Teaching in the USA?

[Kung Karl]

Hi all!

So, I am a Swedish teacher. I teach History and political science at high school level. I currently live and work in Sweden and I am 26 years old.

I want to move to the USA.

Is there a market for foreign teachers?

How can I get information about moving to the US from Sweden? Do you people have any advice to give me?

The main problem as I see it is emplyment. In Sweden I have a university level education and I am employed at a good high school. I make a fair living and have a woman whom I currently live with. I need to be able to get a real job in the US. She is a pharmaceut. How is the market for them in the US?

I know there is diffrent laws and markets all over the USA. I teach history and know about states rights etc

Anyway, any pointers are apreciated!

As a side note I can say that I love the Minnsesota Vikings in the NFL and Los Angeles Kings in the NHL.

[U2]

Hi,

Well I am also a teacher from Sweden and I also wanted to move to the USA to teach a few years ago. They do offer teachers from certain countries to apply in NYC AFAIK but I never found Sweden to be on that list. AFAIK you need a green card and then you can apply for any job. The problem is that your english needs to be top notch and you need to know everything about American history/politics. So unless one is lucky, I don't think teaching would be an option in the USA. Would anyone hire us? To teach American history at High School level you would have to become almost as good as a native speaker and study at college again to gain the knowledge about history that you would need. I'm not sure students would like to be tought be someone who's English is not top notch and I don't know if any school would hire someone who's studied Swedish history/politics. They simply do not know what you have studied. Easier to go with an American that studied in the USA.

Get a green card and go for it! I'm happy I stayed here but if this is a dream of yours you must try.

[pasternakski]

ORIGINAL: Kung Karl
I want to move to the USA.

Is there a market for foreign teachers?

I was an educator in the U.S. for 33 years before retiring a couple of years ago. There is always a market for good secondary school teachers, but don't do it blindly. Unless you are prepared to pursue a position teaching in some of the worst schools on the face of the planet (without any guarantee that you will ever be hired even there), you should make contact with agencies and groups that provide you with information about, and access to, institutions that still value academics and integrity. Otherwise, you are likely to be very disappointed with the entire adventure. I won't go on at length about this, except to advise that you be careful and proceed cautiously. Some fields, like mathematics and science, are in high demand, while others, like English and social studies (including history) are glutted with job seekers who can't find anything else - and with the economy as it is, the market is currently very poor.

Information is the key, and you won't get what you need here. Start with the U.S. Embassy. They are usually very helpful with information you can use to network your way toward the contacts that will help you. Find education Web sites in the U.S., such as the one for the National Education Association. Get in touch with American university education departments. Do the same with individual state education departments. You've got a lot to do and many decisions to make before you even think about relocating.

[Marauders]

The market for Social Studies teachers hit rock bottom years ago.
 
If you are not a superstar coach, forget it.
 

[Feltan]

You may wish to contact private schools as well, they will be able to sponsor you for a visa. Private schools, for the most part, do not pay as well as public schools, but you do not have to put up with the same level of crap as public school teachers. In private schools, troublesome students can actually get expelled.

Pharmacists are in demand, but you have to be licensed in the state you work in. Licensing is not easy. Furthermore, much of the growth in pharmacy is in "warehouse" jobs -- filling mail order or bulk industrial presciptions where speed is rewarded, and low productivity gets you sacked.

One other note -- given the state of the economy, this is not an optimal time to be seeking entry into the US work force. Unemployment is creeping up, and there is a general feeling of doom with regard to the economy.

Sorry, wish I had better news for you.

Regards,
Feltan

[JWW]

Good advice. I teach high school English and journalism in Louisiana. I am aware of a couple of school district who have brought in groups of teachers from the Philippines to teach math and science in "at risk" areas, meaning poverty stricken, high minority areas. This is apparently some kind of grant program, and I really don't know the details, but it is possible for a teacher from another country to come to America and teach. Just be careful what you get in to.

ORIGINAL: pasternakski

ORIGINAL: Kung Karl
I want to move to the USA.

Is there a market for foreign teachers?

I was an educator in the U.S. for 33 years before retiring a couple of years ago. There is always a market for good secondary school teachers, but don't do it blindly. Unless you are prepared to pursue a position teaching in some of the worst schools on the face of the planet (without any guarantee that you will ever be hired even there), you should make contact with agencies and groups that provide you with information about, and access to, institutions that still value academics and integrity. Otherwise, you are likely to be very disappointed with the entire adventure. I won't go on at length about this, except to advise that you be careful and proceed cautiously. Some fields, like mathematics and science, are in high demand, while others, like English and social studies (including history) are glutted with job seekers who can't find anything else - and with the economy as it is, the market is currently very poor.

