Stay in bilingual school or step up to international school?
Mods: I have read the wiki and searched the subreddit, however, I cannot find posts similar to this.
Hello everyone,
I am considering making the step up from my current bilingual school to an international school. however, I'm trying to establish whether it's actually worth it.
Over the past three years, I have been teaching in a bilingual school in the Caribbean. I teach English (TEFL/ESL) to a primary/elementary class (18 students) and a secondary/middle school class (10 students).
I work 4 days and a total of 25 hours per week (12 hours of teaching + 3 hours of planning/marking + 10 hours of non-teaching duties).
I receive $3000 net per month, and I get approximately 19 weeks (a little over 4.5 months) of paid holidays per year. I manage to earn double the median salary and save about $1.5K per month.
For CPD purposes and also to improve my credentials, I recently became a licensed teacher, and I am on track to complete an MA in Education at the end of the year. With the end of the MA fast approaching, this got me thinking - perhaps I should consider applying for EAL/ELL positions in international schools for next year in order to 'climb the ladder' so to speak and work in a 'proper' school.
However, I don't know the standard (if there is such a thing) EAL/ELL workload in international schools, and while I imagine that my savings potential will increase a bit (depending on the country and cost of living), I am not sure if the juice is worth the squeeze.
I would appreciate your thoughts!