On February 7, 2014, the 8th grade at my school completed their first two week “Winterupt” experience. We pushed hard for the opportunity to do this—basically taking two weeks off from regular classes to do school differently (and better!). It has been a ton of work over the last year, but thanks to my incredible colleagues, we pulled it off successfully. (Despite school closures throwing all our plans into disarray.)

During the first week students were immersed in their foreign language. (I don’t have any media here to illustrate that week yet because while they were doing that, I was with the design thinking team madly working out our plans for the second week. I’m hoping to dig something up from the language team.) During the second week, students engaged in a design thinking challenge where they re-imagined the playground space outside the middle school. The short movie below was thrown together by a colleague from some photos during the first few days of the project. The slide show includes a picture of each model (built from start to finish in two days!) along with the team’s mission statement.

The design process:

The final models/prototypes:

Overheard a snippet from a student passing in the hall yesterday, said with gusto:

That was like the BEST flow of words ever!

I often work late at school and my desk is somewhat out of sight so I sometimes overhear students talking about things Not Meant for Teacher Ears. Usually this merely piques my anthropological interest. Occasionally, however, I overhear something that requires intervention. Or not. Consider a recent incident:

My grading trance is interrupted by an unknown boy saying sarcastically to another, “Your hair looks like Ethiopia!” Sigh… I’m not sure what this means, but it can’t be good — somewhere on the spectrum from ignorantly inappropriate to overtly racist. The student repeats it, louder, “Seriously, your hair looks like ETHIOPIA!” The other student makes an unintelligible, but baffled-sounding response, while I get up and head to the commons with my stern face. As I round the bend, he repeats it a third time, “Your hair really looks like Ethiopia…” I’m surprised to see a seventh grader who didn’t strike me as the type to say this sort of thing — he’s a sophisticated, culturally sensitive boy. I open my mouth, preparing to Summon him to a Conversation, when he continues, “…see, it’s kinda round here and has a thing sticking out on the right, just like we learned in geography!” I close my mouth and they walk onward, discussing the shape of Ethiopia and other nearby countries.

It has been a great first week so far!  As I walk to and from school every day, I have time to really think about what I appreciate.  Here’s a partial list in no particular order:

• Walking to work every day (it’s about a mile, so not too far, but it lets me get my head on straight)
• Seven days of paid orientation, department meetings, and planning time before the first day of classes
• A week-long professional development conference for all new faculty about classroom management and how to run a fabulous advisory program
• Block schedule (fewer, longer classes)
• Recess and snack every day for all middle-schoolers!
• First day middle-school assembly was filled with laughter
• Canoeing down the Mississippi with the eighth grade on the third day of school!
• Conferences with advisees and their families on the fourth day of school
• I have only received two things in my physical mailbox since I started… everything else is handled via e-mail and various on-line tools.
• Delicious, healthy food at the cafeteria every day (for students and faculty)
• First faculty meeting had only one item on the agenda: discussing specific, individualized strategies for helping students who struggled last year get off to a good start
• Twice-monthly meetings with my principal already scheduled from now until May
• Did I mention recess and snack??!?!

This year I will be teaching eighth grade social studies at St. Paul Academy and Summit School in St. Paul, Minnesota.  I couldn’t be more thrilled… not only do I have a job, but I have a job that I’m really excited about!  Everybody I have met at SPA has been incredibly warm and welcoming.  (Aside: they pronounce each letter in the acronym, S-P-A, rather than pronouncing it as the word spa.) It’s hard to believe that just two weeks ago Sarah and I were considering the possibility of unemployment.  Moreover, we were fairly certain that if we did find jobs, they would be less-than-ideal… I was looking at some part-time tech jobs, Sarah was applying to every school in the state.

I have formally applied to only a few jobs in my life; typically I have worked at places where I was already a known quantity — any applications or interviews were just formalities.  This is partly because I tend to stick with jobs for a long time, but also because I have often found new jobs through a network of friends and colleagues.  In case I ever need to apply blindly for jobs again, I want to record the process I went through for this job.  If any blog readers are considering applying for jobs, perhaps you’ll find something useful here too.

