Career Services counselors also provide workshops on finding teaching jobs. The schedules vary from semester to semester, so please check our homepage or stop by the office for a program schedule.

Decisions, decisions

Type of school

Secondary school only or K-12? (Most schools prefer certified candidates below grade 6, but you may prefer a school with a wider age range overall)

Boys only, girls only or coeducational?

Day school or boarding school?

Rigorous academic curriculum, progressive educational programming, special focus (music, ecology, etc.), or some combination of the above? This item basically refers to the school's identity and philosophy.

Small or large?

Religious affiliation?

You may find it easier to develop your list of preferred schools once you know your priorities. However, being too specific narrows your options. Need more information? See the Career Services library for relevant materials. The National Association of Independent Schools also offers great resources about careers options and the independent school.

Which subject to teach?

If your major is English or Biology the answer may seem clear - however, the more flexible you can be, the better. If you can teach French or Physics in addition, say so! On the other hand, English and History/Social Studies are the two most "oversubscribed" areas, meaning there are many candidates for few positions. So, if you have majored in a subject other than these two, such as Chemistry or German, your English or History minor will probably not get you a teaching job (however, it doesn't hurt to mention your minor - the school you work at may someday need to call on you to teach it!).

If your major does not fit clearly into a high school curriculum (for example, Psychology, International Relations, Finance) you need to let schools know what you could teach in general, in addition to specialized courses in your area. An anthropology major might be able to teach biology, social studies, or a language - the school won't know what you can or want to teach unless you tell them!

Geographic location?

There are more schools in the Northeast than elsewhere in the country, which means that there will be more competition but also greater staff turnover in that part of the country. Northeastern schools can generally better accommodate inexperienced teachers, according to one insider interviewed. Other the other hand, remember to consider in which sections of the country the economy is growing (the South and Northwest). You may also want to consider urban (or urban proximity) or rural setting as a factor.

Full time position or internship?

Many private schools have internships. These are generally one year positions. For additional information, see NAIS' "Intern and Teaching Fellows Programs in Independent Schools."

Finding Positions

Attend Career Services Programs--See "Important Dates", listed above

The programs will give more in-depth information than this handout, and will keep you up to date as to developments in the job market (and in Career Services services, such as private school on-campus recruiting).

Consider Placement Agencies

As a rule, Career Services does not recommend placement agencies. We find that students have better results if they keep control of their own job search. In addition, some agencies are unethical and/or ineffective. HOWEVER, for entry-level teaching positions, they can be quite helpful. The Career Services Library (and the Assistant for the Education Counselor) has a listing of agencies recommended by the National Association of Independent Schools. If you use other agencies than those on this list, BE CAREFUL. You should pay no more than an application fee. The placement fee should be paid to the agency by the employer. Also, be careful of the language in the contracts. Make sure the contract doesn't prevent you from pursuing your own leads. If in doubt, see your Career Services counselor

Network

A career planning buzzword, but also the most effective job search strategy, especially for positions in private school teaching. This is how it works: tell everyone you know that you are looking for a teaching job, including professors, high school teachers, parents' friends, clergy members, etc. If they say "Oh, I know so-and-so who works in a private school", ask if you can use their name when calling "so-and-so". Each person you contact should be asked for more names of people you could contact, and so on. There is no substitute for personal contact, and if someone has had personal contact with you and is aware of an open position, they will think of calling you before they call the person they know only on paper.

When to Contact Schools

Mid-January for regular, full-time teaching positions Most schools evaluate their staffing needs and personnel in February and March, so you want your materials (generally a cover letter and resume, and perhaps a personal statement) on their desk before they begin that process. However, you may also want to contact your top choice schools earlier in the fall, to ask for informational brochures and course catalogues, and to confirm the name and the title of the person to whom you will be sending your cover letter.

Earlier (+ application!) for internships

If you know you want to pursue getting an internship and have your list together (based on the NAIS Internship listing), it is a good idea to call the schools which interest you sometime in October. If they have a program, they will generally have an established procedure for applying. You need to know what the deadlines are and what the application consists of, in enough time that they can send you their forms and you can get your materials together. It is also possible to contact schools in which you are interested but which are not listed as having an internship program. Occasionally they will create an internship.

