I haven't posted much these past six weeks because I have been wrapped up in the job search for next year. The following is a summary of what transpired and the decision making process!
My ultimate goal is to move back to Seattle, hopefully to teach at my alma mater Lakeside. I've been in contact with the Upper School Director there for a number of years and we've been dancing around my teaching there. However, we've never been available at the right time. They've had an opening, I wasn't ready to move or vice versa. This year, however, there was a possibility of an opening and so the move back to Seattle was a constant possibility. However, in the end, there turned out to not be an opening.
In the meantime, if Seattle wasn't a possibility, I would love to live in China. SYA has a campus in Beijing and the Math teacher there has been there for about a decade. He was willing to move to another SYA campus in Asia (either Japan or Vietnam) and thereby opening up the position for me. However, due to lack of enrollment, neither of those campuses will open next year, so he will stay in Beijing for another year. However, SYA in their infinite generosity and kindness, offered me the teaching job at their campus in Rennes, France for a year before heading to Beijing.
During these machinations with Lakeside and SYA, I had also applied to the International Schools System and been accepted as a candidate. My handicap in this world is that I neither have a teaching certificate, nor do I have any International Baccalaureate experience or training. The International Schools hiring happens mostly at 3 recruiting conferences, of which I attended the smallest and last one in Chicago around Valentine's Day.
The saying is you don't need many dates, you just need ONE good date and I had one in Chicago. The number of school attending the fair was pretty small, and many of them had few job openings available, however, the American Overseas School of Rome was present and they had not one, but two, high school math teacher openings. I met with the head, and turns out that my having neither a certificate or IB experience was not an issue. We agreed on my visiting and interviewing with the school on the 4th of March. I had a job offer a few days later.
Before I even went to Chicago, through contacts, I had a job offer in Aruba, which I turned down. While in Chicago, I met with and had an offer from a school in Puerto Rico, which I turned down as well.
Therefore, the decision came down to AOSR in Rome or SYA in France. Tough call as there were only upsides to both. I literally had to make a list of pros on both sides of a piece of paper.
The decision came down to these issues:
France: 1) New Language (pro and con), 2) Pre-planned school trips (pro), 3) Housing provided (pro), 4) Exact same curriculum as here in Italy so a simple transfer of teaching materials (pro and con), 5) More Money and no taxes (pro)
Italy: 1) Familiarity with language and chance to improve Italian (pro), 2) Major Metropolitan Area (pro), 3) Larger Faculty because school has 630 students (pro), 4) School is International, not just American prep kids (pro), 5) Possible opportunity to work on IB certification (pro), 6) Large English Speaking community (pro and con), 7) Only an hour and a half by train to Viterbo (pro)
The decision, which sort of came to me when I was swimming laps in the pool one day, came down to this fact. If I moved to France, I know EXACTLY what my life would look like. It would be the easy choice. Moving to Rome offered the best of two worlds, having some facility with language, but what my life would look like next Fall would be completely a mystery. Where would I live, what would my social life look like? The school is different from what I've ever taught. I will have students from around the world. When I taught a sample lesson, there were Americans, Italians, Russians, Indians, you name it. It's an INTERNATIONAL school.
I chose the move to Rome based on the fact that I need NOT be comfortable. I need to learn and change and how to live here in Europe without the safety net of SYA's taking care of everything for me. Only when taking chances, have I learned and grown. Ironically, the school is on the Via Cassia, which is the old Roman road that goes through Viterbo up to Tuscany. I will be physically moving just down the road, but my life will change dramatically, which is good.
My ultimate goal is to move back to Seattle, hopefully to teach at my alma mater Lakeside. I've been in contact with the Upper School Director there for a number of years and we've been dancing around my teaching there. However, we've never been available at the right time. They've had an opening, I wasn't ready to move or vice versa. This year, however, there was a possibility of an opening and so the move back to Seattle was a constant possibility. However, in the end, there turned out to not be an opening.
In the meantime, if Seattle wasn't a possibility, I would love to live in China. SYA has a campus in Beijing and the Math teacher there has been there for about a decade. He was willing to move to another SYA campus in Asia (either Japan or Vietnam) and thereby opening up the position for me. However, due to lack of enrollment, neither of those campuses will open next year, so he will stay in Beijing for another year. However, SYA in their infinite generosity and kindness, offered me the teaching job at their campus in Rennes, France for a year before heading to Beijing.
During these machinations with Lakeside and SYA, I had also applied to the International Schools System and been accepted as a candidate. My handicap in this world is that I neither have a teaching certificate, nor do I have any International Baccalaureate experience or training. The International Schools hiring happens mostly at 3 recruiting conferences, of which I attended the smallest and last one in Chicago around Valentine's Day.
The saying is you don't need many dates, you just need ONE good date and I had one in Chicago. The number of school attending the fair was pretty small, and many of them had few job openings available, however, the American Overseas School of Rome was present and they had not one, but two, high school math teacher openings. I met with the head, and turns out that my having neither a certificate or IB experience was not an issue. We agreed on my visiting and interviewing with the school on the 4th of March. I had a job offer a few days later.
Before I even went to Chicago, through contacts, I had a job offer in Aruba, which I turned down. While in Chicago, I met with and had an offer from a school in Puerto Rico, which I turned down as well.
Therefore, the decision came down to AOSR in Rome or SYA in France. Tough call as there were only upsides to both. I literally had to make a list of pros on both sides of a piece of paper.
The decision came down to these issues:
France: 1) New Language (pro and con), 2) Pre-planned school trips (pro), 3) Housing provided (pro), 4) Exact same curriculum as here in Italy so a simple transfer of teaching materials (pro and con), 5) More Money and no taxes (pro)
Italy: 1) Familiarity with language and chance to improve Italian (pro), 2) Major Metropolitan Area (pro), 3) Larger Faculty because school has 630 students (pro), 4) School is International, not just American prep kids (pro), 5) Possible opportunity to work on IB certification (pro), 6) Large English Speaking community (pro and con), 7) Only an hour and a half by train to Viterbo (pro)
The decision, which sort of came to me when I was swimming laps in the pool one day, came down to this fact. If I moved to France, I know EXACTLY what my life would look like. It would be the easy choice. Moving to Rome offered the best of two worlds, having some facility with language, but what my life would look like next Fall would be completely a mystery. Where would I live, what would my social life look like? The school is different from what I've ever taught. I will have students from around the world. When I taught a sample lesson, there were Americans, Italians, Russians, Indians, you name it. It's an INTERNATIONAL school.
I chose the move to Rome based on the fact that I need NOT be comfortable. I need to learn and change and how to live here in Europe without the safety net of SYA's taking care of everything for me. Only when taking chances, have I learned and grown. Ironically, the school is on the Via Cassia, which is the old Roman road that goes through Viterbo up to Tuscany. I will be physically moving just down the road, but my life will change dramatically, which is good.
1 comment:
It's so exciting you're moving to Rome! That's an excellent choice; I bet your Italian could kick my ass by know! Hopefully I'll be visiting this fall and we should definitely check out some Italian singles karaoke bars (con Alessandro!). I hope it's everything you're hoping for :)
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