We can’t get through the day with0ut hearing about the economy.  Well, the bad economy has impacted education, specifically teacher hiring.  In some districts, hiring has been frozen. This weekend I spoke with a principal who said his hands are tied.  He can’t move on any hiring until this summer (when the District will release their budget).  This is extremely frustrating to principals who tend to want to wrap up their teacher hirings in April and May.  Its even more frustrating to aspiring teachers (job applicants) who are wondering when they will get an interview.

I asked the principal what his advice is to those teacher job applicants.  His advice was to ” keep being persistant.”  Here are some other ideas:

• Arrange to visit the school
• Talk with the school’s teachers
• Get (keep) your face and name out there
• Learn how to get your foot in the school door (read Road to Teaching: A Guide to Teacher Training, Student Teaching, and Finding a Job)
• Read other teacher interview/hiring strategies (Student teacher topics)
• Don’t give up!!!

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Interested in becoming a gym teacher?  Check out this post.  It referenced Road to Teaching: A Guide to Teacher Training, Student Teaching, and Finding a Job.

Excerpt from Road to Teaching: A Guide to Teacher Training, Student Teaching and Finding a Job

Another way of phrasing this question is, “How will you create a classroom environment that motivates your students?” You can take a number of approaches to answer this common interview question, such as: classroom management, learning environment, instruction, teacher and student relationship, and curriculum. One successful approach to answering this question is to address an overarching theme, such as establishing clear and high expectations for your students. Students will be motivated to learn and behave properly when they internalize the teacher’s expectations. For instance, if a student walked into your classroom on any given day

- Can the student expect a certain daily routine?

- Can the students expect to be treated fairly when discipline is used?

- Will the student know the overarching learning objective or essential question for a lesson?

- Can the student expect a curriculum that his challenging and relevant?

- Would an observer of your class see varied best-practice instructional strategies?

All of these provide an environment that encourages students to learn from you. In answering these questions try to create a visual picture for the interviewers of your classroom. In your depiction, explain how you set clear and high expectations from the start of class to the dismissal bell.

Road to Teaching is highlighted as a resource in the eHow article below.  Help continue to grow the web’s largest collection of teacher interview questions by sending in your interview questions to eric@road2teaching.com!

Interview Tips for Beginning Teachers | eHow.com.

Google Alerts can be a useful tool for current teachers and job seekers.  Google Alerts are email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your choice of query or topic.

Some handy uses of Google Alerts includes:

• monitoring current on education initiatives, trends, and reform, and
• keeping tabs on your school or schools (districts) that you would like to work in.  Knowing this information may give you an advantage over another job applicant.

Go to http://www.google.com/alerts to sign-up.

Road to Teaching offers helpful strategies on how to succeed at student teaching to landing a teaching job. This bestseller has great customer reviews and is available from Amazon.com and other reputable retailers!

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So Simple Sooo Helpful WOW, September 29, 2008

This book is a must have!! I always read reviews and consider what the reader says, well please believe me, When I say get the book. It is so simple to ready I couldn’t believe the insight it gives and tips for Students, Pre-service teachers and Student teaching. I highlighted and tagged pages. I am very pleased!! Eric did an awesome job on creating a book for the “unknowns” A lot of websites and examples, book references. Again a very great book for Teachers to be, get it early.

Good book to get you started, July 10, 2009

By	Laura (Tacoma, WA)

I bought this book right before my student teaching, and while I didn’t use it so much before my student teaching (despite there being a whole section dedicated to the pre-service teacher), it came in handy for what to expect during student teaching and what to do after. There is a website for the book that gives you extremely helpful information, such as the most asked interview questions, to help you prepare and land a job.

If you need some help with the unspoken “rules” of student teaching, or some tips to get a job, this book will help you. Establishing networks in bigger districts is a little harder to do, but those sections may work for smaller districts where there is only one high school, etc.

Great resource, July 5, 2008

By	Rob (Seattle, WA USA)

This book came in handy as a student teacher and when applying for teaching jobs. I appreciated the strategies on how to jump-start my student teaching on a positive note by creating relationships with my students and CT. Even though I have now completed my student teaching, I will continue to use many of the book’s classroom management and discipline tips in my own classroom, such as the question & answer box and bellnote activity. I recommend this to any student teacher.”

Pick up your copy today!