I came up with. 

EDU411 sec.2016

7-9 pm Tues-Fri (14 month class)

Instructor: Shawntel Allen (global gypsy, addicted adventurer, and educational box breaker)

Course Description: A you-can-do-it, no-better-time-than-the-present, what-have-you-got-to-lose, kick-in-the-pants roadmap designed to get you from here to there.

Pre-requisites: Students are encouraged to have completed at least three of the following:

MATH: 072 – Excess Baggage Weight Exchange – Trading in shady ex’s for Xtreme sports gear

EDU: 222 – What Box? – Educational theory minus ethnocentrism

ENG: 369 – Facebooking, Tweeting and Instagraming are the New Scrapbooking – Journaling the journey 140 characters at a time and documenting “out of work activities” in “work appropriate” photo albums

PE: 123 – Skin Thickening – Techniques for deflecting the criticism and judgments of people whose idea of risk-taking is trying a different route on the drive to work…once.

BUS: 421 – Opting Out – Investing in viable alternatives to the “American dream” (AKA-spouse, 2.5 kids, dog, hybrid SUV, SEC season football tickets, and house in the suburbs)

AVI: 747 – Flight Lessons – Giving your chick-a-dees wings

Required reading: Students need to be intimately familiar with various websites including International Schools Community, The Lonely Planet, Yahoo travel, the US State Department, and Duolingo.com language learning site.

Section 1: B-O-R-I-N-G….There must be more to life than THIS?

Lesson 1 (June): MAP READING – realizing that your current job and/or relationships are not taking you where you want to go in life

Lesson 2 (July): DEMOLITION – breaking down walls (people, ideas, financial obligations) that block your view of possibilities that are available to you.

Lesson 3 (August): ORIENTEERING – finding your way in the labyrinth of international teaching opportunities

Lesson 4 (September): FISHING – figuring out what bait to use and where to look for nibbles and bites in the international school job market

Section 2: I AM OUT OF HERE! The world is my playground.

Lesson 5 (October): FIRST AID – recovering from blunders such as mixing up headings on cover letters and incorrectly guessing the gender of a recipient

Lesson 6 (November): TARGET SHOOTING – researching and focusing on schools who are the best fit for you-location, benefits, size, staffing needs

International TeachingLesson 7 (December): SCUBA DIVING – taking the plunge-attending recruiting conferences, SKYPE interviewing, signing a contract

Section 3: BUT ISN’T IT DANGEROUS/AREN’T THERE DISEASES/WHAT ABOUT THE POLLUTION THERE? (Also known as the art of eye-rolling at doomsday soothsayers and all-of-a-sudden experts on your new location…and other keys to getting through the toughest months.)

Lesson 8 (January): SPELUNKING – surviving the change from the brightness of a signed contract to the dark tunnels of to-do lists.

Lesson 9 (February): MUSHING – keeping focused on the trail even though the end seems distant-not letting doubt and doubters make you quit.

Lesson 10 (March): ROCK CLIMBING – carefully grasping hold of each new task and piece of information about what to do and how to prepare-relying on the random “beta” and steady belay from those at the top – as the climb to the goal begins through purchasing, packing, and document assembling.

Lesson 11 (April): MOTO-CROSS – holding tight and adjusting speed as needed along the twists and turns of the trail while also remaining strong-willed when faced with extra bumps and roadblocks like booking tickets, storing possessions, severing leases, learning a new language, and arranging banking and other financial obligations.

Section 4: LEAVING THE LAST CHECKPOINT

The end of the “class” and the beginning of the dream!

International TeachingLesson 12 (May); SURFING – enjoying the moments of swift forward movement propelled by waves of activity such as securing a departure date, interspersed by both the anticipation of waiting for the next wave and the hard work of paddling out for the next ride like setting up final doctor and dentist visits .

Lesson 13 (June): SNOWBOARDING – letting go and going with the flow as the ride gains momentum through activities such as finishing the school year, moving out, turning off utilities, selling your car, completing continuing education credits for future certification renewal – hoping that all the preparations you did up to this point enable you to weave smoothly through these obstacles

Lesson 14 (July): SKY DIVING – after a cross-country trek of visiting friends and family, this final lesson entails packing the parachute (in 8 or so 50 pound bags), boarding the plane and making the final jump….embracing the adrenaline rush that accompanies the thrill of the free fall into the realm of the unknown and the out-of-your-control.

Attendance: Weekly class times optional and negotiable based on workload/To-Do lists. Mandatory class session-Meet at Departure Airport July 25th at 6 AM and board flight, change from domestic to international flight at first layover (with the help of porters to transfer all of your extra bags), then be on the flight to your final destination for an on time departure.

Grading Scale: Pass/Fail (any failed portion=fail for class)

50% sign contract

50% arrive at final destination 

Extra credit for passing any re-certification tests, license renewal classes, or learning a new language before departure.