Information is the key, and you won't get what you need here. Start with the U.S. Embassy. They are usually very helpful with information you can use to network your way toward the contacts that will help you. Find education Web sites in the U.S., such as the one for the National Education Association. Get in touch with American university education departments. Do the same with individual state education departments. You've got a lot to do and many decisions to make before you even think about relocating.

[Prince of Eckmühl]

If you can teach math, science or IT, then it might work out for you, so long as your English (or Spanish) language skills or good.

Come to think of it, though, why on earth would you want to leave Sweden for the USA? [&:]

PoE (aka ivanmoe)

[Kung Karl]

Well, I don't want to leave Sweden for good. I love my country very much but I just thought it would be a good experience.
 
Anyway, you guys have comfirmed my doubts so I will probably stay here in Sweden. I have a good job now that I like very much. The problem is that the numbers of students will go down in the coming years so I thought maybe now was the time to try something new for a while until the jobs is coming back.
 
Thanks for the info guys, now I can safley put my thoughs about moving to the US at rest. I will go there for a vacation though. I realy want to see the Minnesota Vikings in action. Next year Adrian Peterson will run all the way to the super bowl!

[Tomus]

Have you thought about an academic exchange? My dad was a college professor and he transferred a couple of times to the US for one year stints where he swapped jobs with an American. I am sure that teaching offers the same deal. The only issue I guess you would get would be finding an American teacher who spoke Swedish.

[cdbeck]

I'm with Tomus, there are loads of academic exchange programs that will get you a year or so of teaching experience in the US. I know a girl from the UK who did that, had a wonderful time teaching in New Hampshire, and met my best friend - ending up getting married to my best friend and moving to the US! So her experience was pretty great (the teaching system in the UK was not to her liking - although she was teaching in Hull - you Brits will probably understand what I mean).

I wouldn't think the American teacher would need to speak Swedish - they would come over as an English teacher, in all likelyhood. AFAIK, Sweden has some of the best English education in Europe (along with Norway, the Netherlands, and Iceland), so the language barrier is far less than one would expect.

SoM

[Doggie]

Do you speak Spanish? Then maybe you can pass for an illegal immigrant from Central America. If so, the government would welcome you, and offer you a range of benefits not available to American citizens.

Europeans, especially those with job skills, are hunted down and deported.

[vonRocko]

Doggie speaks the truth unfortunately.

[Charles2222]

ORIGINAL: Kung Karl

Well, I don't want to leave Sweden for good. I love my country very much but I just thought it would be a good experience.

Anyway, you guys have comfirmed my doubts so I will probably stay here in Sweden. I have a good job now that I like very much. The problem is that the numbers of students will go down in the coming years so I thought maybe now was the time to try something new for a while until the jobs is coming back.

Thanks for the info guys, now I can safley put my thoughs about moving to the US at rest. I will go there for a vacation though. I realy want to see the Minnesota Vikings in action. Next year Adrian Peterson will run all the way to the super bowl!

Nope you set your hopes way too high. Do you remember Tavaris Jackson? He usually eliminates any Peterson benefit. I don't know how much higher Peterson can get than having the rushing title, and still they choked. They need a steady QB, and Jackson is two years away from being that, at best. Ferotte at least didn't lose games for them, but he won't probably last a whole season either. I had to wonder in their last playoff game, if Ferotte was capable of playing, because Jackson sure wasn't.

[Kung Karl]

ORIGINAL: Charles_22

ORIGINAL: Kung Karl

Well, I don't want to leave Sweden for good. I love my country very much but I just thought it would be a good experience.

Anyway, you guys have comfirmed my doubts so I will probably stay here in Sweden. I have a good job now that I like very much. The problem is that the numbers of students will go down in the coming years so I thought maybe now was the time to try something new for a while until the jobs is coming back.

Thanks for the info guys, now I can safley put my thoughs about moving to the US at rest. I will go there for a vacation though. I realy want to see the Minnesota Vikings in action. Next year Adrian Peterson will run all the way to the super bowl!

Nope you set your hopes way too high. Do you remember Tavaris Jackson? He usually eliminates any Peterson benefit. I don't know how much higher Peterson can get than having the rushing title, and still they choked. They need a steady QB, and Jackson is two years away from being that, at best. Ferotte at least didn't lose games for them, but he won't probably last a whole season either. I had to wonder in their last playoff game, if Ferotte was capable of playing, because Jackson sure wasn't.

