Job Discussion Forums

[Montanaland]

Met her 2.5yrs ago in her last year of Grad school (education) and she just got laid off from her first job.. 1yr term assignment at my old high school teaching english (9th/10th grade) The school district didn't bring her back (budget reasons) and she has had 3 interviews in Wy and ID..but no job offers.

I keep telling her not to worry as she will get picked up somewhere..and I keep mentioning the middle east... do you all agree or know if she can find work in the middle east with 1yrs experience? She also has taught in London for 2 months where she obtained a Tesol cert.

Thanks in advance!

mtland

[johnslat]

Dear Montanaland,

If she's a certified/licensed teacher, she might want to give TeachAway (and the UAE - I wouldn't recommend Saudi for a single female) a try

It's a recruiter, but it does have a pretty good rep:

http://www.teachaway.com/teaching-public-schools-abu-dhabi

Regards,
John

[veiledsentiments]

While TeachAway is a dependable recruiter, I suspect that she can't fulfill this requirement:

Teachers interested in working in Abu Dhabi must be licensed to teach in their state/province. Teachers who possess a teaching license that has been valid within the past three years will be considered for a position.

This suggests that her new cert/license and only one year of experience is probably not enough. And to be honest, since this is teaching in the public schools, the students can be more than a handful - especially at secondary level. She may not yet have the classroom management skills needed. (Advanced Cat Herding)

I would refer her to International School Services (ISS) who holds job fairs for schools all over the world. Personally I don't consider the Middle East as a good choice for the entry level teacher (and KSA is NOT a good choice for the newbie to education or to the Middle East). Because the better employers pay very well, they can demand teachers with years of experience. Thus the new teachers end up with the employers that are borderline to awful.

Best case would be that she get a few more years experience at home... especially if she is in her 20s.

VS

[bulgogiboy]

In TEFL it's often more like "countries for the certifiable", of which Saudi is top of the list!

[scot47]

Think of how full the lunatic asylums would be if all those EFLers in saudi came home !

[veiledsentiments]

Psst... Scot... they don't have "lunatic asylums" anymore. They threw out all the inmates and they now live in the city parks or under the bridges... with their belongings in a super market cart.

VS

[johnslat]

I've got MY cart already picked out .

Regards,
John

[Grendal]

[johnslat]

Hey, I'm not in the Kingdom anymore. My cart's from Smith's supermarket. It's white, so I call it my cart blanche.

Regards,
John

[al-Californian]

[Montanaland]

[rainbowprof]

I don't think "a teaching license that has been valid within the past three years " means 3 years teaching experience. Sending a resume doesn't hurt and costs nothing (if it's electronic). One never knows when you'll land a job 'spontaneously'. The world is full of people holding jobs that you can't for the life of you figure out how or why they got them. It's partly being in the right place at the right time, surely!!

[veiledsentiments]

Perhaps, but TeachAway is mainly hiring experienced teachers to help in training their local teachers in more teaching in English. I really wouldn't suggest this for a novice teacher. The public school kids are a real handful in the Gulf and it could be a classroom management nightmare. One year of experience in the part of the US where she has been teaching wouldn't be enough preparation. (perhaps an urban school in Washington DC might be better prep?)

If she were my friend, I'd tell you to keep looking in the US.

VS

[P_Pace]

[Montanaland]