ESL Jobs Forum

[katyb349]

I've been teaching English abroad for the past two years, first in Spain and now in South Korea. Both schools have been small, but organized and respectable. Now I will be going back to NY to teach and I'm wondering what my employablilty really is. Also I hold an initial teaching certificate which expires in two years and can only be made permanent if I can show three years of classroom teaching experience. All the websites I've looked through have no mention of whether foreign employment is applicable to this requirement. Does anyone have experience with this? Is there a way to prove to the Department of Ed that I really have been teaching and not just doing a world tour? Will schools want to hire me if my only school-setting references are foreign and have poor English? I probably should have looked into all this before signing on to the EFL world! Any help would be really appreciated!!

[aardvark]

The first thing you should do (have done) is check w/ your state teacher certification agency to see if they'll give credit to your overseas teaching exp. Just for the sake of keeping things simple, tell them you taught children (if you have an elementary/secondary teaching cred.). If you have an adult ed. cred. tell them you taught adults.

If you are lucky, they might have dropped or reduced the term of teaching service to keep your cred. up to date. Again, you must check w/ the state licensing agency (which I believe is NY?)