it's official

so, almost exactly a week ago, i didn't now where or what i'd be doing. as of yesterday, right after my interview with the school that i had originally really wanted (CW), i officially accepted a job with the new elementary school (the one with the type A principal). tentatively, i'll be teaching 5th grade, which sounds a little scary. and i start teaching on july 5th. my first break comes in mid-november, just before thanksgiving and goes through until january 1st - a nice long winter break. coolness. i'm pretty darn excited.

so, yesterday, i had my interview at CW - where i had originally wanted to work. the interview was supposed to be for 30 minutes, but i was in there with the interview panel (7 people in all - 5 teachers and 2 administrators) for about 45 minutes. and can i just say, they asked a few bizarre/weird questions. normally, you get questions like:

tell me about what makes you unique

what are your strengths and weaknesses?

what is your classroom management style/plan?

what are some instructional strategies you will use to gain your students' attention?

those are expected run of the mill and valid questions, which i did get. but i was also asked by one of the teacher interviewers:
"so, i see you've worked with writing before...and we all know how difficult writing is for our students. how would you teach students suspenseful writing?"

umm...seriously? what kind of question is that? it's so randomly specific. a bunch of the other experienced teachers at my school were wondering if he just wanted ideas for his grade level curriculum. anyway, i told my advisor that i had some bizarre questions, and he thought they were weird too, and he's taught for several years and is pretty familiar with the interview process.

here's another one:
"so when you first start out teaching, you're all excited and passionate, but as you teach, you lose some of that. it's not that you get jaded, but you do get worn down. what are some things that you plan to do to take care of yourself so that you'll be teaching many years from now?" i only think this is a weird question because the answer seems kind of obvious. have a life outside of teaching. people to talk to, friends, colleagues...whoever. have hobbies - cardmaking, knitting, sports, etc. have a life = mental health. i was seriously confused - still am - i didn't really get what they were looking for in terms of an answer. if they wanted something revolutionary, they didn't get it.

and, i was asked to respond to a question in spanish. two of my other friends also had interviews the same afternoon. one is latina, the other is 3/4 cantonese and 1/4 peruvian and she speaks spanish fluently. ok, so all three of us are candidates for the spanish bilingual credential. the latina girl does NOT get asked to answer anything in spanish, but the two of us asian kids do. umm...racial inequality, anyone?

inspite of the odd line of questioning, i had a pretty good time during the interview and i felt good leaving it and the administrator/coordinator had mentioned that we would be notified in about two weeks. i knew that they were planning to take their sweet time with the process prior to the interview, so that they could have their pick of the litter of teachers. before the interview, i had basically already decided that i wasn't going to wait around for their decision-making process because it was too drawn out and because i wasn't able to get a sense of where i stood with the school from my prelimintary interview a week and a half ago - which had left me feeling uncertain all last week - it was stressing me out and i don't normally get super anxious about things. by memorial day, i had already decided to take the job at the new school. so, i was pretty sure about the new school, but i went to this interview just to check/confirm my decision. anyway, i wasn't expecting to hear from this school, CW, until june 13th. i had planned on calling them this morning to withdraw as a candidate, but i didn't end up getting around to it.

and so, i got home today and checked the voice message - CW unofficially offered me a position at the school. the coordinator said that the panel really enjoyed the interview, that they really liked me, and that the principal would be calling me next week to make it official. i'm glad it went well, and it feels great knowing that they thought enough of me to think that i would be a good addition to their school. sadly, i now have to call back and turn them down - stink. but i still think i made the right decision to go to the new school. i know i'm going to have a lot of support and structure and organization at the new school because my principal is all over it - she's type A and she has plans...lots of them.

i'm so glad to be done with the job/interview process. and i'm glad i got the experience - this round of interviews redeems the negative interview experiences of my past.

who wants to volunteer to help me set up my classroom at the end of june? :)