Job Discussion Forums

[GoldenAss]

Hello everyone.

Recently I was informed that I will be laid off at the end of August. For the last two years I have worked as a health educator in various middle and high schools, but the government chose not to renew our grant for the coming school year. Prior to that I served two years in Americorps as a college access coach for a cohort of low-income high school students. In college I worked as a tutor for the Princeton Review.

I therefore have a good amount of classroom experience under my belt, but I am by no means a traditional, certified teacher. Nor do I aspire to be. I am, however, wondering how to leverage this experience as I get the boot ,and the long simmering thought of teaching overseas is coming to a quick boil.

From the research I have done so far, it seems as though a state university posting would be my ideal position. Perhaps the chief draw for me (aside from profoundness of just living in China) is the opportunity to connect to people and form real relationships, and so a regularly meeting class of adults would be my desire. Unfortunately, it appears that we are past the time where recruitment for the coming school year takes place.

My question is: have I missed the boat for this coming school year? I'm not really interested in teaching children, or adults for shorter time periods. I would be up for signing on for the spring term, but it also seems true that 10/12 months contracts are the gold standard.

I started reading voraciously and getting terribly excited before reality checked in. I appreciate anyone's ideas on what I might do at this later date!

[hdeth]

There are always people who leave in the middle of the semester or who decline a contract at the last moment. There may be less jobs available but if you're flexible on location it should be possible. Just saw a few here in Beijing that cropped up.

The problems you will run into are

A. a lot of the staff will be gone for summer vacation.
B. They might try to get you in quickly by using a tourist visa instead of a z-visa.

The turnover rate in China overall is pretty terrible. Many people don't understand the difficulties of living overseas, are immature, are flakes, are drug addicts, or whatever and either get scared or just flake out and lose their job.

[Non Sequitur]

Get applying now!
When you have an offer check back with an 'Anyone worked for ..' post.
Don't do it the other way around i.e. do a lot of chatting on Dave's and then start applying.
Use the job offer checklist thread to cover off most of the questions.
As previous poster has indicated, the summer holiday has started and hiring staff are going away too.
The fact that you are available for Sept/mid semester or spring starts is a plus.

[OhBudPowellWhereArtThou]

I feel for you. As soon as there's a budget revenue shortfall, the first programs to get the ax are education and public health and health education services. Never mind the fact that the governor lives in a state-provided mansion, has house keepers, grounds keepers and a limo driver, and that city hall is always overstaffed, and that the half-million dollar gas-guzzling city buses carry fewer than twenty people per hour and many routes serve very few people, the education and public health and health education services are the first to get the ax.

At this point, certification is not a requirement (either by the government or by most schools) for employment as a teacher in China.

You don't mention if you have a 4-year degree of some sort. Everything else that you've disclosed makes you a shoo-in for many secondary and tertiary level jobs teaching (at least) oral English. If you meet this requirement, you may want to look into working for a medical school teaching administrative courses.

[kungfuman]