Soon-to-be-teacher hoping to move to Boston from UK: Any help gratefully appreciated! (Cambridge: school district)

[suffolk_funk_musketeer]

Hello from a very rainy England;

I'm a trainee teacher in the process of getting my PGCE (Post Graduate School of Education) qualification, which I would get upon graduating in July 2009.

Basically, I'm really keen to move to Boston having fallen in love with the place. My old roommate from college has a flat in Cambridge with a spare room coming up at the same time I graduate as a teacher so it almost seems like destiny! I just need to find out some information which I can't get easily on webpages or from e-mails I sent to their help desks so if anyone could help, I would be so grateful. As a bit of background, I have a BA and a Masters in English and my PGCE is an additional Postgraduate degree in teaching at primary school level. I have previous spent two years working as a voluntary member of staff at a local primary school.

1) I'm slightly confused about whether I will need a Massachusetts teaching license. I've seen one website imply that overseas teachers would not have to take the text but would have to have their overall qualifications verified as being suitable by an approved company, whilst others make no mention of this and state that I have to get a license to teach. Does anyone know which one is right? If its the latter, can I sit them in the UK or would I need to fly over and take them in Boston?

2) Would I be able to apply for jobs in advance of receiving my qualification? As I understand it, I would only be able to get a work visa if I was offered a job in advance so in theory, I would have to apply for jobs before my graduation in July to ensure that everything went through in time; would schools take my application seriously if I did this, perhaps with references from my lecturers and principals from the schools that I am doing my placement teaching so as to verify my progress and suitability?

3) Would I be able to register myself as a supply teacher in the US as a means of getting a work visa? Another option I thought of was arriving in the US in July, following the completion of my teaching course with a tourist visa and then use the 3 months it allows to actively seek teaching work in both Boston and Cambridge, or would that allow too little time to apply for a full-time visa, etc?

I’m thankful for any advice, information, suggestions and ideas you guys might have, however small.

Thanks in advance,
Andrew

[tocoto]

If you are not a US citizen, I think you must get a teachers license and green card to work in th states.

Assuming you have all of that you might want to consider working in an inner suburban school district since they are generally better schools than Boston city schools.

if you speak Spanish you probably will have additional opportunities.