Viewing topic: Americans: Certified or Certifiable

Hello Folks,

No, not insanity. Teacher licenses.
I was just wondering if any ESL/EFL teacher here has a K-12 educational background for the USA, any state. Did anyone leave teaching there to teach overseas? Is anyone planning on teaching when they go back? Anyone planning to go back?
Also, does everyone have an English degree or are folks here with other backgrounds?
CELTA? Trinity?
I am a Social Science/Secondary Ed. major myself. Never got my license when I graduated and then left work after 9 years to get a CELTA in London and teach in Russia.
How about you folks?

-David Lockhart
(davloc)

No certificate of any description

Degree in Russian & Politics and the gift of the gab were my only qualifications And I knew what the subjunctive was

The idea of 'real teaching' back here in the UK fills me with dread and repulsion.

But I'm not American

Hi All...

Yep - I'm much the same - Although I studied English, both literature and language, to a higher level at school (but with absolutely no grammar involved ) and other languages, et sequiturs, I then worked as a civil engineer for about 25 years - but just got tired and very, very bored with what I was doing... So I moved to Russia in 2002 (speaking a bit of Ukrainian - which just got me laughed at in Russia, in the main) and got my CELTA in Moscow in 2003. I've never looked back since...

Regarding returning to the UK to teach English: I have absolutely no plans to return to the UK at all - as I think that country has now gone completely 'mad' and has totally lost its way... Many people seem to agree with me as a record number of Brits have departed those shores for elsewhere of late... (But the EU 'invitees' from the 'poorer countries', such as Poland, are fast replacing them)

However, I DO have friends who still work as 'proper' English teachers in schools in the UK... Most of their time is now taken up with achievement-testing and writing many assorted reports - and I understand that many, many teachers within the mainstream education system in the UK often manage to swing early retirement (with enhanced pension benefits et al) owing to 'stress'... One of my sisters did it, for example...

Regarding TEFL teaching in the UK, like the USA, they, I am sure, have a 'serious system' set up to help the new, non-English-speaking recent-arrivals to 'valuably integrate' into English as she is spoke... I am sure that one of our members, Mike Ciavarella, could come in on this, as I think that that is what he is currently doing in the USA (Sorry to put you in the frame, Mike, if you read this.... but am I right?)

Although I don't know for sure, I fear that any TEFL work within the UK would, in the main, probably consist of a few, say 4, hours per evening, 5 nights a week and paying about a tenner UK pounds (that's about $20) per hour... 5 X £40 = £200 (about $400) per week... In the UK many people don't get out of bed for that sort of money.., Oh - and by the way, you might have some tax and National Insurance deducted from that as well.... There may be some 'peeps' who wisely get into management of the same... but it's still not mega-bucks, regardless...

To give you a guide to current pay rates in the UK: The National Minimum Wage is currently £5.80 (about $11.50) (from April 1st 200 -and that sort of income (or even £10 ($20) per hour) gross, will get you a jack-shit (to use an Americanism) sort of a life-style.... You would probably just 'exist'..

The 'National Average Wage' in the UK is quoted by the government as being about £27,000 (circa US$54,000) but I know many, many people who earn a lot less. For example, why should UK local goverment pay scales start at about £10,500 ($21,000)? Someone, probably many, must be earning that...

Back to the UK? Go figure.....!

I’m at one with mememe on this: going back to Blighty on anything like a permanent basis = certifiable.
I have a flimsy piece of paper that says I once persuaded someone in Canada (I was in UK) that I could teach efl. I can teach efl, as the past couple of years have proved, but I already knew that I could teach. Previously I was mostly doing in-house training in different fields, starting in telecommunications and ending almost full-circle in IT with some detours along the way. I learned how to teach, ouch, 28 years ago (to put that in perspective: I was probably preparing for a TP when John Lennon was shot) but mostly the “qualifications” consist of a degree from the university of life, diploma from the school of hard knocks and three gold stars from the kindergarten of having the sh1t kicked out of you (Blackadder goes Forth, c.1981).
As explained so well above, we could never get this sort of money at home, but I would say largely because it wouldn’t be justified. Who, living in the culture and unavoidably learning the language anyway, would (or should) pay, say, 800p. (nigh on GBP18, USD35) per academic hour for the process, which as we have seen is about twice the rate for those officially employed and waaay above the legal minimum. That's why I don't take Russian lessons. Of course, it is also way above what most Muscovites, let alone provincial Russians, get.
I get twice what I had per month in my last UK job, it is far more satisfying and I get to do it in far-flung places like Moscow (though I am also at one with others as to how far you can fling it once I have finished with it). My income has taken a dent in that I am currently on an enforced sabbatical in Prague – checking out the local possibilities, though – while my visa processing grinds on. Still, I get to redecorate the flat I bought here after selling up in England. This life’s not so bad.

Yes, now that I have asked my question, I have given some thought to being in the USA.
There is so much paperwork involved to get a teaching job here, it seems like a huge undertaking. I have bounced around so much, my little Istra school seems nice. With the economy being a problem, some countries seem like interesting places to work in. I did think of trying a Korean school that was in China. It had Korean pay scales and nice perks. It had an apartment with maid service and a chef.
Couldn't talk the Mrs. into it though.
I think that EFL/ESL teachers have proved themselves enough to be hired outright in the US or UK. I think I would do fine teaching in Social Science/History from my degree, or in English or ESL from my teaching experience. It just seems like things should be simpler. Schools need teachers. I want to teach.
But, leave it to government and bureaucracy to mess that up.
Maybe one more year overseas will tip me over completely to the expat mindset.