Job Search
Teachers held about 3.4 million jobs in 1998. Of those, about 1.9 million were kindergarten and elementary school teachers, and 1.4 million were secondary school teachers.

If you are joining the teaching profession - or looking for a different position within the profession - read on.

Your Criteria
First, develop a list of what is important to you. Using your assessment skills, you can create a rubric for comparing different schools and positions.

Online Research
The Internet provides a wealth of information. Everything from job openings to school ratings can be found online. If you know the geographic areas in which you would like to teach, conduct specific searches to identify and research the schools. If you are more flexible, you can use the search engines or visit these sites:

The Private School Employment Network
http://www.privateschooljobs.com/jobpage.html
The Southern Teachers Agency
http://www.southernteachers.com/
Want to Teach.com
http://www.wanttoteach.com/
Online Job Bank for Teachers
http://www.recruitingteachers.org

Present Yourself
Consider developing a Professional Portfolio to present to your prospective employer. Teach-nology.com provides resources on the topic. http://www.teach-nology.com/prodevelopment/teach_portfolios/

The folks at Yahoo.com http://careers.yahoo.com/ have some advice on writing your resume and preparing for an interview. They also have relocation tools to help you compare salaries to cost of living.

Making the Move
Moving is hard work. After you have secured the job of your dreams, you will need to select a new home, pack your belongings and settle in before the first day of school. Here are some sites that can help reduce the stress:

Look for a new home at: Apartments.com, www.springstreet.com and www.apartmentlinks.net.

Get great advice on packing and moving at Moving Man.com. Be sure to visit Cool Tips to view the Size Up Sheet that helps you determine the number of boxes you will need and the best size trailer truck to use.