Not quite 500, but that is what it seems like. I have officially submitted my first application for a job and have 2 more to fill out tomorrow during conference. I finally got my resume and cover letter just the way that I wanted them, and I hope that the principals and HR people will love them as much as I do.
This evening for our student teaching seminar, we had the Head of HR from the school district in Kerrville come and talk to us. He brought his Dean of Curriculum at the HS and also a first year teacher from the HS with him. The Dean was actually my assistant principal in middle school, talk about a small world. I can now add her to my list of contacts that I have within districts. She told my supervising teacher that I needed to take the 4th-8th generalist test too in addition to my EC-6th certification which I already passed. I am not too sure how I feel about the possibility of teaching middle school, but with the school budget crisis here in Texas I want to make myself as marketable as possible.
Speaking of applications, what should I expect when I start my interviews? What would you say is the #1 thing that administrators are looking for in a teacher? My personal opinion is that they have to know that you are passionate about kids and education. They cannot teach you that, but they can teach you the curriculum. Hopefully I will get an interview out of this application that I filled out tonight!
Happy Friday eve! I just love Fridays, they are for sure the best day of the week!
Good luck with the application process! I don't know about your applications in Texas, but here in Ohio they take FOREVER! I remember spending hours on EACH ONE! Luckily they are all similar so I was able to type my responses in Word and then do some copying and pasting! Do that if you can!
ReplyDeleteWhere I live, jobs start posting around April and post up until late summer. Usually the schools do interviews around June but every district is different!
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Good luck! I hope youn get an interview, and a job! I also agree with you about what you said is most important. :)
ReplyDeleteI was trying to remember some of the things they asked me when I interviewed, but I am blank! Good luck!
ReplyDeleteI was on the interview team for years.... and one thing we looked for was:
ReplyDeleteNOT just how you can be a GREAT classroom teacher BUT what can you bring to our campus.
Sell yourself....
one of our teachers made a brochure for us to look at that contained all of her resume info BUT how CUTE and CREATIVE was it to out it into a brochure format!!!
GOOD LUCK!!!
Hi! I just came across your blog from another one. As a fellow future teacher (I'm also student teaching right now), I just had a seminar class where an assistant principal came in and basically told us how the interview goes.
ReplyDeleteHe said that the beginning is for you to tell them about yourself, your schooling, etc, to get you to ease up and relax. They ask you what's your primary purpose of being a teacher in the classroom. The principal might ask you to walk him/her through a lesson you'd teach. They might ask you about your classroom management abilities...how you'd handle a disruptive student. And a department chair (we were all secondary people) would ask you the academic portion, your favorite lesson/topic. You might wanna investigate any information you can about the district before an interview...read their demographics. I wish you all the best luck on your interviews!!
Love your blog btw. :)