Teaching agencies

Before you sign up with agencies, or think about teaching overseas, you need to be aware of one really important thing:
'Everyone' may be after NZ trained teachers, but the majority of international schools run under either the National Curriculum of England and Wales, the International Baccalaureate (PYP or Primary Years Programme and MYP or Middle Years Programme) or the International Primary Curriculum. So, NZ trained teachers with experience in at least one of these curriculum areas are in demand.

1. It may be helpful to head to the UK first, so that you can get experience implementing the National Curriculum. However visa requirements are a nightmare. I will be devoting a whole post to the hoops and red tape involved in this pathway.
2. The International Baccalaureate programme could be a more accessible option as they run online courses - http://ibo.org/ with a huge amount of information available on their site (most at a price) and it is much easier if you are already affiliated with an IB World School. However, they do provide induction programmes, such as http://onlineworkshops.ibo.org/workshop/primary-years-programme/induction-pyp which comes in either a standard or condensed form and costs £350.00. They have a wide range of workshops - http://onlineworkshops.ibo.org/workshop_search - I haven't had the funds to do these yet. If someone has feedback on how they felt about the courses, I'd love to hear about it.
3. The International Primary Curriculum - http://www.internationalprimarycurriculum.com/ is again, much easier to access if you're affiliated with an IPC school, but I have found the organisation incredibly helpful. They went above and beyond the call of duty for me and, as such, I would love to be able to experience the curriculum in action.

I did put off this post. I had no experience with teaching agencies prior to 2009, so I have been through a very steep learning curve and yes, some of it has been painful. I won't be speaking about getting work in Australia either, as that is a separate post. But I will be giving my tips for getting the most out of the agencies you're working with.

Generally, you have a place in mind that you want to head for, so this makes selection of agencies easier.My main aim was to travel, but I had no specific destination in mind, so I tried to cover my bases. The following is not an exhaustive list, but it contains the main agencies I have been involved with.

• tes.co.uk is a listing site. One of the easiest to deal with. All you need to do is to register, then search and apply for the jobs you are interested in. Although they focus on the UK, there is a great range of international jobs.
• www.seek.co.nz is similar to TES, in that you are the one searching and applying for jobs.
• teachanywhere.com specialises in the Middle East and Asia, although they do post jobs on an international scale.
• synarbor.com.au is a real people organisation. You need to work in with the people there, who will put your cover letters and CV forward and keep in touch regularly.
• axcis.co.ukhave a focus on the UK, but also international jobs.
• int.redteachers.com is the international branch of an agency that focuses on the UK. I didn't have too much luck with them, but your mileage may vary.
• www.gemseducation.com specialise in placements in the Middle East.
• dynamicpersonnel.co.za also focus on placements in the Middle East. There is a lot of paperwork involved.
• www.vifprogram.com focus on placements in USA (if I remember right, mainly in southern states, or it could be south-eastern).

Whew, that's been an awful lot of text and I haven't even started sharing hints yet.

1. One key thing I will say is that you will need to invest the effort into form-filling. Most agencies give you an option of registering online. Now, I consider myself tech-savvy, so I didn't think it could possibly take as long as it did... but most sites will not let you just upload a CV. VIF, for example, has an indepth form that took me 1 1/2 hours to complete. The forms will take anywhere from 15mins to 2 hours. It is much easier for the form-filling if you have your paperwork handy. Also, make sure you save copies of the paper forms that you need to send through to the agencies. There are lots of similarities, so for those of you who, like me, are not typists... Copy-Paste is a real time-saver.
2. You will then need to make sure you do your research. I found the teachanywhere podcast sharing phone interview techniques really helpful - http://www.teachanywhere.com/podcasts/Interview-tips.mp3- they also have a range of resources and FAQs that are a great starting point. Quite a few of the agencies require at least a phone interview as the next step in registration, so it is very important that you prep for this. It had been around 10 years since I'd needed to be part of a job interview process, so at first... I was very rusty.
3. Other than the phone interview, Skype is a popular option - http://www.skype.com/intl/en/get-skype/ so make sure to download this if you don't already have it. There are a few agencies that will organise face-to-face interviews or participate in job fairs... So, for a recap on the job-hunting process, I really recommend "Get That Government Job" by Dawn Richards. The accompanying website gives an idea of some of the content - http://www.smartstartmarketing.com.au/welcome/page4.php.
4. One thing that freaked me out about my first face-to-face interview, was the emphasis given to the paperwork. Before doing any of your related research, make sure you have all your documents. Don't even limit it to what they tell you to bring. Bring any and all important documents in a little folder. I cannot stress how important the documents are - I even took to having a spare Justice of the Peace certified copy, plus originals and an extra photocopy for a while. Bring it all.
5. The interviews aren't difficult, on a whole. As teachers, one thing that we love to do, is to 'talk shop'. So talking about your approaches to behaviour management, what your classroom would look like, how you would organise this or that curriculum area... is the easy part. Only tip here is make sure to talk about specifics. Some of the questions are so broad that if you don't focus in on specific examples from your personal experience, you may get bogged down in the process of answering the question.

