I just came from a job interview...the 3rd round of a job interview. Hopefully there will be a 4th...but until I know let me vent my frustrations about the process an educator must go through to be allowed to stand in front of a classroom.
To start off, let me say that Sonia Sotomayor will face fewer questions and less scrutiny from the Senate than teachers have to face from various administrators and staff.
Round 1: mostly innocuous questions about shit that has no reflection on you as a teacher (Tell me about yourself, describe yourself in 3 adjectives, etc). Followed by generic questions that you can literally memorize the answers to. It would be nice if we lived in a world where people wanted the honesty they claimed to want. So instead of my response to "Tell me about a lesson that went bad" being "well, I didn't quite get to the closure", my honest response could be "I was fucking tired from the stress of being let go from my previous job, and I didn't quite have the energy to make up a powerpoint, so I showed a film...and no there were no questions to go with it."
Round 2: demonstration lesson (also called a demo) where you thrown head first into the most artificial of situations and expected to have the gods of education shine light down upon you.
Round 3: The principal of my prospective new employer scrutinizing my resume like a federal prosecutor examining the ledger at Enron. "What would your current employer say about you?"....I don't know strange lady, you tell me, you called them already about a week ago, way to stay on top of things.
Round 4: ???? do I have a date with the assistant superintendent of personnel??? Who knowns
My point: The system is flawed, has little (if anything) to do with education, and mostly exists to make you feel sapped of energy. So I ask, perhaps naively, can I just fucking teach already???
I'm not half bad....put me in coach...
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Comments: 8
Wow, I had no idea you ahd to go through all of this!
wow, i'm sorry. sounds rough
In my district, I wanted to move from teaching middle school social studies and the superintendent made me interview for the position. (He hasn't made anyone else interview for the position when they want to move from their assignment to an open one, but, oh well.) I had an interview with the superintentdent and the curriculum director both at the same time. I had questions coming at me from two different directions and I had been to the doctor the day before and had pneumonia. I still did kick butt on the interview, but I know exactly what you are talking about. How many other people around are they going to find with a master's degree in library science and a K-12 teaching degree at the same time??? I was the only one who applied and was qualified and they knew it as they had partially paid for my master's degree classes.
Sometimes you have to jump through hoops. Just make sure your ducks are in a row, like you had them in your interview.
Dude! You are wonderful! We need your sense of humor in our classrooms... I hope you get the job.
My husband teaches high school English and Drama, and I'm an elementary special ed teacher. Looking over my shoulder, he and I were remembering and laughing as we read your excellent description of the fun and games played in the hiring process in education.
If we had something in language arts or history in our district, I'd be sending you the posting. We need people in the classroom who can think for themselves!
Stay strong, and may your final interview(s) be excellent and everything the interviewers are looking for!
Good luck with round 4!
Stay strong, dude. Good luck with the job!
Thanks for posting to All Top Ten Lists! Good luck with the job. Most people who interview applicants don't know what they are doing, but you just have to keep your composure.