On-Campus Private School Recruiting/ Using the NAIS Employment Exchange

Be on the look-out for organized opportunities to meet private school employers. Career Services hosts 10-15 schools for on- campus interviews each spring; watch Career Services Newsletters, the DP, and Career Services bulletin boards (or call 898-7529) for information. In addition, NAIS, the National Association of Independent Schools, has an Employment Exchange at its annual conference, held early in the spring semester. Employers with available positions interview teaching candidates on- site (usually these cannot be in-depth interviews, but serve as an initial contact). The 2007 conference is in Denver, Colorado. Contact NAIS for details. Also, each spring there is a Philadelphia-area Private School Teaching Fair for minority candidates. Check in Career Services for further information.

The following is a more detailed explanation of these options.

Certification

Alternate Route To Certification Programs

These programs are what the name implies- a way to get certified without following the usual procedures. Generally, programs are run through states' boards of education. You are placed (with provisional certification) in school districts with teacher shortages and begin teaching a regular course load immediately, often at regular salary. Your teaching counts towards the state's requirements for student teaching hours. You complete the coursework or special seminars required by the state for certification at night or during the summer (this differs from state to state). Be sure to find out if the certification you will receive is permanent, and if it can be transferred to other states. An excellent list of states' programs is in the Career Services Library in the "Teach For America" notebook. New York City, Massachusetts, and Philadelphia currently offer certification programs like the ones described above.

Teach For America

TFA matches uncertified teachers with positions in districts with teacher shortages (usually very urban or very rural districts). Teachers receive emergency certification, and may be able to do an alternate certification program at the same time. Teachers receive some training and supports; however, the positions are very challenging. TFA holds information sessions and recruits on campus, and a complete program profile and applications are available at Career Services.

Graduate Study

If you are an undergraduate non-Elementary Education major at Penn, you will generally need to do graduate study in order to get teaching certification (with the exception of the Alternate Route To Certification). Remember to consider submatriculation into Penn's Graduate School of Education.

"Certification only" programs

These provide only the supervised student teaching placement hours and the coursework necessary for state certification. Because of the configuration and amount of hours involved in the student teaching requirement, these programs generally take a year, and prevent you from having a 9-5 job.

Master's degree programs

These may take many forms: an M.Ed is a Master of Education; an M.S.Ed. is a Master of Science in Education; and an M.A.T. is a Master of Arts in Teaching degree. Any one of these will give you certification; the differences will lie in the programs' curricula and philosophy. Generally these programs are designed to take a year and a summer. This means that many employers and students have reported to us that it is a better idea to get the Master's degree rather than do a "Certification only" program. You will be studying for approximately a year in either case, but the master's degree will start you at a higher salary, and allow for a variety of professional opportunities (for example, curriculum development, committee participation) which are not always easy for bachelor's trained teachers to obtain. You will usually have to pick a concentration in elementary or secondary education, and, if secondary level, a subject area in which you will receive certification (History, Biology, etc.).

Certification in conjunction with private school internships

If you are thinking about internships, check the section of the NAIS Listing for each school marked "Educational Credits". If "yes" is noted, you may be able to earn state certification and/or a master's degree while doing that internship. The Shady Hill School and Smith College Campus School, both in Massachusetts, have excellent programs of this kind. Financial arrangements will differ.

Teaching Special Groups

Depending on states' certification requirements, you may need to do separate certifications for special education, reading specialist, or English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) teaching positions. Again, dual certifications (elementary education/reading specialist; secondary education English/ESL) make you much more marketable, but these cases will probably increase your study time.

Factors to Consider

Decide on geographic area and subject area

Because teaching abroad involves a global job market, it is crucial that you focus your job search to some degree. The degree to which you want to focus will depend on your priorities and interests, but in general you should be focusing on at most on about 3 broadly defined geographical areas (for example, Western Europe, Eastern Europe and Eastern Africa). "I'll teach anywhere" is fine as a general preference, but in order to start looking you must choose some areas.

