Candace Davies

For young, adventuresome teaching graduates, the prospects have never looked better—that is, in the international education markets. The competition for new teaching jobs at home is intense. In many international markets, however, teachers have a lot of choice. Before settling down with a family, why not see the world? If you have a family, take the opportunity to immerse them in new cultures. English teaching opportunities exist in almost all developing markets.

For decades, personality psychologists, also known as psychometricians, have been on a search for the ‘good teacher.' Each year, more and more studies appear claiming to identify the personality traits of the ‘ideal' teaching professional. Now, in a global first, England plans to weed out ‘bad teachers' by using psychometric tests on all candidates applying for teacher training. The psychometric tests, to begin in 2012, will test for traits such as aptitude, empathy and resilience.

When a North Carolina school cuts teaching assistants, those who cannot drive buses were the first to be let go. Upgrading your driver's license may not be the answer to finding a teaching job but the story does underline the importance of giving careful consideration to the skills and special interests you include on your resume.

Teaching overseas is an exciting opportunity, and one that is being increasingly sought after by educators, especially graduating students or those who have been in the industry for many years. Unfortunately, many people find the process of overseas job hunting confusing and complex. Job seekers can relieve this feeling if they do some research prior to beginning the job search process.

When you are planning your job search, you need to approach it as though it is a marketing campaign. The recruiters are the buyers and you are the actual product. As a product, you have to clearly articulate your value proposition – essentially your advertisement. The rate of success for your job search lays in your ability to fine tune your value proposition. So what exactly is your value proposition? It is the unique benefit that you can offer a school district that matches their exact needs.

During a teacher interview, you will more than likely be asked the question: How do you motivate your students? Of course, we know that motivating students and piquing their interest in learning is a key factor in their success in the classroom, so what methods have proven successful in capturing their attention and driving successful mastery of the material?

In the face of state cutbacks and budget cuts, administration positions are also being hit, although not as hard as teaching positions. Rather than make a bold career move into administration, a more prudent strategy is to take on increasing responsibilities and administration functions so that you can slowly evolve into an administration position, should one arise. There are a number of key areas you can focus on today to improve the attractiveness of your candidacy.

If you find yourself dreaming of an office of your very own instead of the one you currently share with your boisterous students, it may be time to start thinking about moving from the classroom into an administrative role. But before you have your new nameplate engraved (c'mon, you know that's the FIRST thing you would do!!), let's determine if you have the necessary credentials needed to be seriously considered as a viable candidate.

Your internet presence is an indispensible part of your 21st century job search. Not only should you be actively reaching out to recruiters and hiring authorities, but you should also be leveraging your efforts with direct networking (through LinkedIn, Facebook, Ecademy, etc.) and a strong internet presence. This combination creates an effective job search strategy that will increase your exposure to more opportunities.

When dealing with disruptions of any kind from your students, it is important that your response to the disruption is less intrusive for the rest of the class than the initial disruption. It doesn't make much sense to react to a minor infraction with all guns blazing and create more of a disturbance than the student did in the first place.