Overworked and underpaid? Unruly classes that are too large? Stress?Frustration? Burnout?
Imagine teaching disciplined and attentive students whose parents have paid a high tuition fee for their child to be in a smaller class size and students who have earned their seat through entrance testing and performance. Picture your bank account growing dramatically each month as you enjoy benefits such as free, individual and furnished housing, tax free salary, health care, cultures that value and respect your profession, regions with a lower cost of living, free round-trip airfare each year, tranquility, fun, adventure, world travel, and more.
K-12 licensed public school teachers, does this sound familiar?
50+ hours with excessive work-loads and lost weekends
Lack of admin and leadership support
Student and parent apathy
Disruptive students in large class sizes
There are thousands of high-tuition international schools in 185 countires that need licensed English-speaking educators for their teaching positions in K-12 overseas private international schools.
My name is Ron Ross and I have eighteen years of international teaching experience in five countries (not including the United States, Arizona licensed). I have worked in the three most common systems of K-12 international schools: American, British, and International Baccalaureate. I am offering an online video course with six chapters and learning objectives that include understanding the many benefits of working overseas, the three different systems and how they differ but are all open to licensed educators from English-speaking countries, hundreds of contacts with detailed school information for your use (and how and where to find several hundred of others), how to best secure interviews for the job opening you seek, cultures and regions and how they differ in the classroom and out in the city, how to prepare for your first big move, what to expect when you arrive at your new school, life overseas, and more.
These schools serve the wealthy of their societies. Even 3rd World countries with a very low cost of living have the top 2% of the very wealthy. These parents pay premium dollars for their child to learn their subjects in English, in smaller class sizes, with other disciplined students who will likely attend an American, Canadian, British or a Commonwealth university upon graduating from their K-12 international school. These schools have higher standards of behavior and academics than American public schools and the taxpayer funded schools of the Canada, the UK, and “Down under.” Your classroom will be capped off at 20 seats (on the high side) and these students know that violating the standards could cost them their seat as there is always a line of others waiting for their opportunity. Self disciplined and appreciative students who grow up respecting education and their opportunities, even at the primary level, and an administration that do their jobs with teacher satisfaction and retention in mind rather than pleasing parents, makes a huge difference in a teacher’s classroom.
“Two roads diverged in the wood, and I - I took the one less traveled by
And that has made all the difference.” - Robert Frost, American poet
You deserve better.
Teachers have been hired, signed, expected, and then at the last minute they simply chicken-out. It happens. Those teachers will never know what they gave up. They’ll continue year-after-year with being disrespected, stressed, frustrated, burnt-out, and in debt. But more often there are teachers who are adventurous, risk-takers, sick and tired of the public school system but still with a love of teaching, and have a bit of the “This is my life” attitude. These are common traits of overseas teachers; and those traits only reinforce themselves while overseas. I’ve never been unhappy at an international school, but there’s a big world out there and once the international teaching bug is in you you’re itching to work and live in other cultures and in other parts of the world. Your new teacher friends with experience will tell you about places they’ve lived and worked and traveled. In my course, I will show you one of my passports - not to brag but to establish credibility as course creators must. Expat teachers travel and move around…a lot. Each year international schools expect between 15-25% of its staff to move on. These teachers aren’t unhappy, nor are they going “home”; they’re going to a different continent, a different region, a different country and a different culture. They’re living adventures and experiences. I taught in five countries, but I met teachers my age who’d taught in more. Some teachers would take advantage of their school’s paid round-trip flight home-and-back policy to see family and friends for their summer (or winter) vacations and use their smaller breaks to travel the region or within their country of choice; however, I knew teachers and teaching couples who would go several years without going “home” but instead travel the world and sometimes meet family and friends in a pre-arranged place or bring them to visit their host country.
I suggest - especially in this in this current K-12 public school teaching environment you’re in - telling your principal that you’re signing a two-year contract overseas at a high-tuition international school, but after you fullfil the intial contract you might decide to return home. It will leave the door open for you if for some reason you do decide to return home. (I’ll bet a dollar to a dime that you’ll stay overseas.)
I once accepted a position below the equator where they begin their school year in March. I had over seven months before I was to report to Peru. Rather than spend those months at “home” or traveling for the adventure, I took a semester substitute position in China for a 4th grade teacher who’d become pregnant over the summer and decided to stay in Ohio and start a family. I don’t count it as one of the 5 countries I’ve taught in though I was teaching there as a permanent sub for a semester. It was more like a working vacation, and in the meantime they’d found a replacement to arrive in January.
In eighteen years of teaching in five countries outside the United States (not including China), I experienced a very different side of education that unfortunately few teachers know. Years ago I stumbled onto this little known teaching industry and had a close connection that got me started on the greatest adventures of my life and the best professional decision I could have possibly made. My professional and personal life both dramatically improved.