Western Europe is probably the most difficult place to find teaching or any other kind of jobs. First there will be many interested candidates for any job; and secondly, with European Community passports allowing easy exchanges between employers and employees within the EC, a French employer, for example, can get a native English speaking teacher from Great Britain without having to obtain special work authorization. Eastern Europe, however, is a quickly growing market for teachers without certification - the demand is greater than the supply. However, the demand is so new that there are still few organized programs to send teachers abroad to those areas. North and Southeast Asia are still strong markets for teachers; Africa and South America less so, since foreign teachers are a bureaucratic and economic luxury which lesser-developed countries often cannot afford. On the other hand, Peace Corps-type volunteer organizations (as well as the Peace Corps itself) can be excellent vehicles for getting into development work in lesser-developed countries (see the book "Volunteer" in the Public Interest Section of the Career Services Library for lists of these kinds of programs).

As for which subject you will teach, the most common choices would be your major subject, or English-as-a-Second Language. If you want to teach your major subject, you will need to plan extremely carefully. Certification, experience, and language skills will come into play when seeking those positions, which will generally be in local or international expatriate community secondary schools. It is much easier to find a job teaching English-as-a- Second-Language, abbreviated "ESL" (you may also see the abbreviations "TESOL" --Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, or "TEFL" --Teaching English as a Foreign Language).

Job Hunting: With a Program Or On Your Own?

Going abroad through organized programs such as the Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE) Work Exchange Program, the JET (Japan Exchange Teaching) Program or the Peace Corps can have many advantages. These include, depending on the program: a guaranteed position; visa paperwork handled by the program; airfare to and from site; training and orientation; and assistance with housing. Many people do not want to go abroad unless they have a "sure thing"; it is also easier to find information on such programs than on employers at large, and to apply for them in the U.S. However, by definition an organized program will be limited in scope, duration and location. Also, some provide only a stipend rather than a salary, and others, such as WorldTeach, require you to provide a lump sum up front for airfare and orientation costs.

The alternative is to plan a three-month trip to your location of choice and job hunt on site. You can access a far greater variety of positions that way, and have the advantage of being able to speak to employers in person and access the organization and community first hand. The disadvantages are the "start-up" costs (to travel abroad and survive until you find a position), the uncertainty, and dealing with work authorization.

Decide on the organizational setting in which you want to work

As is true in the United States, teaching (especially English Language teaching) takes place in many settings. These include but are not limited to: local elementary and secondary schools and universities; international schools (generally similar to private schools, serving children of diplomats, business persons and other expatriates); American university study abroad programs; language schools (such as the Berlitz schools, although most language schools worldwide are locally based, not internationally affiliated); international and/or local social service organizations' programs; tutoring in various settings; language and other training in corporate settings; etc. There are advantages and disadvantages to each. If you want to go abroad through an organized program, the range of settings will be determined by the program. Otherwise, you need to think about ease of finding information about organizations and applying for jobs, in which markets you would be a strong candidate, what are your long term goals, etc.

If you are applying to go abroad through a program, the process will be fairly straightforward, and will consist of an application, usually including a personal statement, transcripts and recommendations. Deadlines are strict! If, on the other hand, you are looking for a position on your own, you will need to put together lists of employers, and work out a strategy for contacting them depending on whether or not you will be applying from the United States or locally (meaning, in the location of the organization). If you are applying from the U.S., you will definitely want to send not only some sort of cover letter and resume (if possible, in the format of that country/culture), but also a photograph, personal statement, and any other materials showing your teaching experience and skills. In either case, leave a great deal of lead time, and remember that the academic years start at different times in different countries.

Not surprisingly, the preparation you decide to undertake will depend on the program and/or setting you choose. If you want to teach in international schools (private schools for expatriates' children), you will generally need either an education degree (in order to get U.S. certification), a master's degree in a subject area and U.S. teaching experience, or sometimes all three.

