My very own classroom!

I want to share the story of how I got position with Dayton School District, so here goes nothing:

The Background:

The story actually begins back in July when I interviewed at with Columbia School District in Burbank. It was a really great interview, and I must have really impressed the superintendent. While I didn’t get that position, the connections I made at that interview brought the Dayton School District position to me.

On August 2^nd, Dayton found out that their high school teacher had accepted a position in Walla Walla and wouldn’t be returning. This left the administration more than a little nervous because they had less than a month to post the position, interview, and hire a new teacher. Doug Johnson, the superintendent, sent out emails to his superintendent friends asking if they knew of any good candidates for the position. Lou Gates, the superintended of Columbia SD, responded to Doug’s email and gave him my contact information.

The Call:

I had gotten two emails from EWU that day advertising the position, and I ignored them both because Dayton wasn’t on my job hunt radar. Well, Doug called and left me a message that night while I was in the shower. When I listened to the message, I realized that I had to consider my options. Lou Gates, who had only met me for an hour in an interview, was giving my contact information to another superintendent; that is kind of a big deal. I’m a first year teacher, fresh out of school, and my first thought was that if a superintendent is calling me because he got my name from another superintendent, the least I could do was call him back to see what he had to say. So I called.

Within five minutes of talking to him, I knew I liked him. He is from Odessa, his wife works at a grain elevator, and he knows a lot of people I worked with while student teaching, including both of my master teachers. Can you say fate? Here I was two months from being jobless, hating my desk job, and wishing that I had a classroom so I could do what I love to do, and all of a sudden, the perfect district (minus the 63 miles and hour in the car) is calling me and asking if I still need a job. Can you say, YES! After talking to him, I knew I had to give it a shot. The only thing stopping me was the distance, but what is an hour in the car to do what I love to do? It’s nothing. So I applied the next morning.

I sent him an email on Wednesday with my application packet, and he responded with a thank you and an offer for a district visit. I wanted to try out the drive anyways, so I called him the next day and left a message asking him to call me back if I could come out for a district visit. The next day, Andy Maheras, the High School Principal, called and asked if I was still interested in visiting. I said I still was, and we scheduled a visit for Tuesday, August 9^th.

The District Visit:

Tuesday, I headed out to Dayton. I got there in about an hour, and I met with Andy. We sat down in his office first, and he asked me to tell him a little about myself. All of a sudden, I felt like I had showed up unprepared to an interview. I started at the beginning  and explained that I was from Connell, a small town like Dayton, played volleyball, drove wheat truck during harvest for three years, went to Eastern, student taught at Liberty High School, a district similar to Dayton School District, and was tired of my desk job and so excited about this opportunity. When I finished my spiel, he looked pretty happy about what I’d had to say. We talked about my thoughts on honors classes (took them, taught them, love them), the demographic of the school, how I felt about the fact that it is small and rural (perfect for this farm girl!), and the types of classes the new teacher would be teaching. Needless to say, the more we talked, the more excited I was. He told me that there were five candidates, and I had already been selected for an interview (yes!). After our short chat, he walked me around the entire district, introduced me to the teachers and administrators who were there, and after a total of 45 minutes, I left. The good thing was that Andy didn’t conjure up an imaginary meeting to escape me, so I had that going for me.

I got in the car and felt odd. I was excited about the opportunity, but the whole thing was too weird. A week and a day ago I’d accepted that I was stuck with desk job for the next year. Then I’d gotten a phone call, and here I was leaving the school that I might be teaching at in two weeks and trying really hard not to picture myself in the classroom I’d just seen. So I drove home, went grocery shopping, and tried to distract myself. I woke up on Wednesday morning and got in the car to drive to work. Half way through the drive, I got the best feeling. I just felt like everything was working out, the stars were aligning, and I was destined for this job. I know, bold thought for a first timer. He called on Friday to schedule my Tuesday interview, and I spent the next few days trying to figure out if I should start planning or not, go car shopping or not, go teacher clothes shopping or not, blah, blah, blah for a week. I probably drove poor Sam crazy. I would up just doing nothing. I slept a lot, and tried really hard not to think about what might happen. Then Tuesday came.

The Morning Of:

I woke up Tuesday morning, and I set right to work tweaking my portfolio, which was the best thing I could have done before that interview. (I’ll post a portfolio blog later because I’m realizing that this one is wayyyy too long!) I was so excited about all the stuff I did while I was student teaching. I was re-inspired by the stuff I kept finding. And, most importantly, those feelings and thoughts re-convinced me that I am a good teacher with great ideas who is ready for her first job. I was so excited after an hour of sorting through stuff that I knew I would go into my interview with all of the confidence to convince them that I was ready for this position.  So I finished my portfolio, showered, got ready, and headed out to convince a group of people that I was the BEST candidate for their open position.

