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Hints For New Teaching Graduates : First, Prepare!!!Aug 20 '00 Write an essay on this topic.Finally, after four (or five) years of college and many hours of studying, partying, and student teaching you’re ready to be a grown up now and to BE the teacher. Before you can walk into that first classroom, you have to find a classroom to walk into. This review is to get you started and to mention some of the preparation that needs to be done so that you will break through the first step of becoming hired. Before you will ever be called in for the interview itself, these preparation steps need to be considered. In fact, some of the ideas below should be started before graduation to save you the work of finals and graduation and getting ready to line up interviews. By doing some of the preparation ahead of time, you will already have a head start on the many candidates that will be applying for the jobs you want. For example: There are many projects that you are required to do as part of the professional sequence of classes and many experiences required to work with students before and of course during your student teaching semester or year (whichever your university requires.) Start thinking about the things below and when graduation day appears, you’ll already be prepared to get a head start over others who will have to get it together after they graduate. The best time to apply for a job is from February until you get one. Some colleges let out in April and many college professors tell you that you can’t teach until you have a letter stating that you’ve graduated. Don’t let that stop you from applying. Send in your cover letters and resumes before graduation. Let them know that your transcripts will be mailed to them as soon as possible. The reason for this is that your first step is to apply; most schools don’t ask for transcripts or certificates until an actual interview. Paperwork can always be provided even if it’s unofficial at first. The next step is that the minute you are out of school, begin substitute teaching. That will give you two or three months to explore schools you’re interested in and to let principals and staffs to get to know you. Schools are always hard up to get substitutes at this time of year because after a certain number of days (100 in Michigan) they MUST hire you for the next opening and pay you higher rates even as a sub. Most districts do not want to do that and will use new teachers as subs as a way around that rule. So don’t wait for the letter. Most schools do hire substitutes as long as they have a certain number of hours in education classes. A diploma is not necessary at this stage. Another way to get hired is to attend job fairs. Often, in our school district, people will be recruited and hired from a job fair before they even hire people that substitute for them. When in college, the attitude is that these are somewhat of a meat market kind of affair but the truth is that many people are hired from this forum. So make the effort to attend. Real Life Lesson #1 Getting Ready To Apply For A Job Organization is the key to Step 1. In many states, teaching positions are hard to find and you will be competing with education graduates from colleges all over your state and often other states for the positions that are available. So firstly, make a list of the top ten to twenty districts that you would love to work in. Then research these districts. Find out the name of the Personnel Director of each district. Find out about the school district (curricula, size of districts, schools within the district, etc.) This research will assist you when you make out your cover letters and resume. It will also help you to narrow the field down to those districts that you will expend the most energy. Where can you find this information? The library has resource books that list all of the school districts in your state and the administrators and board officials of each district. It also contains the addresses of where to mail to them. Another resource is real estate offices. They usually have the kinds of information that you need because they give school information to prospective homebuyers. The best place to get information about the district is from either the board office or from a few of the schools themselves. You can stop by the office of either place and say that you would like some information (newsletters sent to parents, etc.) about the district or school because you are interested in sending in a resume to them. They are flattered that you are considering them and your first foot is in the door. Don’t be discouraged if you are told that there won’t be any hiring in a particular school. Take the newsletter or information anyway. It will let you see what the district is emphasizing and will enable you to have inside information when sending your cover letter. All districts hire some teachers each year. It may as well be you. Once you have your top twenty picks, list as many more as you can. This second list is your B group. ORGANIZE your portfolio. If you do not yet have a portfolio, you need to gather examples of your work that can be shown to future employers. Make a scrapbook or loose-leaf binder which includes such things as: pictures of kids you’ve worked with, positive letters from parents that you received when student teaching, lesson plan examples that illustrate teaching concepts such as hands-on