Thread: teaching internationally

Come to New Zealand! Come to New Zealand! Come to New Zealand! New Zealand is the best!! (Not that I'm biased or anything...)

You know, all those ozzies used to be convicts... :P

New Zealand is a cool country, nice atmosphere, tribes of wandering orcs and bands of hobbits blah blah blah. You could even stay in "Orc-Land" (Auckland geddit! HEe hee)

Some sites you might like to check out though...

[url="http://www.teachnz.govt.nz/"]http://www.teachnz.govt.nz/[/url]
There is a specific link for teachers form overseas

[url="http://www.nzqa.govt.nz/"]http://www.nzqa.govt.nz/[/url]
This will tell you about the assessment systems we have in place. Currently we are using NCEA (Natoinal Certificate of Educatoin Achievement) but the govt that just got elected had changing it as an electoin promise. But you know, it's a government so who knows. I'm still waiting for my 4 weeks paid vacation from last election!!
NZQA will also run a check on your own personal qualificatoins etc to see if you CAN teach straight away or have to do a course of some kind first. I know some people in my course from England had a little issue because (well they're older than the average people in class) their certificates/degrees were from last century! Hee hee.

[url="http://www.edgazette.govt.nz/"]http://www.edgazette.govt.nz/[/url]
This is where to find out jobs. In NZ EVERY teaching job has to be advertised. At the moment there a HEAPS because it is October and apparently this is when people decide if they want to come back next year or not. The next big rush will be Janurary as people decide not to come back form holiday. If the job says "regarded" it is already taken internally but still has to be advertised.

[url="http://www.ppta.org.nz/"]http://www.ppta.org.nz/[/url]
Post Primary Teachers Association. The union. This is where you find out how much money you will earn. It is all done on a step up system. Basically because you have been teaching you get extra kudos. I THINK (don't quote me) that it is one step for every two teaching years.

I'm sure you've looked at all the other "NZ is wonderful" sites, but thought you might like some specific teaching sites.

Teahcing in NZ is great because it is multicultural (we're MEANT to say Bi-cultural but I refuse - we have enough cultural emperialsim as it is) There is alot of Maori stuff that we do. But not so much as you get sick of it. We are meant to relate most things we teach back to NZ, but to me that is just common sense.

We use a decile system to "rate" schools. The higher the better, but again, you have to think about what kind of students will be in the decile 10 schools. I've been to four schools this year ranging from a decile 1a (basically a -2 decile school) to a decile 7. I LOVED the kids at the 1a, they are GORGEOUS and so LOVELY to teach. And despite what I had been told I didn't find that they had discipline probs etc. I've taught at a decile three and they were tougher. Currently I am in a decile 6 and will also be in one next year and think that decile 6 is correct for me. Not too poor and not too filthy rich.

Umm what else. NZ is great, friendly, small - everyone knows everyone and EVERYONE knows someone who knows someone who knows Peter Jackson. Our national religion is Rugby and we have a national day of mourning every time the All Blacks loose.

What kind of school/area do you want to teach/live in?

If you want more info, feel free to email me or post again.

Hope this has been helpful
Hope to see you in NZ soon! :-)

PS:

Don't know about overseas but in NZ it takes 2 years to become licensed. You start on a 0.8 workload with 0.1 being taken up with a BT programme (not sure about what happens if you are already registered though from overseas) and then in the second year you go up to 0.9 workload and finish the programme. Registratoin is $50/year (NZ) and from next year ALL teachers will be on 0.9 workload anyways.

thanks for the info!!!

funny, you are the second person to tell me new zealand. i will certainly look into it and thanks so much for the links!

i want to teach/live in an area with diversity. i want a place that will offer my own children a good education as well as be exposed to other cultures. i also do not want language to be a barrier. i could make it in a spanish speaking country and i think my kids would catch on quickly. but outside of that i am pretty much monolingual. (i hate it too, need to work on that.)

i have some interest in university level, but am not ready to make that jump. i hope to be able to teach junior college here soon. i really love teaching teens. my biggest concern is that i am certified in social science, and have now have an MA in American History...so not a big market internationally( i would think.)

i would appreciate any information you can offer. thanks!

Social Sciences is a nice broad topic. For some reason "Media Studies" comes under the social sciences banner too - go fig!

Here social sciences is called "Social Studies" to make it confusing for everyone. Basically it is history and geography and anything else they couldn't find a home for all rolled up into one.

SocStud has a mianly NZ focus (of course) but there is always scope to bring in other "stuff" so your American History would be really good.

Currently I am teaching a Human Rights topic, my bent is news media so I am concentrating on human rights currently in the news media, there is no reason if you were teaching a similar topic that (as long as you related it back to NZ) you could do the Black Civil Rights as the human rights topic. The last school I was in did exactly taht.

