A dozen pages of personal and professional profiles, community and job descriptions, home layout and photos, references, and a statement of medical fitness carefully sealed in a large brown envelope hit the bottom of the mail bin today destined for the teacher exchange program coordinator. Now the wait.
Months of talking, planning, researching, questioning, and budgeting lead to seeking out an as-yet unknown colleague from Australia with whom to swap lives for a year.
Hopefully. There are no guarantees.
The Canadian Education Exchange Foundation (CEEF), successfully places about 65% of their applicants. Tempering enthusiasm with cautious realism is a challenge.
While official handbooks and guides help applicants with processes and understanding the implications of an exchange, reading firsthand accounts reveals the intensity, scope, and less obvious aspects of the undertaking . Teacherexchange.ca chronicles the thoughts and processes, from beginning to end, of a teacher and his family pursuing an international teacher exchange.
