If I knew then what I know now...

I would have applied for teaching jobs at International Schools right out of college!

I am spending this weekend in Copenhagen, Denmark to attend a teaching conference. The kids' school in Switzerland is sponsoring me and allowing me to say that I work for them, but since I don't I am paying for this conference (well, GM is covering the conference tuition), my flight, hotel, and an extra $75 to the state of MI to earn a few SBCEUs for attending. All the other participants are International School employees who have been sent here for training by their schools. The schools are paying for EVERYTHING for them. Flight, 3 nights hotel, conference costs, dinner expenses AND most schools pay the teachers $100 salary per day!

I remember the time I wanted to go to the MRA conference in Detroit and PCCS wanted me to not only pay for the conference, but even told me I'd have to pay the substitute teacher!

So far, from what I've seen at our kids' school and what I've learned at this conference so far, the grass really IS greener on the International side of the fence.

Even though this is a lot of money for way fewer SBCEUs than I had hoped for, I'm glad I'm here. Copenhagen is a great city, but I'm more interested in mingling with the teachers who work in these schools all around the world. When I finish this conference, I will have a certificate stating that I'm a trained Primary Years Program teacher in the International Baccelaureate Association. If I ever want to apply at an International School, this is a great way to boost my resume. Plus, I love hearing what wonderful things you can accomplish in schools where they have plenty of resources, where they value and pay for staff to attend meaningful professional development workshops, where class sizes are less than 20, and where teachers are well-compensated.

The teachers in my sessions are so enthusiastic and passionate. There isn't the usual moaning of "sure, that's a great idea, but who's going to buy that new curriculum material" or "great ideas, but that will be a little hard to implement when I have 30 students this year, 5 of whom are special needs" or "I'd love to go there on a field trip, but our district has cut back on bussing and we aren't allowed to go on field trips anymore".

No, these are people who work at schools who have supplies provided to them (instead of those of us who spend hundreds of our own dollars on school supplies every year). These teachers are respected professionals, who are treated like business people when traveling on business. They are given a professional development budget of over $2000 per year to use on conferences, classes, etc. to improve their teaching. They are full participants in designing curriculum at their schools according to IB guidelines. They are given collaboration time with their colleagues on a weekly basis for planning. They are not just teaching to the test and constantly dealing with behavior problems or filling out child study forms. They get to do the kind of teaching I was trained to do at MSU and have always wanted to do and tried to do.

Can you tell I'm a little bit jealous?

Yes, I'm sure there are down sides. IB teachers have to do much more in depth planning. They have longer report cards to write, and portfolios to create. But, it seems like they have so much more support than any public school offers. These schools are not all private, either. Many of the people I talked to today work in tuition-free schools (but in countries like Sweden and Denmark).

It sure seems like a good gig to me. I'm just going to sit and absorb now, but maybe later I'll look into a new career path.