Is International Teachng For You?

Would you like to teach in a school that provides incredible school/classroom resources, work with dynamic people who have an adventurous nature, or travel and see different parts of the world?  If you have answered yes to any one of these questions, international teaching may be for you.

I am an international teacher working in Manila, Philippines.  If you told me ten years ago that I would leave my family and friends, give up my job security and move to a third world country, I’d say you were crazy.  But the move has been an incredible adventure for my family and we wouldn’t change anything if we could.  We find our jobs challenging and fulfilling, we love the people we work with and we are able to travel as much as we want.  The quality of life is far superior compared to our life in Canada.  You might be wondering how and why we got involved with international teaching and questioning if it’s right for you.

It all started when a colleague told me about a friend who was working in Bali making incredible money teaching in a school with fabulous working conditions.  The political climate in the teaching field was quite negative so I mentioned it to my wife.  At that point we had two girls under the age of seven and my wife said they were too young.  That seemed to make sense so we dropped the idea.  When the girls were ten and seven, I brought up the idea again to my surprise, my wife said maybe we should check this out.  Just by chance, there was a job fair in Vancouver, B.C.

We registered and went to the job fair, not expecting anything; we just wanted to check things out.  If we liked what we saw, we would come back the next year to seriously look for an overseas job.  When we arrived at the job fair, we were surprised to see that six schools had requested interviews with us.  Teaching couples seem to be popular because schools can save money on housing.  To make a long story short, we went to the interviews and at the end of the day, we had a job offer from the International School Manila.

As you might imagine, we were shocked and asked for some time to consider the offer.  We first tried to find some information about the Philippines and then considered the impact it would have on our family.  After weighing the pros and cons, we decided to accept their offer and join the ranks of international teachers.

So, if you find this at all interesting, maybe you should check it out.  I would check out the Internet but if you are really interested, you will have to go to a job fair.  Most schools hire at job fairs unless you have previous international experience.  Here are three organizations that host job fairs at different times and in different parts of the world.  Just click on the name of the organization

The first is the Council of International Schools -

The second is Search Associates -

The third is International School Services -

Check out their website and see if there is a job fair near your home town.

Well, that’s all for now.  If there is interest, I will share more about our experience and will answer any questions.

Happy Teaching

~ by hammerw on March 4, 2009.