If you decide you want to teach English-as-a-Second-Language in settings other than international schools, remember that while jobs are easier to find, there's "more to it than meets the eye." A master's degree in TESOL is the best and most marketable preparation for teaching English abroad, and is also necessary for many similar positions in the U.S. (although it is not always accepted for positions in public schools - state certification requirements for ESL teachers vary widely). On the other hand, if you don't want to commit to completing a master's degree, many universities and colleges offer brief training programs, which can be extremely helpful and increase your chances of being hired. Of course, any ESL teaching experience will be helpful - and is fairly easy to obtain in the Philadelphia area by volunteering at social service agencies serving non-native English speakers.

Sources of information (in addition to the Career Services Library!)

The Career Services Library, while extensive, is not an exhaustive source of information. Depending on the locale in which you are interested, you may want to: contact international chambers of commerce; contact consulates or embassies for your country of choice to see if they have lists of schools or other organizations to which you could apply (ask for the office of the educational or cultural attache, and expect some resistance); see if there are any international alumni or contacts through friends or nationality groups (both university and city wide) from your country of interest and from whom you could get a culture-specific "job-search orientation"; use the Encyclopedia of Associations to contact professional associations with linkages and/or chapters abroad; and consider using English language newspapers published in your locality of choice. For example, many employers looking for English teachers in Japan advertise in The Japan Times, a daily English language newspaper published in Japan, which has a particular day on which most classified ads appear. It is ideal if you can have someone to send you the paper which is actually published in that country; often the U.S. editions do not include the classified ads, and are also outdated.

Private and Independent Schools (in Education section of library)

• Everyone's Guide to Finding A Private School Job (red paperback)
• Private and Independent Schools (Bunting and Lyon - big, blue hardcover)
• Independent Secondary Schools (Peterson's Guides - white paperback)
• "Teach for America Handbook of Teaching Opportunities" (Red notebook)
• "Resources for Teaching Without Certification" (White plastic notebook); includes NAIS Internship information
• The First Year of Teaching
• Bound copies of old job descriptions received by Career Services (1994-95)
• Employer brochures

ALL OF THE ABOVE PLUS -

• "Teacher Certification Requirements in 50 States"
• Patterson's American Education (Secondary schools - directory of all schools nationwide)
• Patterson's Elementary Education
• Public Schools, USA (Peterson's Guide - white hardback - lists and rates school districts grouped around 200 metropolitan areas).
• As above, employer brochures, old job descriptions, old resume book for public schools
• How to Get a Job in Education
• "Teach for America Program Information" (Turquoise plastic notebook.)

• Teaching English Abroad (the best book available on this subject, by Susan Griffiths. ("E")
• Transitions Abroad (the best all-purpose resource - this is a periodical including articles by and for new college graduates, with very practical information. "I")
• Teaching Abroad (published by IIE - The Institute for International Education. "E")
• Jobs in Japan (an excellent overview. "I")
• International Jobs (by Eric Kocher- full of practical advice and information. "I")
• Notebook with articles on "Teaching Abroad" (black with orange tag - "E")
• Notebook on "Jobs Abroad" (red with white tag - "I")
• Periodicals: "The International Educator" (which has classified ads) and"NewsLinks" (both of these newspapers are about the international school scene. "E")
• ISS (International Schools Services) and ECIS (European Council of Independent Schools) Directories of International Schools (two separate publications. "E")
• SEE ALSO: Volunteer! in the Public Interest Section (a similar book is Alternatives to the Peace Corps, in the international section), and various materials in the Internships section, including Directory of International Internships and CIEE's Work, Study, Travel Abroad.

• National Teacher Recruitment Clearinghouse: A White House-sponsored site for certified teachers seeking jobs all over the country.
• National Association for Independent Schools
• Schools Online, The Association of Boarding Schools (TABS): Includes a list of all boarding schools in the U.S.
• American School Directory: A list of over 106,000 schools in the U.S., both public and private. You can find all schools in a city or county.
• Links to U.S.State Departments of Education