*Enrollment limited-sign up early.

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International TeachingShawntel Allen is a career teacher who has taught in Indiana, Georgia, Venezuela and Colombia. She has also lived in France and Benin, West Africa. She loves to cook foods from places she has visited and places she hopes to visit. Her classroom does not have any traditional student desks (only video rockers, bean bags, couches, pillows…) and her goal is for her and her students to be 100% paperless. She is currently teaching in a one-room schoolhouse on the remote island of Afognak in Alaska but is “back in class” looking for a position in an overseas international school for next school year.

13 Insightful International School Interview Experiences Submitted by Our Members

International School Community is full of thousands of useful, informative comments…18371 comments (21 Oct. 2016) to be exact.

Members are recommended to keep their comments objective on our website. In one of the 65 comment topics, they are encouraged to share their international school interview experiences. How did it go? Was it easy to get? Recruitment fair or Skype? Was the experience positive or less than ideal?

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We scoured our database of comments, and we found 13 that stood out to us as being some of the most interesting and insightful interview experiences.

13. “The school has improved its hiring practices during the last few years. Now department heads sometimes get involved in hiring decisions. Don’t let the director’s lack of enthusiasm during an interview throw you off – that’s just his personality – and don’t believe anything that he promises you, unless it is writing.” – Internationale Schule Frankfurt-Rhein-Main (Frankfurt, Germany) – 33 Comments

12. “Speaking from the Director’s office, you need to have a focus on collaborative action toward mission. Knowing our mission and core values is key to interview for our team. While we are happy to train, we are also looking for good experience and foundation that will add to our body of expertise and keep us refreshed in best practice.” – Anglo-American School of Moscow (Moscow, Russia) – 66 Comments

11. “The school has not met any of my expectations in professionalism. Many of the things I was told in my interview turned out to be untrue. The fall of the peso has not been addressed by administration.” – Colegio Anglo Colombiano (Bogota, Colombia) – 32 Comments

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10. “Singapore age restrictions keep hiring (and renewals) under age 60. First round interview is typically done via Skype, but they want to do second round interviews in person, in Singapore or London.” – United World College South East Asia (Singapore, Singapore) – 6 Comments

9. “They rely a lot on hiring people who are recommended by current employees. You still go through the interview process, etc. My initial contact to the school was through a connection I had to somebody already working here.” – Yew Chung International School (Shanghai) (Shanghai, China) – 27 Comments

8. “Please be careful when considering to work at this school! I wasn’t and am in quite a fit now…. On May 5, 2014 I had a telephone interview with the director and the head of secondary. On May 30, 2014 I got a firm job offer for September 2014. We discussed several contract details via mail (school fees, moving allowance etc.) but I did not receive a formal contract. On June 11 I wrote an email asking for a contract copy. On June 13 the job offer was revoked, giving as a reason that “the position no longer exists on the curriculum plan, so we cannot proceed with the appointment”. Draw your own conclusions about the school’s level of commitment and organisation.” – British School of Barcelona (Barcelona, Spain) – 3 Comments

7. “Face-to-face. As in most international school in Bangkok, it is much easier to get a job if you know someone on the inside of the school. The pay-scale is shrouded in secrecy (as in many schools here). The interview process is not that difficult, being from a native English-speaking country is a huge plus.” – Pan Asia International School (Bangkok, Thailand) – 38 Comments

6. “I was hired via Skype, as well. The interview was very informal but informative about the school and life Venezuela.” – Escuela Las Morochas (Ciudad Ojeda, Venezuela) – 28 Comments

5. “The school does not attend any fairs. Hiring is done via announcements on the school’s website. The hiring process is not quick. Expect to be interviewed, via Skype most likely, four times. Each interview is with a person a bit further up the food chain. At the moment Indonesia has an age cutoff of 60.” – Green School Bali (Denpasar, Indonesia) – 54 Comments

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4. “They do tend to hire internally a lot. The interview process is a bit intense with multiple interviews being set up for one person. They ask questions from a list. They are usually open to sponsoring visas for non EU candidates.” – International Community School London (London, United Kingdom) – 49 Comments

3. “I met with Julie Alder at the school campus because I was already in the city. I contacted them before I came and they were more than willing to give me a time and a place to meet and interview with me. The interview lasted 45 to 60 minutes. I also got to walk around and visit some classrooms.” – International School Singapore (Singapore, Singapore) – 17 Comments

2. “The school is quite small, so it doesn’t attend job fairs. I was interviewed by phone and got the job from there. I know they have also brought in teachers whom live nearby (within Western Europe) to interview them in person. Hiring restrictions: YES- they will now only hire people who have valid working papers to work in France. The school also now typically only employs expat teachers from the UK or within the EU. Many of the teachers who work at the school have a French spouse.” –International School of Lyon (Lyon, France) – 12 Comments

1. “I interviewed with the elementary principal this feb at the search associates fair in boston. She was very kind and sweet to me. The interview went very well, she was willing to allow me to lead the interview by showing her my portfolio. She was a very experienced teacher in the international school world. She was kind enough to send a note to me in my folder to let me know that I didn’t get the job, and she also highlighted somethings that I said in the interview. Very professional!” – American International School Bucharest (Bucharest, Romania) – 20 Comments

If you have an interesting and insightful international school interview experience that you would like to share, log in to International School Community and submit your comments. For every 10 submitted comments, you will get one month of free premium membership added to your account!

