neil

It was more by luck than anything else. I had already decided to quit and allowed myself plenty of time to find a new job while I was still teaching. I was only teaching for 4 years and luckily had bought a flat where my mortgage was only 250 quid a month so I could afford to take a bit of a pay cut. I found a company looking to train up new employees in their software which was their own proprietary programming language, and they hired me based on an aptitude test that showed I would do well in that type of thing. Once I got started I picked up a lot of the business knowledge (the software is specific to the publishing industry so business needs are an important consideration) and became a consultant whilst still programming also (pay increased pretty rapidly because I picked things up very quickly). Now I'm leaving to join another company in the same field as a consultant with no programming and expect to be a full project manager within a year.

I think timing comes into changing career like that, I was lucky that I was financially secure enough to be able to survive, but I'm so glad I did it. I almost feel I'm doing the same thing with this new job because it's another big change (although financially I will not lose anything this time, and will actually be gaining financially from it).

neil

Fair enough - have you thought about private tutoring? It would be more flexible than a full time teaching job, perhaps your husband has colleagues who might be interested and then something like that can soon build up as parents talk to each other. Depending on where you live you may have success with a notice up in the local supermarket.

elaineKB

Cheers Neil may go down that route if i get no luck with the schools. Have started to apply to some private schools today so we will see. Cant believe how useless the NY ed dept has been, all that talk from the mayor about NYC needing good teachers -what a pile of crap !

Ben

Elaine, have you thought of having your credentials translated? It could be worth it so that employers can see the comparison. Also, there are a couple of recruitment agencies that have teachers on their books for private schools. Kelly services is one of them.

Also, have you looked in Nassau county so that you are away from the city? they are crying out for special needs teachers (so I have heard anyway) so maybe going that route in Nassau county could be worth looking at. Also, have you thought about looking at the local colleges to see if they can help you. You may need to enroll into a couple of courses but if you did that you get their help with finding a job and the contacts. Could be worth it

Bob

Problem with that is that it depends on teh school district as to what services to use so it could be a waste of money unless they ask for it...

Ben

I'm not really understanding what you mean? Do you mean having qualifications translated so Americans will understand them may not work because school districts are different? If so, in NYS that wouldn't make any difference because she would still have to go and get NYS certification either way. The point really was that if you have the teaching part translated into an equivalent teaching course here (which are pretty much all the same no matter what college you go to), whoever is doing the interviewing will know straight away what your qualifications are.

And if you enroll into the NYS certification program, the college you enroll into will have someone who can translate qualifications from another country. different colleges may give different credit for the work you have already done so it is always worth looking at more than one college.

Bob

The certificates, different school districts will use different places to do the cert translations, so a waste of time and money getting it done in advance...and getting state certifide, well that depends on the state, but usually isn't that hard as long as you have the relevant classes taken and get finger printed etc...and some schools might even waive the state teacher certification if your well qualified in a certain field like history, maths etc, or at least allow you to work while getting teacher certifide.

Ben

Surely if you get your certificates translated into a language/form that the US understand it doesn't matter where you get them translated? the OP was stating how the impression is that her teacher training from the UK is fobbed off as insignifican compared to US standards. Well, if the classes she has taken can be put next to classes at US colleges, any school employer would understand them. For example: a class here in Education theory and practice or teaching the at risk student I'm sure are classes that the OP would have taken back home. By placing these particular classes in the right catagory for NYS certification, any NYS school or NYS school district would understand them

Any college, especially a state college, will be able to translate each course to an equivalent US course. Community colleges may have to send transcriptions away to be done but I can't see the OP needing a community college for the courses she will need to get certification in NYS.

elaineKB

Cheers Bob and Ben !!

Ok at the moment Im holding out as The Ny ed have an agreement for certain International teachers . They say on their website plus he showed me when I went in, that if I qualify I will get a conditional initial certificate based on reciprocity, instead of the normal NY certification, and it lasts two years, with that I can teach straight away in the public school system. However what is holding it up at the moment is the fact that the paperwork on the agreement is as far as I can tell out of date and so we are waiting for someone in Albany to say yeh or nay to my FIRST CLASS HONOURS Primary Education degree !!!!! So we will see
Thanks so much for this info I havent got this much help since I arrived (actually since England !!)Cheers !

Bob

The problem is, there is no standard for people to translate, or anything governing who sets up a service, so I could just knock out a fancy certificate and say someone's degree is a masters...that's why, when you go get it done, you have to get it done using whoever they ask you to use.

Bob

Good luck with it

uknj

I paid $90 to get my teaching degree evaluated and be given an official evaluation certificate with the US equivalent. They didn't however transfer the grade (I also got a first) which I was rather gutted about! You can get this done opposite the USCIS offices in a place called 'globe' (I think) It's up some stairs. Be aware that if you are showing a school your uni transcripts of results - a 70 or above in the US is considered quite low.

It sounds like things are looking up - and so great to get advice from different people.

uknj

I used this company as it was listed as credible for immigration as part of my visa applic. package.

Rushman

get yourself listed on Rays Frapper map

elaineKB

what and where is this map ??