BootsnAll Travel Community

I've spent 17 years loving my role as an elementary teacher in the U.S. My wife and I (and 4 kids ranging in age from 3-13) have just come back from volunteer teaching in rural Thailand and loved it. We're ready for a really fantastic school overseas where I could teach and my kids could go to school. Any ideas or thoughts based on your experiences or things you've heard would be welcomed!

A friend, German national with UK teaching credentials and a few years in London primary schools, taught in Spain and was considering Greece. I asked her to put into an email how she found those overseas gigs. Here is what she wrote:

"all the overseas school advertise in the TES (Times Educational Supplement). You can access the jobs section online, if you google TES. Now is the best time to apply for jobs because the resignation deadline for this year is nearly up so the schools have a good idea of how many people they need. Spain has by far the most schools, far more so than Greece or Italy. ...salaries tend to be low. To get a high-paying expat job in teaching you have to go to the Arab states."

Hope that helps

Kyiv International School uses primarily American teachers, I believe. I'm sure they have a website if you look around for it. I really don't know the mechanics of getting a job there though.

I've looked into working in an international school, though I don't have the qualifications right now - most require teaching certification from your home country and at least two years of experience in a school in your home country. But I do have a bunch of links that might help you, since it looks like you do have the qualifications.

So here are some sites that might help you. They're a mix of job boards and placement agencies specializing in placing teacher in international schools (I'm pretty sure they don't charge the teachers):
http://www.search-associates.com/main.html
http://www.educatorsoverseas.com/
http://www.iss.edu/
http://www.tieonline.com/default.cfm
http://jobs.tes.co.uk/Jobs.aspx?regionId=4228
http://www.joyjobs.com/
http://www.cois.org/

Hope they help, and good luck!

Check out QSI on Phuket. Small classes, personalized teaching.

You might love the island as much as I do!

QSI Phuket

Kids-to-go,

How are your kids feeling about moving abroad, especially your 13 year old? If they are excited about it, how did you open their eyes to moving away? I don't even have kids yet, but my husband and my plans to live abroad are already becoming complicated by getting a dog last year, and sometimes we worry that once we have kids it just won't be a possibility. I'm a science teacher in Virginia, and I'm also looking for international schools.

If you don't mind, could you please elaborate on how they did in Thailand (leaving friends for a while, plane ride, etc.)? I'd really appreciate it!

This site has reviews of international schools:

http://www.internationalschoolsreview.com/

Just noticed that you have to pay $29 to get access to the reviews. They also have a forum that you can access for free and it looks like people post reviews there as well.

http://www.internationalschoolsreview.com/nonmembers/copytotheforum.htm

First things first. We had a phenomenal time in Thailand. Two of the four kids were ready to move in with our host family. This was a family with modest means. We'd been talking about moving away (from the US) for a time so that when our plans ripened, the idea was not new to them. Plane ride, no problem... learning how to communicate is easier the younger the kids are, but like anything else, necessity is the mother of invention. When the two older boys had the need to communicate, they figured it out. My 13 year old even had a Thai girlfriend, even though she didn't speak thirty words of English, they held hands only once or twice, and other kids interpreted for them!
The main learning for us was about all the rules we have in place for why we can't do this or that and allowing them to keep us safely ensconced in our nest at home. I know you love your dog, and I also know you can figure something out that would work for you if you want it. Keep asking yourself this question, "How can we travel and teach overseas so that (whatever you want with your dog will happen)" and I guarantee you will find a way. By the way, doing this before kids is a great way to get a sense of what it would be like with kids.
We had so many people tell us different things which alternated between, good job I wish I could do it, and how could you possibly take your kids out of school, etc? By the way, an amazing perk here was that everyone the kids meet are blown away by their experiences and they learned they can do alot more than they thought they could!
If you don't mind my asking, what are your outcomes in teaching abroad? For us a lot had to do with getting outside all the filters of US society and looking at life in a different way. If anything, this trip freed us up to do further adventurous things, like right now we are moving from the place we've lived for 20 years and are moving to a diverse community right across from the nation's capital.For more info about our experiences, check out our website: www.planetranger.com/battyefamily. Many of the articles there were written by the kids. Let us know if we can be of help or if you want to discuss it further...we love thinking and talking about that very special time in all of our lives. The best part is that we know there is more adventure to come...

Chicky, that list is v. useful as I begin my search! Thanks.

I taught at Amercian Scools in Mexico City, Mexico for three years and then two years in Damascus, Syria. There are over 190 American Schools in the world. They are built for American kids but then the elite of the country want their kids to go to school at Harvard or Yale and they send their kids to these schools for a leg up. I enjoyed it very much because the caliber of student was awesome so I could teach at a high level. I taught US HIstory, Econ, Govt, World History etc.

I also liked it because you move into an instant community, that is a mix of people who have lived there for years and people who are new there and want to explore with someone.


This link was already provided above but I repost it because I would start my research here.http://www.iss.edu/

YOu have to be a certified teacher in the US to go through this route.

http://www.globalretirementvillage.com

The Cairo American College (CAC), which is really a K-12 school, is frequently sited as one of the best schools in the foreign service.