Job Discussion Forums

[nola]

Has anyone taught for either of these schools? I've been talking with Istek for months, and I recently heard from Irmak. Both are interested in hiring me for the fall. Any advice?

[crumpy]

Hi Nola,

In the late eighties I taught maths at Istek�s Tarabya school for two years. In Istek�s early days there were only a handful of schools and there were few students in each school. Everyone knew everyone else at Tarabya ... and it was great. However, after I left the school, the foundation and the schools themselves started to grow in size ... until we now have the unwieldy organization that we know today.

Many foreign teaching friends, who have worked at Istek over the last 15 years, have jumped ship in mid-year, citing severe discipline problems as the main reason for quitting. However, there are one or two schools, particularly in the less affluent areas of town, where this seems to be less of problem. For example, I know of a Irish woman, who has been teaching at Ulug Bey, the Kartal school, for almost 20 years ... she�s obviously happy there. On the whole, though, foreign teachers don�t stay too long at Istek.

Irmak is only one school, with different buidings for the various age groups. The foreign teachers tend to stay around: Susan Aky�rek, for example, has been there for as long as I know. They seem to be serious about being a bilingual school. All Irmak students, that I have met, have always spoken excellent English. Irmak is progressive ... intent on becoming an International Baccalaureate school ... something you could write on a CV and something any principal anywhere would recognize ... should you wish to apply elsewhere in the world after Irmak. However, the downside of them being a -serious- school means that they would expect you to earn your bucks.

In short, for a sound career move and job satisfaction, then Irmak�s your school.

[31]

''I know of a Irish woman, who has been teaching at Ulug Bey, the Kartal school, for almost 20 years ... she�s obviously happy there.''

Not so obvious. There are likely to be many reasons for her still being there after 20 years. More obvious is she has so much ''torpil'' after 20 years that she has made it out of the classroom or else teaches less and gets the easy classes.

[nola]

Hi Crumpy!
Thanks so much for the info. I've been leaning towards Irmak because it feels more like a community of learning rather than a large school system. This is a career move for me, so I want to be in a supportive environment. As a teacher in the states, I'm used to working for the money. Also, I'm planning to bring my son, and Irmak looks like a better environment for him. Again, I appreciate your reply. It's difficult to get a feel for things just based on websites. (Especially when the websites are written only in Turkish!)