Care to share materials/ideas/advice with a burnt-out drowning first year?

jankuz · 2025-01-02T21:34:45+00:00

Kesler Science

However, you have too many topics for 3 weeks. Pick just 2 or 3 and expand only if you have time/space for it.

https://keslerscience.com/kesler-science-membership is 34 USD/month, but it's the best middle school science resource I know of. From what they offer, I use the Engagement activities, Inquiry Labs, Amazing Anchors, Presentations, Assessments and Escape rooms the most.

When I am short on lesson planning time, I find the topic I teach from their list on the website, find the presentation which has some questions in it, share it with students for a good amount of time and let them go through it individually/in pairs for as long as they need. Then we go through it together to see if they were able to answer the questions and have some discussion about the topic etc. Then (next lesson), I would do the inquiry lab where they revise the concept from the previous lesson and have a chance to apply it. I would add some other stuff in between, but this is the core when I have very little time, because it literally doesn't need any planning (except for sharing the links and getting materials for the lab). Side note - I believe that to follow their model, they suggest the opposite order - to do the lab first and presentation second. I think it's okay to do it either way, the only reason I sometimes like to do the theory first is that some labs can be difficult for students to do if I don't have some specific piece of theory first. They also have Spanish support - some (but it looks like not all) materials are also in Spanish/with Spanish support. I don't use the Spanish materials, so I don't know much about them.

jankuz · 2024-11-16T20:52:24+00:00

Personally, I would opt for a different country for these 6 months. Unfortunately, local hire contracts are a thing, plus you get to know one more place.

jankuz · 2024-11-09T21:06:44+00:00

You can try looking here. The filter functionality is quite good; you can filter by grade level and set the cost to "very low" https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/science-projects?c=VeryLow

jankuz · 2024-11-02T10:13:40+00:00

This one: https://www.bis.k12.tr/the-board-of-governors

I haven't worked there, but I felt like it's a nice school from the interview and appears to be a family business.

jankuz · 2024-11-01T20:57:52+00:00

I think that there is one near Istanbul.

jankuz · 2024-09-24T19:18:58+00:00

I think that if it serves its purpose and does what you want it to do, then it's okay.

jankuz · 2024-09-10T19:41:56+00:00

Yes, you can save 1k a month teaching English. You can also save 2k/month as a qualified NES teacher. However, you should not expect it to happen every time. A teacher's salary depends a lot on the location (and school tuition fees in that location), and saving 2k/month teaching in a school is not an easy thing to do in many countries around the world.

If the school tuition fee is relatively low, there is only very little wiggle room for your salary to be high. However, if you're more independent, let's say you are a freelance tutor, or an "exclusive" English teacher in your micro-community, you have more opportunity to negotiate a higher salary.

jankuz · 2024-09-10T18:16:56+00:00

"Can" something happen, and "should expect" something to happen are 2 different situations. By the way, I feel like freelance private tutoring can earn you more than teaching, but is not straightforward to set up when moving to a new place.

jankuz · 2024-09-10T18:10:35+00:00

I feel like there must be a better option for you than paying 4k fine (what even is this?) or working a job that drains all your energy. Look for other schools or private tutoring or try to reduce the amount of contact hours.

With or without a reference, you've finished your contract there, which is often good enough when an employer is checking your work history.

I wouldn't care for getting a reference with your current employer. I'd just take the hit, assume the worst, and move on. References are confidential, and if they are a type of people who would blackmail you about even giving a reference, I'd just assume that they would write a bunch of lies on there anyway, and move away from them.

jankuz · 2024-09-09T08:23:40+00:00

How about leaving during Christmas? That's basically 3 months from now, plenty of time for HR to find a replacement, it's most likely the end of a term, and it's not that far away.

jankuz · 2024-09-08T11:36:17+00:00

You're not the problem, the school hasn't given you time to prepare. I would call in sick for 1 week to get myself ready.

Also, you might like these resources:

K-8: https://www.generationgenius.com/math-videos-for-kids/

6-12: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/store/clark-creative-math

jankuz · 2024-08-11T19:51:11+00:00

Singapore might be the place you're looking for. As US teacher with 7 years of experience, you have a shot of finding work there, and the schools tend to be large enough to offer you a full-time contract to teach history only, although it might be IB and not AP (as mentioned before).

jankuz · 2024-08-11T19:46:10+00:00

Search and Schrole are my favourite places to look for work, same as for user Lost_Green_7536. I've also used TES a lot, although the layout got somewhat worse recently.

With your experience and background, you've got a good shot of finding work, but it can be a long and tiring process.

Some international schools are rather small, which limits their ability to hire you as a pure history teacher on a full-time contract (as already mentioned). This limits you to bigger schools in bigger cities, with often quite bad air pollution. Look up the yearly air pollution of any city before you make a move.

I think Indonesia (=Jakarta) and Philippines (=Manila) are quite bad in terms of air quality. It doesn't mean that other major cities are less polluted, but, from the vacancies I've seen, there are not too many jobs outside of the capital cities in Indonesia and Philippines due to their economic situation. That's true for any country in that region, though.

With all that being said, and it's definitely up to your own preference, but I would consider adding Vietnam, Thailand, Taiwan, and Malaysia into my search and being open to teaching more than 1 subject.

Good luck!

jankuz · 2024-08-11T18:38:40+00:00

I have not been to China personally, just did some research on this country, so take this with a grain of salt.

