Wanted: Teachers willing to relocate to faraway lands

It's that time of year again where I make the yearly plea to my stateside colleagues encouraging them to try teaching abroad. The last couple years resulted in two of my friends attending job fairs in Iowa and San Francisco, with both of them ending up in sunny Ecuador. The Chronicle is happy to report that D who worked down the hall from me in Middleton (Idaho) and K, who I used to work with at Green Mill in Fargo have found enormous job satisfaction and endless adventures near that imaginary line dividing the hemispheres. In fact, sources close to the KC say one of them (luckily the one that is not married) has even found a cross-cultural romance which might lead to a contract renewal for next year.

Are there any educators out there willing to take the plunge in 2009? It is astonishing how many international schools are opening up around the globe. One statistic published by The International Educator put the number of international schools in 2000 at 1,700. At the beginning of 2008, there were over 5,000. I will admit that not a small number of these are fly by night operations in dangerous geographic locales. They span the globe and even the alphabet from A (Azerbaijan and even Afghanistan) to Z (Zambia and Zimbabwe), so it pays to conduct thorough research before you land that dream job in the Grand Cayman Islands or Costa Rica. You could end up signing a contract to spend the next two years of your life in Kabul.


Even though I am thousands of miles from the nearest beach and Jack Frost is about to start farting white stuff all over Poland this weekend, the last couple years have been an amazing adventure both personally and professionally. Sure, the Polish winters are frigid and unfailingly bleak, but I consider myself quite fortunate to have ended up here at AS Dub. And if any readers out there in the business of teaching children are tired of it being just that, a "business", then write to the editors at the Chronicle and we will be happy to give you advice on how to get started on a career overseas. After all, I think Obama has too much on his plate to worry about trivial matters such as class sizes and a yearly raise for teachers that exceeds the rate of inflation. But don't delay, deadlines for registering at job fairs at the University of Northern Iowa (deadline: January 9th), San Francisco (January 5th), and Cambridge, MA.

Well, that's the spiel for this year. I hope we can report again on a successful candidacy around February after recruitment season. Thanks for reading!