The Interview:

I showed up early because my daddy taught me right. Doug Johnson was in his office, and my promptness gave me about 15 minutes to chat with him about Odessa, common friends, the wheat business, and how excited I was that he had called me. He wasn’t on the interview committee, but that was ok because he was just nice to talk to.

Andy came to get me, and asked me if I was ready. I replied yes. Then he asked me if I was nervous, and I said yes, but a good nervous and I just wanted to do well and I hoped that I could convince them that I was the right person for the job. He said he hoped so too. HELLO, IN! The principal was rooting for me, and now all I had to do was talk with a group of people about why I love teaching and am the best and most qualified person for their open position. I walked into a room of eight people all facing “The Hot Seat” as I called it when I walked in the room.

I set my bag down, Andy introduced me, and I walked around to each person, looked them in their eyes, and offered a firm handshake. Success tip for an interview: Shake their hands. I offered up my resume to everyone, which they accepted, and they sat and read over it for a few minutes. At about this point, I was really hoping there weren’t any typos! They did a round robin style questioning, and I did my best to answer each one and offer up an example for my portfolio. The progress went like this: They asked a question, I answered their question as completely as possible and then offered up something from my portfolio to show them that I wasn’t just making it all up. I think I probably passed around something for every question.

They asked about: standards-based lessons (thank you, EWU and all those dang PPAs!), plagiarism, student late work, lessons that actively involve all students, parent interactions, literature units, how to improve reading and writing, and a few more that I can’t remember. I’ll be honest: some of their questions didn’t make a lot of sense. I’m pretty sure there were at least two that I wasn’t quite sure what they were asking, but I made it work. I took what I thought the question was getting at, answered it, explained a situation or lesson, and offered up an example for my portfolio. I don’t know how people survive interviews without a portfolio. Seriously, it rocks! I had real things to show these people, and they looked like they were enjoying the interview. I passed around so much stuff that I apologized and asked if they wanted me to stop passing stuff around. They said no, keep passing it around, so I did. At the end, they asked me if there was anything I didn’t get to share that I wanted to. Uh..yes! I wrote a grant for new curriculum, which I have right here; I believe in data-driven instruction, and by the way, I have these spreadsheets that show I actually do it in class; I think education can be fun and challenging at the same time, here is a tabloid that my students created based on Romeo & Juliet; I believe in high expectations and that all students can learn; I have great ideas, I’m excited, and I really want this job because it is in a small, rural district that I would fit into perfectly. I passed around anything that I thought would help them make the decision, and, most importantly, I was candid, honest, and excited. I asked them a few questions about first year teacher success plans, how they track what students learn at each grade level, and what the next step in the hiring process was.

At the end, Andy thanked me for all the work and preparation I put in to the interview, said that that spoke volumes alone, and he told me they would have their decision made by Wednesday. I walked out of that room knowing that I told them everything I wanted to, that I was candid and honest throughout, and that if they didn’t chose me, then the person they picked was pretty kick-ass and totally deserved it.

After:

I left the interview room, talked to Doug Johnson in the office again, thanking him for the phone call, telling him how excited I was at the opportunity, and telling him that even if it didn’t work out it, it was great to meet him and interview at his district. Then I sat in my car and called people for half an hour…and saw the next candidate (a small, squirly, frizzy haired girl who the students would eat up) walk out, and I knew I at least had her beat. I drove the hour home, sat on the couch to tell Sam all about it, and then at 5:15 my phone rang. It was Andy, who said that my interview went really well and he wanted to offer me the position!! Can you say the best feeling in the ENTIRE world? He said that I did a really great job in my interview and they were all really excited about me. It is so nice to know that people want you to do what you love to do. I later learned that I was the only candidate one of the teachers who was on my interview committee had ever interviewed where the parents, teachers, board members, and administrators all unanimously agreed on who to hire without debate. 

The stars aligned, all my hard work paid off, and I am officially an educator. I decorated my first bulletin board last Saturday, wrote my first syllabus on Sunday, and I’ll face my first group of students (as a REAL teacher!) TOMORROW. I can’t get over how excited I am to be in this field, how perfectly everything worked out, and how grateful I am for this opportunity. It is so nice to go into my first job knowing that everyone is excited to have me, and I truly think that I am part of the perfect district.

Just one more thing: 

I am also coaching the 7^th grade volleyball team! When I graduated high school, I told everyone my goals were to teach high school English and coach volleyball. It is four short years later, and I can check them both off my list. It just keeps getting better, and I feel like I’m living the dream. Let’s hope the feeling is still there after my first week of teaching, coaching, and commuting!