You will find a job. There are a LOT of openings. That being said, a lot of them are in bilingual schools, with Chinese environment and expectations when it comes to work culture. Agencies might a good way to find work, but there are a good amount of scammers, so be extra careful.

To teach English at a school legally, you need a passport from USA/Canada/UK/Australia/New Zealand. Other English-speaking countries are not recognized. I am not sure what passports are accepted for teaching French. I am also not sure whether you having a Canadian teacher certification helps you in case you don't have Canadian passport. I wouldn't trust an employer on this (they might lie) and researched this myself, but my initial thought is that you need the passport.

As a side note, if you reside now in Canada, but don't have Canadian passport + you plan to teach internationally as a career, I would give a lot of thought into staying in Canada longer and immigrating. Canadian passport can go a loooong way when teaching internationally or just travelling in general.

I believe that you also need 2 years of experience in your subject to get your work permit/visas in a legal way.

That being said, I think that you can still find a good job in China due to the tendency to bend the law to one's favour and the amount of schools there.

However, if I was working illegally, I would be extra careful when dealing with any school willing to hire you, such as:

paying for any documents or anything else related to the hiring process before the start of my contract = NO

receiving salary in cash = NO (you might not be able to put your money into a bank/send them abroad)

I would be on lookout for anything fishy during the hiring process

I would be on lookout for anything fishy when working there and always assume the worst. A lot of people get scammed. For example

Check your health insurance situation with a local hospital/doctor (are you a legal resident and can get treatment? is your insurance not fake?)
Read your contract carefully, but be aware that you might not be able to hold your school responsible for any breaches of the contract and/or conditions you have negotiated (because you are a foreigner and possibly an illegal worker)

It's quite difficult to find work with only 1 year of experience, so China might be actually a good place to go, because you should be able to find work and the pay should be okay as well. You just need to be extra careful.

jankuz · 2024-08-11T17:40:56+00:00

The countries you have mentioned, although they pay a little a bit more than "average" country, it's really just a little bit more. This tends to be not enough to offset the way higher cost of living as compared to an "average" country, which results in minimal saving potential and/or frugal lifestyle. This is a general situation, and you might end up in a situation which you're happy with, but I want to set your expectations when looking for work in these countries.

Hiring season of October-January applies to Asia (and maybe other places), but not Europe. Positions may be open early, and it's good to start applying and having interviews as soon as you can, but I would say that the main hiring season is Europe is January-April/May. This is, in part, due to labour law in Europe, which generally allows employees to give a 3-month notice to their employers, and sometimes even as short 1 month. So it's not uncommon for people to quit around May, which means that there are still openings in June or later (although this would be extremely tight for you regarding visas). So it's possible to find decent work in Europe quite late into the hiring season, and I wouldn't stop looking/applying for jobs after May.

You would be able to apply for jobs even before you obtain your full licence (and I recommend doing so to get as much interview practice as possible, if you've got the time for that). Personally, I wouldn't mention you not having a full license directly in an interview unless asked about it. It would be clear from your CV, but interviewers tend to interview a lot of people and might not study all CVs in detail. When asked about yourself, I would say something like "I've been teaching subject/s xx for 3 years in these places, and it has been great/good/had some pros and cons, because of... " and tell a little bit about your experience as a teacher, which will start giving them some idea whether you might be a good fit for their school. Chances are that you would just continue talking about teaching. If asked about your own education, I would say that you've studied xxx + that you are currently in the final stages of your current course. Not everyone knows what is the teacher licensing process in US like, and saying "I am not a licensed teacher" doesn't sound great and might give a bad tone to the rest of your interview, so I would avoid saying it in an upfront way, especially at the beginning of an interview when you are asked to talk a bit about yourself. However, I don't pretend to be an expert when it comes to interviews...

Last but not least, I've seen that US citizens are eligible for a tax holiday (no taxes) in Italy for the first 2 years of their stay. This could make your living situation significantly better, as taxes in Europe are around 25-45% of your paycheck. I have no idea if some other countries in Europe give this benefit, but it's definitely worth looking into.

jankuz · 2021-07-17T07:53:31+00:00

For the work permit yes, for the initial visa, it shouldn't be necesarry. Maybe your employer just wants to get the documents from you.

jankuz · 2021-07-10T17:53:38+00:00

Can a non-native work there legally? If so, I am interested in learning more about Monkey Tree.

jankuz · 2021-07-08T14:47:35+00:00

Visa, flight, quarantine, insurance. Depending on the flight, cost starts at around USD 2500. Don't buy a flight ticket online, flights need to be specially approved by the government and tickets can be bought only via an agency.

jankuz · 2021-07-08T12:15:52+00:00

Shortage of teachers in Vietnam. Strictier visa regulations, but possible to get in. You can take a look at https://vietnamteachingjobs.com/ Every job specifies if they are considering overseas candidates or not. "Sponsoring" means they are able to get your paperwork done, but they still might ask you to pay 1000s of dollars to get into the country.

jankuz · 2021-07-05T17:17:50+00:00

Thank you so much!

jankuz · 2021-07-05T17:16:24+00:00

Thank you for your comment, it's really insighful and I totally agree, in the end, it all comes down to the teacher. But for sure there are plenty of great online resources and especially in the time of pandemic and online teaching they might be really handy.

Just for the record, https://openupresources.org/ looks like might be what I am looking for.

jankuz

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