My Teaching Journey So Far..

My journey overseas started for a variety of reasons. I, like many graduates, was bartending (doing a job outside of teaching while looking for employment), had a roommate and was doing what I could to manage student debt. I had some university colleagues that moved overseas; one who went to Thailand to teach. Seemingly all at once my roommate lost his job and could no longer afford rent, so I was pulling doubles to stay afloat. Eventually this became too much and in around May of 2007 I was moving back with my mother. After speaking to my friend in Thailand she put me in touch with Elspeth Morgan at Queen’s University. After contacting Elspeth and receiving the, “Any friend of Crystal’s is a friend of mine!” email in return, I was given a list of jobs overseas.

After some consideration, I chose to apply for a job in China mainly because it was an Ontario Overseas School and that gave me some degree of confidence in its legitimacy. Within a week I had an interview at a Tim Horton’s in Bellville and soon after that was applying for my visa to China. In August of 2007 I was on a plane to China. Circumstance is what got me teaching Overseas, passion kept me.

After teaching for 6 months in China I began travelling to Japan and Thailand and so on. I loved teaching overseas (and still do), and after spending 3 amazing years in China I decided it was time to move on. Interestingly enough my school in China was inspected and I must have made a fair impression on the inspector from the Board as he took the position as principal at my target school in Malaysia, where after an application and short interview, I was hired. I then spent 3.5 amazing years in Malaysia where I met my wife, life long friends, amazing students, and simply had sets of experiences I will never forget.

The decision to move to Hong Kong was challenging. After moving to Canada with my wife and trying to find a job in Ontario for 7 months, our savings was drying up! I was now much older and my wife was waiting for her residency. June came; no jobs were in sight.  I was offered a position at the largest English Language Center in the world in Hong Kong. It was very late in the hiring season and my wife and I decided this was something we should go for. She is a nurse and we knew she could get employment in Hong Kong, so we went abroad again. After a year with the Language Center an opportunity to teach at an Ontario Overseas School in Hong Kong arose. I took it (frankly the money was too good to say no). I taught there for a year and the teaching atmosphere was not for me so we decided to leave. I got offered a job in China again and we were ready to go back. However, in life you never know what will happen and after being home for 1 week I was offered two interviews in BC (my new job required me become certified in BC). The school we chose was too good to be true. Its campus is beautiful, our apartment is wonderful with a mountain view and for the first time I feel settled. However, my ultimate goal will be to be overseas again, this time as an administrator or inspector.