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I just passed my Generalist 4-8 exam and now it's time to look for a job. I have applied to several districts since Monday and was wondering if anyone had any idea when I should start hearing back from school districts? Does it take a while for them to contact applicates? I know that the holiday is coming up, but I am really itching to start the interview process. Also, I'm coming from the finance industry, so if anyone has any interview tips that school districts may ask in an interview, I don't want to be unprepared.
A little background..I'm in the DFW area, I live in Dallas and I have my MBA and a BA in Business Information Systems.
don't mean to sound rude, but please run a search for teaching on this forum and Dallas and TX and any other metro area and you will find a host of posts about your questions...
and the fact that you are what is called an Alt-Cert, meaning you do not have a degree in education...
............
and the fact that you are what is called an Alt-Cert, meaning you do not have a degree in education...
Meaning unless the school is looking for your previous background to teach a specific subject, you are at the bottom of the totem pole when it comes to getting hired. Sorry, but that is just the way it is.
A lot of places that offer alt-cert courses are really just diploma mills looking to make a buck. Hope yours didn't cost too much.
don't mean to sound rude, but please run a search for teaching on this forum and Dallas and TX and any other metro area and you will find a host of posts about your questions...
and the fact that you are what is called an Alt-Cert, meaning you do not have a degree in education...
Meaning unless the school is looking for your previous background to teach a specific subject, you are at the bottom of the totem pole when it comes to getting hired. Sorry, but that is just the way it is.
A lot of places that offer alt-cert courses are really just diploma mills looking to make a buck. Hope yours didn't cost too much.
Thanks for NOTHING! Next time..Don't REPLY! And probably more than yours!
Thanks for NOTHING! Next time..Don't REPLY! And probably more than yours!
My doctorate is from a flagship state university, so yes, you probably paid more.
You asked the question, people on the forum are just trying to give you realistic answers. I think you are being very touchy, maybe feeling pretty vulnerable now.
and I think if you take that attitude into your interview, it will be pointless
if you read the information on the districts' hiring pages--they all probably say that IF you fit their hiring parameters, you will be contacted BUT they will not notify you that your information has been received, they won't notify you if you are not going to be getting an interview, and basically don't call us....we'll call you...
of course you don't have to take that sitting down...and many people won't..they will go to second level seeking...
you can send your resume/cover letter to any school that you think you want to teach at---hand deliver it if you want to and hope to get a personal contact/foot-in-the-door-remember my face-type of connection to build on
be advised that almost every ISD in this area takes vacation around this time of the year for two weeks--no principals will be in the office and the ad bldg will be either closed or working with skeleton staff--so there won't be anyone there to talk to...
check out web sites for districts that you emailed your app to and see what they say about summer vacation for admin people...some districts might take it middle of July but I doubt it...
some districts have hired for openings they knew about when school finished--most other districts are shuffling personnel around to fill gaps before they hire new people...
there may be openings that develop before school starts in August --but not as many as in years past IMO because they are going to be loading classes more heavily if at all possible--
once registration numbers have come in and principals see how many real students are likely to show up==they may have to open a new section...but the economy is still taking a toll and people are still moving around...
most job vacancies that do show up right before school starts are usually filled by people who have either been interviewed and passed over but that were good enough for an interview vs others who weren't
or people who happen to have their job packet on the principal's desk when the need shows up...
targets of opportunity...
you need to get real about what your situation is--
you are not the first person in it...and you won't be the last...
people have come to teaching from other fields for different reasons since the legislature listened to lobbyists for alt-cert programs and people in education who believe it is better to divide and conquer...
you are entering education in one of the worst, more competitive, most anxious year in the past ....say 15 yrs...that I can recall...districts are cutting back and shuffling teachers they are obligated to keep and programs they are obligated to staff when their funds are dropping significantly...
there are fewer teachers planning to retire because they are unsure about their pensions and there are more teachers NOT leaving their jobs to search outside education even if they are not very happy because there are even FEWER jobs in the real business world (which is usually the opposite of education)...and fewer teachers taking leaves to stay home with their kids because they are not sure their jobs will be there when they want to come back...
while you may have two great degrees--you don't have ANY experience teaching because you have not done any student teaching which is part of the college education program and you are REQUIRED to complete one year of full-time teaching to acutually complete your alt-cert certification...so if you don't get a job teaching basically you have wasted the time/money you have spent doing the alt-cert...
a district that hires teachers who are NOT certified--which you are not at this stage--gets a knock on its evaluation from the state...so it cannot afford to hire many alt-cert first year teachers...
so the state that says...sure, go ahead and create a program that will train people to teach who have a college degree but not in education...also whacks districts that hire those same people who need to complete their teacher certification for doing just that...go figure...just as conflicted as many other decisions made by the legislature...
most of the alt-cert programs spin a good tale of how many teaching jobs are out there and how teaching is the job market of the future--bogus...the job market they are talking about is someplace in their imagination--or maybe working for Kindercare...
most decent ISDs in TX don't really have a problem getting applications for their vacancies--most of them are innundated with enough from just the college graduates each year in TX to fill open spots--not to mention people moving in from other states, returning to teaching after taking time out to raise kids, or people in your situation who are trying to move from other employment to teaching...
the people who run the alt-cert programs don't tell you that you are the bottom of the hiring ladder unless you happen to have an entre into the hiring process---you or your parents or your best friend have contacts within the hiring community of principals or human resource people which let you network an interview...they don't want to tell you how few people in their programs actually got hired in the past 2-3 years because no one would sign up for their programs if they were truthful...
if that sounds rude and cruel--it is also pretty accurate...
there are some people who will get jobs this year--some of them will even be alt-cert people looking for their first job--but my gut tells me that most of them will either have special credentials--like being a special ed person--or with background that will fit a niche--like maybe a coaching slot or newpaper sponsor--or they know someone...
it is not that you don't have the potential to be a good teacher or the desire to understake the demands of the job...but that you will have a very difficult time actually getting the opportunity to explain that to someone in position to hire you...