activities; multiple intelligence usage; rubrics of lessons taught; and anything that will show the person interviewing you that you are cognizant of the latest buzz words and concepts that are currently being used in education. (One nice aspect of this portfolio is that it helps you during an interview to relax as you “show and tell” about the things you’ve put in there. It’s a lot of work, and often interviewers will ask you to leave it for them to look at, but if you do get to explain what’s in there it’s great. You will really display your enthusiasm about the items inside and it will show what you know without answering a bunch of dry questions. It will also display your personality, sense of humor and spirit in an informal atmosphere.) The next part of organization is to get your cover letter and resume ready. These two items are your foot in the door. Try to make yours different from the hundreds of others that personnel will receive. It’s the first impression that they’ll have of you. The cover letter (I know you don’t want to hear this) should be personalized. That’s where your List A and List B and the research that you’ve done about the various districts comes in handy. To personalize the cover letter means that you ADDRESS IT TO THE PERSON IN CHARGE OF HIRING. You can do a model of “what” you want to say in general to all districts in Microsoft Word or WordPerfect, but you must have certain places in the model that can be directed at each district personally, too. For example if School District 1 is actively setting up new technology labs, in your cover letter you may say something like, “I am very interested in using technology in the classroom” or “If you are interested in a candidate that has technology experience, I would make a good contribution to your staff.…….” The secret is to tie in the information you’ve found out about the district to yourself and what you can offer. I have been on hiring teams before and that is one of the first things that people notice about cover letters. Does the person want the job enough to individualize the cover letter? Is the person willing to do the extra work necessary to find out the name of the person hiring or is it just a blanket “form letter?” Those willing to work on this part of getting a job will get hired much faster because they will already prove that they are willing to work. For your LIST B you can choose not to personalize the content, but I still advise addressing it to someone other than, “To Whom It May Concern” or “Dear Personnel Director.” THE RESUME No other professional allows you to be as creative as possible, except the profession of teaching when making a resume. The resume that you design should stand out as interesting and unique. Although colleges today emphasis a business-like approach to any professional resume, teachers are granted immunity from this requirement. It is perfectly acceptable to send the one page, front display of limited information, resume type. It is also acceptable to do more. My personal resume was a folder type. On the front, I had an apple logo with my name and address on the front. Inside, I had a two page resume. I also used a nice, sturdy stock paper and received many compliments about how it stood out from the others. When applying for a job that may have hundreds of resumes sent in, it’s a good way to draw attention to yours. Do keep in mind that it must still be professional in set up and format. I don’t advise drawing attention by doing it in black or hot pink paper but professionally creative is definitely a plus. When my son was applying for accounting jobs out of college, it pained me to read the book resources available on setting up resumes for accounting jobs. Most of them emphasized using the front-page format. It worked and he got a job. But then I looked all through the resume resource books available at the bookstores and found that there weren’t any available for teachers. There should be because it is a unique profession and people using the books published for other professions as models will find their resumes in a pile of others rather than singled out. Once you’ve set up and finished the cover letters and resumes, mail them! I recommend that you use a clasp-type envelope that will keep your papers unfolded. The neater the presentation (and sometimes the bigger the folder on the personnel person’s desk) the better the chances that it will stand out from the others. If after mailing the resumes, you haven’t heard from the district in a couple of weeks, do call. It’s a good idea to follow up and ask if they have received your packet. This also is a step that may be one step further than others have made and someone that you talk to might be impressed enough by your initiative and desire to work there that they may pull your file up to the top. It is not pushy! It is positive assertiveness at its best. Selling yourself is an important part of the process. So….. Once the resume and cover letters are finished and sent, you can relax and wait for phone calls to invite you for an interview. That will be my next topic for the elementary graduate, The Interview. This review is a milestone for me. My 100th review! It is also part of a "Back to School" Write-off which included myself, braggio, chickenyell, irishma4, kinganamort, krissiellz, mady1,magenta321, mattjoe, nylawgirl, shan1, and smussyolay. I hope you'll read and enjoy!  |
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