Tarvaris Jackson was ok at the end of the season I would say. I hope they can find a better QB in the off-season tough since that is the position holding them back. They have a great defence and two great running backs. The wide reciivers are ok if they only could get a great QB throwing them the ball. I am optmistic.

[Tomus]

ORIGINAL: Doggie

Do you speak Spanish? Then maybe you can pass for an illegal immigrant from Central America. If so, the government would welcome you, and offer you a range of benefits not available to American citizens.

Europeans, especially those with job skills, are hunted down and deported.

Funny how the same is true in Europe. If you have no skills, a criminal record, your're wanted in another country, you can't speak English,have a forged passport, and hate the country you are going to and plan to destroy it...not only will we give you, at our expense, a house, education for your children, money every week to live on, free travel, free access to computers and printers, free driving lessons and of course more free lawyers than you can know what to do with so you can sue us if someone hurts your feelings.

[Charles2222]

ORIGINAL: Kung Karl

ORIGINAL: Charles_22

ORIGINAL: Kung Karl

Well, I don't want to leave Sweden for good. I love my country very much but I just thought it would be a good experience.

Anyway, you guys have comfirmed my doubts so I will probably stay here in Sweden. I have a good job now that I like very much. The problem is that the numbers of students will go down in the coming years so I thought maybe now was the time to try something new for a while until the jobs is coming back.

Thanks for the info guys, now I can safley put my thoughs about moving to the US at rest. I will go there for a vacation though. I realy want to see the Minnesota Vikings in action. Next year Adrian Peterson will run all the way to the super bowl!

Nope you set your hopes way too high. Do you remember Tavaris Jackson? He usually eliminates any Peterson benefit. I don't know how much higher Peterson can get than having the rushing title, and still they choked. They need a steady QB, and Jackson is two years away from being that, at best. Ferotte at least didn't lose games for them, but he won't probably last a whole season either. I had to wonder in their last playoff game, if Ferotte was capable of playing, because Jackson sure wasn't.

Tarvaris Jackson was ok at the end of the season I would say. I hope they can find a better QB in the off-season tough since that is the position holding them back. They have a great defence and two great running backs. The wide reciivers are ok if they only could get a great QB throwing them the ball. I am optmistic.

Yes, but you saw how hopeless he was in that last game. He hasn't shook that tendency to stink on a high basis. I don't know why he did quite well in the closing games, but I look at it as an exception rather than a rule.

I will tell you one thing about Peterson though, at least I saw him that way early in the season, that he gets to the line of scrimmage so quick a lot of the time, it looks like he's going to score every time (it looks that way from the side tv camera angle anyway). I didn't even feel that way about OJ in the old days. It seems he's a really difficult tackle past the line of scrimmage too. I seen him in the playoffs and maybe another game at the end of the season, and he wasn't running like that anymore. Defenses might as well forget short yardage defense against him, because that seems like a long gain about half the time and just makes him better.

[cdbeck]

Way to turn this guys benign question into racial politics guys. [:-]

Wow, is American Football popular in Sweden? I know, here in France, it is pretty much only what people watch when nothing else is on. I think that they are actually still playing "reruns" from the past season here - and they aren't even close to the Superbowl yet. Hilarious, I could make some money with some wagers! Of course, the same holds true with TV shows - I want to walk in and scream stuff like "X dies when Y shoots him!" or "He fires all of his staff!" Would be great fun, the American spoiler.

SoM

[jagdwolf]

A lot depends on the market where you are looking; some states are over run with teachers (especially in the northeast) while others, generally in the south, are desperate for them. Likewise, the bureaucracy you have to wade through to get certified varies widely from state to state.
 

[Prince of Eckmühl]

ORIGINAL: Kung Karl

The problem is that the numbers of students will go down in the coming years so I thought maybe now was the time to try something new for a while until the jobs is coming back.

Is Sweden's birth rate still declining?

If so, it's a genuine shame. I hope that children aren't looked upon as a burden and a handicap to women (as they are in the USA). The Swedish are a great people, but no culture can survive if it falters in its reproductive imperative. [:(]

PoE (aka ivanmoe)

[Doggie]

ORIGINAL: Son_of_Montfort

Way to turn this guys benign question into racial politics guys. [:-]

It aint "racial politics"; it's the truth. Why not tell him the way things are? The truth is educated people from places like Australia and Western Europe are not welcome in the United States. The INS really will hunt them down and deport them. We're not kidding here. It's no joke. But we can't deport an illegal alien from Central America even after he serves time in prison.

This has nothing to do with political opinions; it's a simple irrefutable fact. Politics come into why things are this way. A guy from Sweden has just about no chance of getting a visa to work in the United States.