HOWEVER... in 2007 the Soc Stud curriculum is going to change. There will be no strands or ELANZ and it will be alot neater and tidier with more of a NZ focus (whatever!!) so look at the current curriculum with that in mind.

Soc Stud is taught at Y9-Y10 at high school, (all year levels out of high school). Currently we have 5 strands and at high school we teach them at "level 5".

The 5 strands and explinations are...
1. Social Orginisatoin
Aim: Students will understand
- People's organisation in groups
- The rights, roles and responsiblities of people as they interact withing groups
At Level 5
- How systems of government are organised and affect people's lives
- How and why people seek to gain and maintain social justice and human rights

2. Culture and Heritage
Aim: Students will understand
- The contribution of culture and heritage to identity
- The nature and consequences of cultural interaction
At level 5
- Ways in which cultural and national identity develop and are maintained
- The effects of cultrual interaction on cultures and sociaties

3. Place and environment
Aim: Students will undestand (don't you love the faith in the educatoin system that the students WILL!!)
- People's iunteraction with places and hte nevironmnt
- The ways in whcih people represent and interpet place and environemtn
At leve 5
- Why people move between places and the consequences of this for the people an the places
- Why particular places and environment are significant for people

4. Time, Continuity and CHange (Usu. The Treaty of Waitangi)
Aim: Students will understand
- Relationships between people and events through time
- Interpretations of these relationships
At level 5
- How past events have influenced relationships within and between groups of people and continue to influence them
- How the ideas and actions of individuals and groups that have shaped the lives and experiences of people are viewed through time (I always have a giggle at this - are you meant to look thru some kind of magic telescope?!? Or maybe even a kalaidescope!!!!!! Hee hee)

5. Resources and Economic Activities
Aim: Students will understand
- People's allocatoin and management of resources
- People's participation in economic activities
At Lelel 5
- Factors that influence people's access to resources, goods and sevices
- The changing nature of work and the consequences of this for individuals and society (Generally everyone does "womans work" here)

TKI has the indepth curriculum you can download the whole PDF file. Also there is the history curriculum. However, Soc Stud is now going to Year 13 (I THINK that is the equivalaent of Grade 12?) and that is brand new in the last three years. The only topic I know that they do is Globalisatoin (or McWorld)

Basically the curriculum is a guide as to what to teach. There is a list of things called "ELANZ" (Essential Learn ing About New Zealand) which you also have to apply to everything, but it is all about relating it back to how we do it, or don't do it in NZ. The current Soc Stud trend seems to be Treaty of Waitangi/History of NZ, Rainforests and Black Civil rights.

I can't imagine that you WONT use your MA, or your prior knowledge because it is all relevant to education. All you need to do is turn around and say "so how is this like NZ?" and throw in a few Maori words now and again. You'll be sweet.


Even though NZ officially has two languages, English and Maori, everyone speaks English, though it is your right to have anything in Maori. Auckland is the largest city and the most multicultural. It is the largest "polynesian" city in the world! This just means that there are alot of pacific islanders as well as everyone else. Personally I like Auckland because it really is the "melting pot". Depending on what area you go to depends on what ethnic make up the school has. I live in East Auckland so there is alot of Chinese (from HK mainly) so out here we have heaps of CHinese events. Down South (about 10 mins drive from home) there are alot of pacifica events. There is always something cultural going on. North Shore, there are alot of Europeans and Chinese and Out West, well they're all wesites out there :-P

There are not alot of race relation issues between all the differnet cultures. You are accepted for what you are. Well, I personally haven't had any problems and I'm 1/2 Malay Chinese and 1/2 Pakeha Kiwi. Even in schools everyone seems to be color blind. It DOES annoy me though that "brown" PI/Maori students refer to themselves as "Black" as in the Black Americans and try to adopt the "in the hood" attitudes that they see in movies.

Schools in NZ have zoning in place (probably like overseas) so it DOES matter where you buy your house though there ARe some out-of-zone enrollments they're meant to be pulled from a hat. All in all though, I don't think there are any BAD schools, rather there are schools that have done well and therefore must be good.

PS: TKI [url="http://www.tki.org.nz"]www.tki.org.nz[/url]
TKI (Te Kete Ipurangi) is based on a Maori Legend that there were three baskets of knowledge given to mankind, of which someone along the way mucked up and two of the baskets were taken away (very similar to the Garden of Eden story) As teachers we are sharing the knowledge from our kete (bag/basket)

sounds very similar. my social science degree is considered a social studies degree as well. it just depends on where you happen to be. pretty much history, geography, and like you said whatever else there was not a home for. we have a course called global studies that deals with news media. i'm hoping to get a turn teaching it if i stay here. i figure the process for pursuing a job overseas will take 1 to 2 years so i'm going to have to be patient, not my forte. it sounds as if i would love NZ.