Job Discussion Forums

[Santimono]

My apologies in advance if this has been covered before.

I am a CELTA-certified teacher with 2 years' teaching experience at an IH school. My B.A. is in psychology and Spanish, and I am interested in teaching in an international school someday. Would getting certified as a Spanish teacher in the U.S. (my home country) and/or getting a master's in education help my cause or would I not ever be able to teach Spanish since it's not my native tongue? What else could I teach at an international school, and what credentials could I work on to attain a position at an international school?

Many thanks for any help.

[bdbarnett1]

[Chancellor]

[naturegirl321]

Yes, get certified and then teach in a school for 2 years, that will make it easier to get oversea jobs at intl schools

[robertokun]

I am a certified Spanish teacher who has worked at an intenational school (not teaching Spanish).

If you want to teach at an international school in a Spanish speaking country, you will not be teaching Spanish. If you teach in an international school in a non Spanish speaking country, you still won�t be teaching Spanish. If it�s a non-English speaking country they�ll most likely be learning english.

If you have a B.A. in Spanish and want to teach Spanish back home I would do one of those teaching fellowships that are often advertised on the job board here. Most major cities have this program, and you teach your subject in a public school in the city while becoming certified at the same time. You don�t pay for a master�s or a certificate program, and you are making a normal teacher�s salary while getting to try the profession out.

Dropping tens of thousands of dollars on an advanced degree to find out you would rather teach EFL would not be a good situation. On the other hand, if you know you like EFL/ESL stick with that and get a master�s in applied linguistics with a teacher certification component and you will be able to teach English abroad and back home in public schools, too.

Depending on where you�re from, you will have to look for specific programs in that area, unless you are willing to relocate. Good luck.

[missieUAE]

Having recently interviewed with a few international schools, I can say that having my master's in education and two years' teaching experience (3rd grade, in my case) is what got me in the door.

I tried with a B.A. (in political science) and was told absolutely not.

I tried again with a couple of years of EFL teaching experience (no certification) and was again told absolutely not.

Tried when I had just gotten my M.Ed. (with no non-EFL teaching experience) and was told probably not. After a year of public school classroom teaching experience I got one not-so-good offer. Now after my M.Ed. and two years, I finally have a really good contract at an international school in Abu Dhabi.

The moral of the story, as you may have gathered, is that without a master's and/or teaching certification from your home country, and at least a year or two of experience, it's going to be rough going. Not impossible necessarily, but unlikely.

In summary, this is my long-winded way of saying I agree with naturegirl321's post above.

[naturegirl321]