What better of a place to start then from the place that landed me this life change.
I started this year with the change from teaching grade 4 to currently teaching grade 1. I knew I needed to change something and that maybe a small change would be all I would need. Grade 1 sure has been a challenge but I have loved it. Seeing children at the beginning of their school career is eye opening. I can't for sure right now say if I like grade 4 or 1 better but they both have their great moments.
As the year moved into its rhythm, I started to feel that I really would want to have a bigger change. I love my current school and if I could move with it to a new country then I would in a heart beat. But since I can't move the entire community, I started to come up with my options. I set out to send in my paper work to an organization that holds a yearly job fair for international teachers in London. At the same time I did my research for a masters program that I could do just in case a job change wasn't in my near future.
The job fair in London was intense. Basically it is speed dating for a job. You have to run around in the morning of day 1 signing up for interviews and then each interview lasts over the rest of the day and the next day. Interviews can last from 20 min to 45 or more. I signed up for about 10 interviews that spanned countries from the Bahamas to Angola to Korea and completely randomly to Kuwait. I thought well it will be a great first interview warm up. Lo and behold they really liked me and wanted me to come to Kuwait. I spent the rest of the day running from interview to interview, some promising while others not so much. On of my last interviews was with a school in the Philippines. Would have loved to work there, and she really liked me though didn't have the space for me so she said she would hang on to my CV and would call me as soon as something came up. She was a wonderfully helpful director and I hope to hear from her in the future.
Some great offers were passed my way for small schools and I knew that I really wanted to work in a big school where I wouldn't be the only grade level teacher. I thought about it long and hard, e mailed home to see what my parents said. Their first e mail seemed hesitant but then their second e mail - about an hour later - they seemed OK with the choice.
With my parent's seal of approval and my final decision of wanting to work at a big school and see more sun I met with the director and said that I would love to work at his school. I think we both couldn't have been more excited about it.
Two months now have passed since this big decision, internet searches have been made and books have been bought, yet I still can't believe I am moving to Kuwait in August.
