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The International Teaching Thread
06-21-2017, 12:27 PM
Does the Masters degree have to be in education, or can it be in a particular topic? For instance, if one wants to teach Biology and they had a Masters degree in Biology, would that be a good qualification?
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The International Teaching Thread
06-21-2017, 12:40 PM
I've been looking into doing the TeacherReady program out of Florida but have a question in regards to obtaining employment in international schools.
I noticed on the Florida DOE website that you can teach high school Chemistry as long as you meet this requirement:
(b) Plan Two. A bachelor's or higher degree with thirty (30) semester hours in science, to include twenty-one (21) semester hours in chemistry with associated laboratory experiences
I meet this requirement but hold a degree in Psychology which obviously bears no relation to Chem or the hard sciences for that matter.
In a general sense, are international schools picky when it comes to what your actual degree is in or does the degree not matter as long as you are certified in the subject you want to teach and have some experience?
Thanks
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The International Teaching Thread
06-21-2017, 09:34 PM
I'm also teaching at an international school. Previously I taught EFL in Korea for 5 years, did TeacherReady to earn my social studies grade 6-12 credential, which helped me get my current job.
@ElMono - I would contact TeacherReady directly to ask if you could qualify for that subject. Florida lists psychology under social science, not natural/hard sciences; however, since you are doing an alternative certification program, you prove subject competence just by passing the relevant FTCE exam, if I recall correctly. Double-check with the TR staff on this to be sure though.
Plan B: you definitely would qualify for a social science credential based on your psych BA, and after you have the social science credential, you can add other subjects to your credential just by passing the relevant FTCE exam (seems ridiculous, passing an exam makes you qualified to teach a subject?? but this is Florida we are talking about...). Now you're dual-certified, which could be a selling point depending on what the school's staffing needs are.
Physics & Chemistry are the high-demand science subjects. In general, schools care about your experience, specifically curriculum experience (IB, AP, IGCSE/A-levels) - no amount of education/certificates beats experience. Regardless of what your credential is in, expect your first school to be not great, and you'll work your way up from there each subsequent contract, until you find a place you'd like to settle (if that's your thing).
@boss13 - the Western coworkers can be a pain, but also easy to avoid since everyone is busy, all the time. The only issue is the staffroom, but really, you shouldn't be hanging out in the staff room every break/free period, because it's ground zero for negativity, gossip, bitching & moaning, and just generally miserable.
I choose to spend that time in my classroom planning, marking, or taking walks to clear my head. The best teachers I've met recommend the same, and are rarely seen in the staff room.
Schools are also terrible rumor mills (some more than others), so best to just come in, teach the best you can, let your work speak for itself, and socialize with non-coworkers. As long as you have a good rapport with Admin, and handle your own responsibilities, you will avoid most of the petty politics and annoying coworkers.
@Moto - I would respectfully disagree that only a M.Ed counts, unless we are talking leadership (Principal/VP). In that case, yes, you pretty much need to have a M.Ed to get an administrative credential and ultimately to be a competitive candidate.
However, for classroom teaching, a subject-area master's is fine, and will give you a pay bump at many schools (same in most USA states). The main thing a school is looking for is a valid credential from the USA/Canada/UK/Australia/NZ. Anything beyond that just makes you more competitive and gives you some leverage during salary negotiations.
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The International Teaching Thread
06-25-2017, 01:03 AM
How are the kids like at international schools? Aren't alot of the kids the children of western expats? If so, wouldn't they be extremely spoiled and entitled (especially the female students)? How do you deal with that? Would the admin take their side over yours if those kids caused problems?
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The International Teaching Thread
04-09-2019, 03:17 PM
I got a job for an international school starting in the fall. I have limited classroom experience having done an in class TEFL and completed an alternative teaching program that had limited classroom experience. Any suggestions going in? I'm going to be relatively green at this. I was planning on watching YouTube videos of example classes and taking notes and am trying to get an online esl gig teaching Chinese kids to get some teaching experience. Any ideas would or thoughts would be helpful.
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The International Teaching Thread
04-09-2019, 09:23 PM
Such an interesting thread. I've been an international teacher for 9 years now and I'm currently working in an international school. I love my job, the conditions are pretty good, I'm learning lots, have a good lifestyle and I'm saving more than 50% of my salary.
Some posters were discussing the entry requirements in these schools, I can speak for my school: Bachelor's degree + 2 years of teaching experience, a Masters is not a requirement but it definitely helps having one - I actually have two Masters - saying so, and someone mentioned this earlier: sometimes teachers leave unexpectedly for a variety of reasons and if a school really needs someone, the requirements can be lowered -If there's a commitment from the teacher to get whatever qualification is missing- but I wouldn't count on this to get a job.
I've never worked in the US but I know lots of people who have worked in the US & in Canada and I believe they all said working in a public school there is much harder and demanding, I can confirm that working in a private school in western Europe was much harder and I had longer hours and duties less enjoyable, ie attending mass. I'm sure this also has to do with work satisfaction and all that, I don't mind going on school trips, field trips, running language clubs at lunch time, coaching sports etc I actually enjoy doing it.