How Not to Save Money #9: Finding a New, Amazing Grocery Store in Your Host City

We all hear about the big possibility of saving money while working at international schools, but the reality is that many of us don’t save much of any money at all.  So, why aren’t these international school teachers saving money?

How NOT to save money when teaching abroad #9: Finding a New, Amazing Grocery Store in Your Host City

When you move abroad, the goal isn’t to recreate your exact life and lifestyle as you had in your home country. Check out the 10 Commandments of Relocated Overseas for more information about moving abroad.

International school teachers try their best to take in the local culture and local foods; it is a part of getting acclimated to their new setting.  On the other hand, it is important to “take a break” from that goal, and get some foods that remind you of home and your home culture.  In addition, having a wide variety of food choices while living abroad is also quite important.

One challenge of buying products in grocery stores in your host city is that you might not be able to read which food product is actually in the package/box. If you are not able to read in the local language there, it might be a challenge to even figure out which food products some items are. If you don’t know what it is, most of us wouldn’t necessary buy it.  Plus, if you are not able to read and understand all the ingredients of a product, then you probably won’t buy those ones either.

how not to save money

It is hard knowing exactly where to go grocery shopping during your first year of living in a new city. You tend to just go to the ones near to where you are living. Every once and awhile you might hear from a colleague of a new grocery store you should check out. Even if the grocery stores near to you are good (if you are lucky that is), it is still good to keep your ears open to what else is available in your host city.

Even after five years of living some place, things change and change fast sometimes. You can easily get into the routine of just going to the three stores around your home and be quite content with the food options those places have. But even the same chains of grocery stores in your host city can be very different from each other depending on their location (e.g. in a rich neighborhood vs. a non-rich neighborhood).

how not to save money

Recently, my partner and I were in a different location of our host city than we usually are when we were doing some grocery shopping. We went into this grocery store thinking that it would be quite similar to the same one we go to nearer to our home. But once we started looking around, this store had so many more products than we were used to!  Completely different products, more imported products, and brandnames (local and foreign) that we were used to buying but with many more varieties.

Of course, we got that awesome excitement feeling straightaway.  It’s that feeling of finding something new (and maybe familiar as well) while living abroad and the realization that there are many more options for groceries for you in your host city.

As you might have guessed, we filled up our grocery carts with many of these new products (well new products to us)…spending more money than our usual grocery store outings. Finding new food products, especially ones geared towards to the expats in that city, can definitely do some damage on your back account!

how not to save money

Finding a bunch of new products that you didn’t know existed in your host city can be one of the best feelings while living abroad. International school teachers definitely do their best to enjoy the local grocery stores and buying the local products (which can also be awesome and delicious) they sell in those stores, but mixing those products with some other ones that remind you of home or at least of a cuisine that is familiar to your palate, is also very desirable.  Just be careful though, because it can cost you a lot of money buying all these products you think you just “must have!”

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We have a comment topic on our website related to the theme of grocery stores in your host city.  It is in the city section of the comments and information tab on the school profile pages. It is called: Locations in the city geared towards the expat lifestyle (grocery stores, bars, etc.). Here are a few examples of comments related to grocery stores:

“There are “Foreign Food Markets” in Itaewon where you can buy anything, literally ANYTHING you could find in an American grocery store. And if they don’t have it, typically they can order it for you. Of course these shops are more expensive. Local grocery stores are well stocked with a wide variety of foods. The local grocery store closest to our campus, Saruga, carries everything (slightly higher prices though) and even has a (perfectly legal) “Black Market” in the middle of it where you can buy all kinds of food imported from the US. The only things we ever buy at the Black Market stalls are things like chips or candy (for parties), and some seasonings or spices.” – Seoul Foreign School (Seoul, South Korea) – 83 Comments

“One grocery store that I like is called Pomme’s on Davie St. They have a lot of organic items and produce from all over the world including many items made locally.” – Vancouver International School (Greybrook Academy) (Vancouver, Canada) – 11 Comments

“There are a number of grocery stores in the area that have imported items from the US and UK. Lulu’s Hypermartket is great.” – Rowad Alkhaleej International School (Dammam) (Riyadh, Saudi Arabia) – 69 Comments

“Oscar’s is a good grocery store in the area that caters to expats. You can get anything you need at the surrounding malls.” – The International School of Egypt (New Cairo City, Egypt) – 43 Comments

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