In Arizona I was struggling with ever-growing class sizes, there seemed to be a shift in the students’ attitudes, the parents became less engaged with their child’s education, increasing stacks of teacher work that took my evenings and weekends to clear, waning support and growing frustration with my admin who were under orders from Phoenix and their uninformed decisions from the Ivory Tower three hours away, hyper-concern with students’ fragile egos and self esteem to the point where correcting papers with red pens was a no-go, using words like “test” were too scary, and suggesting holding back a student who simply refused to do any work might damage a student’s self-esteem, or after school meetings that took time from work that demanded my attention yet could have been handled with a somewhat new innovation back then (email), and the never-ending chewing away at my life’s time. I was under-paid and getting deeper in debt. I’d had it. I was blessed with a new opportunity at the right time and I took the plunge. It made all the difference in the life I have lived since. I’m certain it will be the case for you also.
Public school teachers are quitting these days by the bushels, and nobody blames them. Many others take on summer jobs. The number of Education majors has declined in North American universities by over 30% since I went overseas. The K-12 American public school teaching profession is ranked #1 for the unhappiest profession of those with univerisity degrees. That’s unacceptable. You’re wanted, needed, and valued overseas, by society, parents, adminstration, and students. You deserve a dramatic upgrade in your life. You deserve to be financially comfortable and respected. You deserve teacher-friendly admin. You deserve to be happy.
My course will walk you through the process of getting your first international teaching or adminsitration position and give you access to more schools around the world than you’ll have the time to investigate. My course will show you what to look for in the schools and cultures you’ll investigate, give you important things to consider, seemingly small hints that can make big differences, how the interview process differs from your public school interview(s), and will give you a leg-up on the other teachers new to international teaching who won’t receive the benefit of 18 years and five countries of experience and the helpful hints that you’ll receive, including the six learning objectives in the course, 35 videos, and five important documents that come with the course. (Nearly 3 hours of viewing, not including checklists and documents).
I loved teaching and making a difference in the lives of children, and if I had my life to live over I would choose to be a teacher again but go directly into international teaching.
I would take the road less traveled…again.
Smaller and manageable class sizes. Serious but happy students who know they are fortunate to have the best educational opportunities their country provides. Admin who fully support teachers and their professional development. Cooperative parents who respect your profession. Financial comfort. A deep well of resources. A tight community and strong, lasting friendships with colleagues. Full nights of stress-free, quality sleep.
It’s time to upgrade your profession and your life.
This course is for you if…
You’re a single licensed teacher and available to live and work anywhere in the world. (Single mothers are hired in most countries depending on the student’s age. Tuition free for teacher’s child.)
You’re a married teaching couple with K-12 licenses. Free tuition for two children of teaching couples.
You’re an unmarried teaching couple or same-sex couple. Though there will be some countries with restrictions, most of the world is open to you.
You’re a licensed teacher with a non-teaching partner or spouse who can prove remote work is providing for your partner’s income.
“I was hesitant to leave my teaching position in Texas. Four years later, I'm teaching in Dubai, I've saved $90,000, and my class size this year is 14. I actually look forward to Monday mornings."
Sarah J., Former Public School Teacher, now at American School of Dubai
“I taught in a Title I school in Florida for eleven years and was doing the work of three people: case manager, counselor, and teacher, while getting attitudes from students and excuses from parents who were never around. My good friend went halfway around the world to teach and turned me on to a position at his school that opened up. I left with less than $2000 in my bank account, credit card debts, and some faith that my buddy was right about teaching in Thailand.
I'm now in my third year at the International School of Bangkok. My bank account looks very different now. My classes are capped at 20 students and they all actually do their homework. Parents email me to say 'thank you,' not to demand grade changes. I've vacationed in Vietnam, Laos, Japan, and Singapore, plus the school pays for my round trip flights home for the summers. Now I welcome the next 20 years instead of dreading them!
Marcus T., Former Public School Teacher (Florida), now at International School of Bangkok
"I thought leaving teaching in Los Angeles meant I’d be 'giving up' on the few good kids I had. I stayed in public school system for eight years, watching class sizes grow larger, resources dwindle, and student behavior become worse while my admin made excuses for their inaction. I was so close to quitting. Then I went to a teachers fair and signed with a school in Kuwait. My family thought I’d lost my mind, but here’s my new reality: my housing is modern and fully paid, my salary is tax-free and I’ve paid off my debts and I save almost half my salary each month, and my students actually want to be in my literature class and they’re a pleasure to teach. The parents see us as partners, not enemies. I used to use every sick day I was entitled to and now I use none. I’ve found my love of teaching again. My only regret is not leaving Los Angeles sooner.
Rachel D., Former Public School Teacher (California), now at American International School of Kuwait (AISK)
Now is the time
This is your life. You deserve happiness and tranquility; more money and more of your own time; well-behaved and higher performing students who respect teachers; smaller class sizes and an administration focused on teacher retention; being treated like the licensed and degreed professional you are, and full nights of sleep without the stress. You can have this and more: world travel, free housing, tax-free salary, good health care, looking forward to the next day with your kids, even home ownership and a comfortable retirement. Be good to yourself.
And be good to your friends. Share this landing page with colleagues. Make a difference in their lives.
This is a Gumroad course for licensed K-12 public school teachers from English-speaking countries who have considered leaving the teaching profession and are fed-up with today’s tax-payer funded school system yet love teaching and making a difference in the lives of young people. In under three hours and six chapters of 35 videos and four documents, you will learn why K-12 international teachers are the happiest, most prosperous, satisfied, and well-travelled educators.
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