I want information on teaching overseas.

Question

I am a year away from graduating with my Bachelors in Elementary Education and would like to teach overseas but there are so many program I don't know which ones are scams or real. I want to have a good experience so I could use some advice.

Answer 1

If you are in the states you don't want to teach in italy. The power goes out every day. And in Europe you will need to know many languages. There is no A\C and the heater only goes up to 65 F.

Answer 2

Where do you want to teach? Asia? Europe? S. America? When you look at services that can connect you with the proper schools, check out the following: ISS which is International School Services; Search Associates; The University of Northern Iowa and ECIS which is European Council of International Schools. All recruit teachers for overseas schools. TIE is The International Educator and is a newspaper which has ads for jobs. The ISS book lists schools so you can see how large or small they are, and all info for each school associated with ISS (one of the largest organizations for overseas schools). I see someone mentioned DOD schools, these are possible too but I would prefer the others for reasons that you will find out when you go to a job fair with ISS or Search or ECIS. Good luck and enjoy your first overseas job. It is a wonderful life!

Answer 3

I taught overseas for one year with the Fulbright teacher exchange program.  It was a very rewarding experience. However, I needed three years' teaching experience first.  At the beginning of my third year I sent for the applications and completed them as they were due by Oct.  It's a great thing to consider.  Also, I looked into DOD positions, but at the time, there was no guarantee of where I'd get placed.  I didn't want to end up in the Middle East.  I don't know if that has changed now and if you can get a preference.  Good luck.

Answer 4

I taught English in South Korea for a year and was very wary of scams when I was doing my research as well.  The best thing for you to do is to find an established, reliable school that has a history of following through with its contracts.  Stability is better than promises of a high salary and amazing benefits, for sure.

Utilize the internet to google potential schools and recruiters.  Also, there are many online forums that specifically talk about the "black list" of English schools to avoid because of poor employee treatment, failure to follow through on contracts, etc.  Also, if you find a school that you are interested in, ask their human resources department to provide contact information for previous employees.  If they have nothing to hide, that should be no problem.

www.daveseslcafe.com is a great website with international job boards, forums for various topics (black listed schools and recruiters included!), and teaching ideas.

Good luck with your big adventure!!!

Answer 5

Have you researched teaching for the DOD (Department of Defense) Schools at any of the military bases oversease. There tends to be a constant teacher shortage. Contries that you may consider are Panama, England, Italy, Germany, ...

Good Luck ;)

Answer 6

Could you please specify which country exactly you want to teach in? Otherwise I´m afraid your question is way too broad to be answered. :)

Answer 7

Do check out DoDDS (Department of Defense Dependents Schools). DoDDS is one branch of DoDEA (Department of Defense Education Activity). I'd like to say there is a teacher shortage in DoDDS; however with base closings in Europe many teachers in the last few years have been excessed.  Many of them have been placed in positions in DoDDS; however, when I left for the summer there were still 17 teachers who needed to be placed.  Sad to say that elementary school teachers are a dime a dozen in DoDDS, so if you have any other certifications, it will make you more marketable.  DoDDS is a great place to work.  After working for DoDDS I don't think I could ever go back to teaching in the States.  When I began with DoDDS, it was suggested that you have 2 years of teaching experience before applying; however, I know of two teachers who were hired right out of college.  If you're interested, here is their website http://www.dodea.edu/offices/hr/onlineap... If you click around the website you can find a list of countries where DoDDS has schools.  They are all in Europe and the Asia (with the exception of Cuba and Guam). Hope this helps.