Jun
19
2010
An Elephant Came Into School Today
Author: adminA spontaneous visit by an elephant, monkeys scampering on the school roof, taking a class into the rainforest, and teaching an art class in Red Square. These are just some of the everyday experiences of teachers working in international schools around the world.
And it’s not just young, single teachers who are making the move. Already retired, Rudi Powell from Penarth, South Wales, decided that he wanted to teach and headed to Vienna followed by a stint in Rotterdam. “I wished I’d done it previously in my career and I’d certainly do it again,” he says. Married couple Lorna and Kevin Gallagher were also able to enjoy the experience of teaching jobs abroad. Both taught in Poland and South Korea. Now they are located in Italy where they work at the International School of Bologna.
Teaching Jobs Overseas
A number of teachers take their whole families with them. A Physics teacher from London, Jeff Burt has lived and taught in Turkey, Sri Lanka and the Philippines together with his wife and two daughters. “As a family, we learned to deal with international life. Travelling with our young children was also very easy. It has become both a rewarding and positive experience. Both our kids were able to have a very global, compassionate, and mature viewpoint in life.” For single parents it works too: “I knew I wanted to work in an international school and waited for what I thought was the right time for my children,” explains Janice Ireland who taught in international schools in Kuwait, Cairo, Libya and The Netherlands for twelve years. ”At the time, my son was in university. My daughter came with me and did her A-levels in the same school where I worked and absolutely loved it! As a single working mother, I could not even begin to measure up to the differences to life back home. It has really been a good thing for both me and my family. I highly recommend it.”
Andrew Wigford is another teacher who taught for many years in international schools.
”Having overseas teaching jobs meant that I am given the chance to travel to some amazing places and at the same time get to work in some terrific schools in Austria, Germany, and Colombia.”
”The initial plan was to have a go for a couple of years teaching abroad, however, we found it a great deal to our liking that we stayed up to 16 years.
During our time abroad, our two children were born but that was no problem at all. The fact is that it has given our entire family a sense of adventure, a bigger perspective of the world, and better confidence in travelling.”
Andrew says that finding a new job was the only problem with working overseas. “Angie and I and a number of our work colleagues hated the cattle-market style of the big recruitment trade events and when applying by ourselves it was difficult to find out which schools were the most reputable and exactly what paperwork was required. We also heard a couple of quite scary stories about teachers who had been let down by untrustworthy, unaccredited schools. This is one of the motives why we would rather use recruitment consultancy firms – because they provide a much more personal assistance.”
