When you are looking for a school to teach at, what criterion do you use for a good place to teach?

First, when you are going to a foreign country, you are going to need more help than when you teach in your own country. Many people who come to the foreign countries(Zac and Sandra come to mind as examples) have no previous teaching experience or relevant credentials. They could NOT be teachers in their home countries. This is their opportunity to teach. Most people in this position (Sandra and Zac do not come to mind now) realize that the best source of information on how to teach comes from those who have done so succesfully already.

Others(myself included) taught for a long time(in my case 23 years) in their home country and have multiple degrees(in my case two masters degrees- one each in English and one in education) as well as publications (two English manuals and two math manuals in my case) before deciding to teach overseas. We still have much to learn as learning is a life-long process, but we have learned some things that can come only from experience and education.

So, what I am trying to tell you here is that I am willing right here and now to give advice to anyone who wants that advice from an experienced, published,holder of advanced degrees, and credentialed teacher.

One thing is don't go over without doing thorough research. I made that mistake one time and the disaster of Nanyang was the result. This is the place I have mentioned many times elsewhere and I won't go into details again here.

There should be a person(s) whose job it is to help the foreign teachers. This person should speak fluent English and should have lived in the West. This person is your liason and - while you should try to understand their situation - it is also vital that they understand yours. In Nanyang I made the mistake of not having first talked to the person in this position. I was warned about her before I came and made the big mistake of not listening.

Talk to teachers who have been there - and have left if this is possible. Someone who is still there might not be totally free to express him/herself. Search sites like this one for feedback on the school.

The living conditions must indeed be liveable. Do not(if you are in China) accept " This is China" as an excuse. I have gotten that excuse at two schools - and I simply said that it isn't this way everywhere in China. It is only an excuse and you should not accept it as being valid.

Everything that is in the ad should be provided. Everything that is in the contract should be provided. If they do not provide you with contracted services, you are under no obligation and are doing nobody any favors by staying there or putting up with the conditions. Leave - there are too many good schools seeking good teachers like yourself to put up with those who will not follow their signed agreements.

Most schools are good. The school that I am at now is giving all of its foreign teachers two months pay in addition to the contracted pay to make our lives easier and to show their appreciation to us. Any time I have a problem I can go to the foreign affairs office and Professor Zheng, Director Wang Yang, or Ms. Jenny Chen will solve the problem. Not say they will solve it(Zheng Ping in Nanyang was really good at saying she'd solve a problem, but as Sandra so aptly pointed out in a misguided context, actions do speak louder than words), but actually solve it.

This same problem-solving technique I have met at two other excellent Chinese schools in the persons of Ms. Song, Mr. Gu Yufei, and Mr. Nigel Jones. The first two were at Liaocheng Teachers University where I lived while being the pilot foreign teacher at Wenxuan Middle School and the last is a fluent in Chinese British-born co-owener of Olvie Tree English kindergarten in Chengdu I have had the same experience in the persons of Mr. Cho, Mr. Kwan, and Mr. Vacek in Seoul at Sejong Foreign Language Institute.

In five of the six Asian schools I have had the joy of teaching at, students came first because the teachers were carefully chosen and properly trained. A good school will ask its teachers what they'd most like to teach and what they feel best-qualified to teach. This enabled AnYang Teachers college (and please don't confuse it with Nanyang!) to place me - their teacher with the most literature experience - as their teacher of American and British literature. It enabled Sichuan Agricultural College to put me in charge of the turf management TOEFL class of students who will eventually go to Michigan State in my native USA. It enabled Sejong Foreign Language Institute to give me the classes no one else wanted to deal with -when they found out it is exactly those high-risk students I excel in teaching. Liaocheng made me the first teacher in a new program because I had the pioneer spirit. The Olive Tree English Kindergarten in Chengdu made me the teacher of the "big kids"(4.5 to 6 years old) because I was the teacher there with a degree and experience in that area. A good school will find these things out by ASKING you.

A good school will give you as steady a schedule as they can possibly provide. This is the best for all concerned. They will not send you into a class and say teach whatever(This is what Nanyang told me.).

I know how to teach and I also know when a school is not a good one and when they just want to take advantage of the inexperienced and ill-prepared. I have seen both types of schools- fortunately, there are many more of the former than the latter. A school should value experience more than youth, should value education more than neophytes, and should provide the best learning and living situations to their teachers because, in the end, this will bring to the school (and retain) the best teachers.

Anybody who believes that experience and education is vital to the teaching process is welcome to write me at my listed e-mail. I am here to help people and not to partake of ad hominem attacks. Thank you.