The Interview

Well, I survived my first interview in over 6 years! It was very nervewracking, and I'm glad I only had 36 hours to wait from the time they called me because I haven't slept well since then with all the anticipation.

So, how did it go, you might be wondering. Honestly, I think it went well, and I thought that all of the four interviewers seemed to connect well with me and gave positive comments and had postive facial expressions and body language. We laughed a lot, and I felt that I was relaxed and myself. So, I probably wouldn't change anything about how I performed in the interview. Basically, they had a sheet of established questions and went around in a circle and each asked me one. Only a couple of them were ones that I didn't immediately know what to say (What has been your biggest failure in the past three years? What text or professional literature has impacted your teaching style the most?).

I loved the principal. Loved her! She would be a dream personality to work with, and I felt she was so approachable, funny, and laid back. She was not intimidating at all. She obviously wants faculty to approach her easily and bring her any concerns. I felt like she would be supportive and give me lots of help. I also really liked the two other English teachers in the meeting, and they both reminded me of others I have worked with before. I think we would get along well. There was a fourth man in the interview that I couldn't really read as well. He was an ESL/reading specialist, so I didn't really connect with his questions quite as much because that isn't my area of expertise. He also left early to go to another meeting, so I didn't get to know him as well.

The interview was over 1 hour long. I brought in samples of previous projects I have done with students along with some photos from my scrapbook of my former students while they were working on one of the projects and the finished results. The other teachers seemed to like that, and I think they got an accurate picture of who I am and my teaching strengths.

However, I got sort of panicked at the end of the interview when I found out some more information about the teaching assignment and the starting date. I was originally told it was for a 7th grade position, and it turns out that those two classes are pre-AP, so I was thrilled about teaching honors level again. However, they didn't mention until the very end of the interview (as in "By the way . . . we'd better tell you . . . ") that the third class is 8th grade English ESL!!! What?? I'm not ESL (English as a Second Language) certified. They want me to teach a class of non-English speakers? I have no idea where to start with that. These kids are going to be using Rosetta Stone curriculum. The up side is that there will only be 8 kids in that class because it is ESL. The principal said that with the late notice of this job becoming open, there is no way any of their applicants will be ESL trained, so they will just make do for this year, and then they will try to reassign sections for next year and get a real ESL teacher to take that section. However, for this year, they will have to use a regular English teacher who will get some team-teaching support from another ESL teacher in the building. I was a little blindsided by that one. My ESL experience consists of teaching about five foreign exchange students during my eight years at Pulaski Academy, but they were all super motivated students who didn't sleep and stayed up all night translating my novels into Chinese (seriously!).

The positive thing is that this job only has 3 classes (2 pre-AP 7th grade English and 1 section ESL 8th grade English) and a total of 58 students. No one ever has 58 students in secondary school at the full-time level! The grading should be very managable, which would be a good thing since I'll probably have to learn Spanish! ha!

The other stress factor that got dropped on me in the last 5 minutes of the interview is that the starting date is AUGUST 3, as in 1 week from now! What! School begins on August 19, and I knew that teachers had to report on August 12 for inservices. However, what I didn't know is that ALL new teachers to this district have to report a full week earlier than returning teachers in order to go through "new teacher orientation" with the district. Now, that wouldn't be a problem except for the small issue of Owen, Hudson, and Arden. I have no idea what I will do with my children for two weeks until they can start school and daycare. Plus, I will only have 6 days to figure it out! That is a stress.

So, how do I feel right now? Overwhelmed.

Would I like the job? Probably.

Would I take the job? Probably.

I honestly think that I underestimated how much work it would be to return to the classroom in a public school. I'm rusty on all the benchmarks, assessments, and all the state requirements for teachers that I didn't have to worry about while I've been off teaching in private schools and at the college level for the past 14 years.

I think I would LOVE this job after the first year. I think the first year will kill me!

It's a steep learning curve with a lot of information to process and only 1 week to pull it all together. Combine that with worrying about my three children, and I don't know if I can do it.

I do think that after I got adjusted to the schedule, and after I got through a year of lesson plans, this would be a pretty easy job in the second and subsequent years (only 58 students, remember??). That is, if I live through the first year.

So, the principal said they will finish interviewing today and check references over the weekend. They will make a decision and call on Monday due to the start date of August 3. There are at least three people being interviewed as I know they mentioned another male teacher, and there was another woman waiting in the lobby after I came out from my interview. Who knows, maybe one of them speaks Spanish, so they will be the better candidate.

We'll see what happens. I don't even know what I want to happen! I need God to give me some very clear direction.