I happed to know someone who was elementary teacher in Mansfield who got disheartened/burnt out with her job after she had one child ---she left before she had her second to take job outside education but because she had only experience IN elementary education, she was not able to get more than like a secretarial type of job...
then they had a second baby..they needed more money than her other job could provide because of day care costs more than anything...so she called her old principal who is at a new school who had ONE vacancy on the 6th grade level...and offered her the job...my understanding was that was the only opening at that time...and it went to someone the principal had worked with before and knew to be a good teacher...
so she did her application after she got the job offer to make it legal so to speak...
that is how people are getting teaching jobs this year...
You never know. Go out and put in your applications. Go ahead and email principals at schools you were interested in. I understand that Math and Science are areas of great need so I would definitely market accordingly. I know that several districts are still in the hiring stages. I have had calls from Plano ISD, Garland ISD, Coppell ISD, to name a few. If you have an eye catching cover letter, a great portfolio, or some areas of expertise (like technology) you may just get some interviews. If you have any connections, I would definitely call them and ask for their advice and even their help. I wish you all the best.
The good news for you is that the highest number of vacancies/most difficult positions to fill for teachers with a generalist cert tend to be in the 4-8 category. The bad news is that most school districts are looking for very specific subject matter positions to fill. You will undoubtedly hear something from some districts in the next month or so, but keep in mind that most teachers have contracts that allow them up to a certain date (usually in mid-July) to resign. Therefore, a lot of schools may not know exactly what positions they have open yet or are not able to fill them even though they may begin the interview process. The teaching field is wide open in some ways because so many teachers are leaving - the cons just outweigh the pros to teaching in TX right now. But with all the difficulties school districts have had around here lately with budgets and having to lay off teachers, I imagine there are a good number of teachers with experience out there who don't have jobs and are looking right now which means you may be hard-pressed to find anything before the school year starts.
A few things you might want to think about - a generalist cert won't get you in the door very easily. Once you are completely certified, you can take other content area tests without having to have a certain number of college hours, etc. I highly recommend that you find a content area you are comfortable with that isn't already flooded (history, for example, is a common cert and it is hard to get a history position, while math or special ed on the other hand are high need areas and something I would recommend trying to get), study hard and test out so you can add specific content areas to your resume. I would also highly recommend getting the ESL add-on cert as ESL teachers are in high demand just in the general classroom. You don't actually have to be interested in teaching ESL itself, they just want that skill set. I know when I left Grand Prairie, they were encouraging EVERY teacher to get certified in ESL regardless of content area. It looks good on your resume, is a fairly easy test considering the general difficulty of all the other tests and is highly desirable to many school districts.
Interview tips:
Learn all you can about classroom management - get "The First Days of School" by Harry Wong. It's a great summary of what good classroom management looks like and you are sure to be asked questions about discipline/classroom management. This book outlines the type of situations/answers you should give in an interview as this is the type of classroom management expected. And learn to talk about discipline in positive ways - that is what principals/HR want to hear. How to motivate students and keep your classroom from becoming chaotic without lots of negativity.
If you passed your generalist exam, you know the kind of PC answers they are looking for when it comes to how to teach - scaffolding and such. You need to make a list of specific situations that could come up in a classroom and how you would approach each issue. You should think about everything ranging from how to teach content to classroom management. If you can answer a situational question on how you would handle something, that will go a long way in an interview.
Finally, think of any time you've ever worked with kids and again write down specific ways you have handled a variety of situations in the past - be it at a church function that you volunteered for or just dealing with the next door neighbor kids who were being difficult. Whatever you can think of - if you have personal experiences to draw from and use as examples, you will be in better shape showing that you have experience with kids even if it is not necessarily in the classroom.
Google teacher interview questions - you can find a lot of stuff out there to help you prepare. Have answers to questions on discipline and how to teach ready when you walk in the door. Also, if you are interviewing for a 4th or 5th grade position, you definitely need to be well-read and understand whole reading and the other reading programs out there and see what the district you are interviewing in uses. If the district uses a certain program or design, they are going to expect you to know about it coming in to an interview and be able to tell them how you would apply it successfully in a classroom. The TAKS, of course, is the biggie and you need to be able to convince them that you are ready to prepare your students to pass it.
Hope that helps some! Hang in there. Eventually someone will hire you if you stick it out long enough. You may have to teach in a less than desirable school to get some experience, but it is such a tough field to survive in these days that there are bound to be openings eventually.
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and now it's time to look for a job
. I have applied to several districts since Monday and was wondering if anyone had any idea when I should start hearing back from school districts? Does it take a while for them to contact applicates? I know that the holiday is coming up, but I am really itching to start the interview process. Also, I'm coming from the finance industry, so if anyone has any interview tips that school districts may ask in an interview, I don't want to be unprepared.