Alright! You are now registered and you think everything will be smooth sailing from here... Maybe. My biggest tip for this part of the process... is to follow-up. When I thought I was well on the way to my overseas job with one agency and turned up for the interview... they shot my CV down in flames. I had successfully used this CV with all of the agencies that I had signed up with and no-one had said it was text-heavy, or formatted incorrectly?? You need to ask all of the questions and to followup with each agency on a regular basis, so that time is not wasted for either party.

I will save CVs for one of the next posts, as that was quite a saga in itself... But, other than following up, the thing that helped me the most in working with agencies was 'being a squirrel'. I held on to digital copies of forms, of cover letters, of varying versions of my CVs and this became quite a time-saver for me.

Remember, even if you are currently in a job where everyone thinks of you as the person to turn to, even if your students are excelling... you will face rejection. What I needed to do, was to reflect on each step of the process and to use my mistakes to learn from.

Hope this helps someone out there who is looking at getting overseas =)

Teaching overseas - before you leave

OK, I thought it was about time I started sharing some of the things I have been going through, so that hopefully it'll help others out there, who are looking at making the move to teaching overseas.

1. Passport! You might say, hang on, duh. Of course I know I need this, but make sure you have lots of time left on your passport. Different countries have different requirements about how much time needs to be on these, so do your research.
2. Check on things like your driver's license, your teaching registration. If either are due to expire soon, renew early to make your life easier.
3. Sort out a forwarding address (I had the help of my gorgeous mum and lil sister, who offered to email if anything exciting turned up via snail-mail).
4. Make sure you have original copies of all important paperwork. If any are lost, request copies of birth certificate, change of name, marriage certificate - these are all hugely important and you will need these in any country that you move to.
5. Make an appointment with a JP and get lots of copies of your important documents certified (only if you're going somewhere like Australia, that has very close ties with New Zealand. If you are heading further out, see the next step).
6. I had never heard of document notarisation or the apostille certificate, until I received my first job offer. Some countries will require this for your teaching qualification, as in their country they cannot determine by sight whether or not your qualification is authentic. It is essential for work visa purposes, so very important. Before you leave NZ, make sure you get a notarised copy (through an notary public like Wynyard Wood - about $60 for one notarised document plus hourly fee) and then see the following page:
   http://www.dia.govt.nz/Services-Apostille-Certification-Index?OpenDocument - apparently, the time frame after Internal Affairs receives your application can be around 14 working days, so get on to this early. Their fee is $32.50 at the moment (although that may well change).
7. Organise at least three written professional references and make copies. Also, depending on where you are heading, organise a written reference from your landlord.
8. If you are definite about what country you are going to, do your research online. If not, have a back-up plan. For example, if you have a back-up plan of living and casual teaching in NSW while job-hunting - find out about their accreditation process. Even though New Zealand and Australia have a close relationship, never make assumptions! You may be required to get declarations signed by friends or colleagues who can attest to your character. This is much easier to do before you leave the country. There may even be more than 1 accreditation process. You have no idea how long these could take, so - in today's information age, make sure you've done what you can online and prior to your departure.
9. Minimise, minimise, minimise. Start at least 6-8 months before you're even thinking of leaving (especially if you're anything like me). If you are anything like me, I would recommend having at least a year up your sleeves, to minimise on stress levels.
• Pass on resources to other teachers who can use
• Run trademe auctions
• Give other larger things to clothing bin, the mission, Salvation Army collection points, friends. Don't just rely on Trademe. I thought I had started quite early, but then the things I thought would sell, didn't and the re-listing grew tiresome. All the little things add up and for over 2 months it just felt like I had a mountain of things to still get rid of. I was still frantically going through the last of the bags / boxes up to three hours before the flight out.
10. For anyone who has been day-to-day in a classroom for longer than a year - make sure you allow at least 3-5 days for your final classroom sort out.There will be things that you really want to PDF and have a digital copy of, sorting out your email (what needs to be backed up) and your folder on the server. There will be a list of things that you had meant to pass on to colleagues and had never had enough time to do so... The list goes on.... and on.
11. If you are able to move out of your property at least a week before the flight and stay with family or friends, I really recommend it. This allows you time to sort the final property inspection, to take stock of exactly how much you have left that you no longer want.... and it means that you can spend your last week or so visiting family / friends and saying your goodbyes.

There is a lot to think about and here I have tried to cover the majors - In my next post, I'll look at CV requirements and my experiences with agencies. Please let me know if you think I've forgotten one of the majors.