Well, depending on how tonight goes, I may just be done with Canton City Schools. It's hard to say what the future will bring for me but, if tonight's interview goes well, then in the very near future I will be a Kindergarten teacher within a local parochial school. I think that this possibility excites me more than any of the other interviews I had undergone these past six months. The thought of being in a school setting where the parents are choosing to pay for their child's education eludes to the possibility of having better levels of involvement and cooperation overall from the parents. Also, there is the fact that the class sizes are smaller in parochial schools. This keeps the overwhelmed feelings of a first time teacher down slightly. Who would have thought that at this point in the school year, I would still be scheduling interviews for the possibilty of gaining my own classroom?!
I have been attempting to keep track of the number of interviews I have gone through now, and if I am thinking correctly, this will be my seventh in the last six months. It can definitely be viewed positively and negatively. While I have gained some great interview experience, I was feeling pretty down this past weekend after I got the last rejection phone call. I mean, really, six rejections??! That doesn't sit too well with the old ego. But thinking about this upcoming (seventh) interview, I have a renewed sense of why I went to school to become a teacher in the first place. I can't give up now, even if I am feeling very frustrated with the whole process! Looking through my portfolio this morning helped quite a bit as well. I began thinking about the past interviews and where I may have gone wrong. With each of the Canton City interviews (five out of the previous six), there were a panel of interviewers, each taking a turn asking a scripted question. They told me prior to the questioning that I was to keep the answers as short and concise as possible due to the time limit on the session. I was never really offered a time to display my passion and excitement for teaching. I brought my 5 inch thick portfolio to each session and never once opened it to show off the work I had put into my degree. I was intimidated by the school system and the style of the interviewing process. Without being given the chance to demonstrate my knowledge and passion, I flopped. Well, at least, I left feeling like I had flopped. I was told that for a few of those positions I had landed myself in the top two or three. Overall, for a district as hard to get into as Canton City, that's not a terrible status to have. It just doesn't get me into my own classroom!
If this upcoming possibility doesn't work out, I will continue taking the steps to get on the sub list (which is taking A LOT longer then I had originally anticipated) and make a name for myself within various school districts. I just wish that I had more financial freedom to have more flexibilty! I know that I am not the only one working and striving to keep afloat or feeling strapped to a job, but I hate it!! One day, hopefully in the near future, I will be more settled with my career and where my life is taking me! Within a year's time, everything will be different and changed for the better! That's my goal!
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