Background

In late April, when I discovered that my California teaching credentials wouldn’t transfer to Minnesota, I was in a bind.  (For those who missed that newsflash, based on my undergraduate coursework I was only licensed to teach anthropology in Minnesota!)  All of my job hunting thus far had been aimed at the public schools (I naïvely assumed that my credentials would transfer), and I had been fairly confident that something would work out with a number of schools I had visited over spring break.  Suddenly, all of this work went down the drain.  With the master’s thesis deadline looming (and a zillion other things on the high priority to-do list) there was little time to research and apply to Minnesota private schools.

Enter Ken Simon and Anne Redmond.  Ken is a consultant based out of the Twin Cities who has been working with Oakland Unified for the past two years.  I had met him a number of times, but had no idea where he was from.  My principal, however, put two and two together and suggested that he talk to me.  He put me in touch with many of the public school principals that I met with over spring break and, after the licensing fiasco, recommended a number of private schools to consider, including St. Paul Academy where he had worked in the early ’90s.  Meanwhile Mark Redmond, an old friend from Oberlin, recommended that I contact his parents who both work at a private school in Minnesota.  His mother, Anne, was unbelievably generous with her time, giving me a long list of contacts at various schools and much useful advice.  Her many messages helped me proceed with confidence.  (Confidence is, I think, an intangible but essential ingredient of a successful job hunt.)

First Try

Based on Ken’s recommendation, I checked the St. Paul Academy website and saw a job listing for a high-school history position!  Dreamy!  I began by customizing my résumé.  I tend to tweak my résumé for each specific application.  All the versions (of which I have about a dozen) are largely the same, but I move bullet points around, emphasize certain things, change some references, etc.  In this case I think I emphasized my work with the Teaching American History Grant to showcase my commitment to teaching history.

Then came the cover letter.  Cover letters are quite painful for me.  I usually write a new one for every application, though sometimes I can recycle pieces of older ones.  In this case, I started from scratch.  In a relatively short letter (though I went over a page) I wanted to convey a lot:

• my passion for teaching
• my philosophy of education (or at least of history education)
• how my professional background qualifies me for the position
• how my personal background makes me a particularly good fit for the job

Finally, of course, I hoped that the letter would be a good example of my communication skills.  I was very aware that being a long-distant candidate would work against me, and that this letter would have to convince them to consider me for an interview.  (Sarah had been having a hard time landing interviews as a long-distance applicant — one principal even called to setup an interview and then changed her mind when she found out that Sarah was still in California!)  I spent four intensive days writing the best cover letter I could come up with.

On May 26 I submitted my application.  I continued my busy, busy life and waited.  On June 4, I received a very polite e-mail:

With so many superbly qualified candidates, we looked finally for the one whose background and qualifications gave us just the right “fit” for our exact needs. Although we were impressed with your experience, another candidate whose background is more closely suited to our current needs has been selected.

I knew it was a long shot, so I wasn’t surprised, but it was disappointing.

Second Try

I did, however, subscribe to the RSS feed from the job posting page at the school, just in case other jobs came up in the future.  Shortly after issuing my rejection letter, they posted the middle school social studies position.  (I have since learned that the high school position was filled internally by one of the eighth grade teachers, which opened up the middle school spot.)

SPA seeks candidates for the one year position of Middle School Social Studies Teacher.  The position is a .80 FTE and begins August  2010.  Candidates should possess the ability to teach social studies in the Middle School with an emphasis on 20th century history, predominantly American history, and current events. Candidates must also have experience working with students in an advisory capacity and demonstrate an understanding of the social and emotional needs of this age group.  Candidates should support the mission of SPA and the vision of the Middle School, and should be able to contribute to the life of the School outside of the classroom.

This time it was much easier to get things ready for the application.   I made a few minor tweaks to my résumé and spent an evening revising and polishing my cover letter, mostly to add language describing my advisory role at Bret Harte.  The final versions, submitted on June 14, are linked from the thumbnails below (private contact information about me or my references has been removed).

Then, once again, it was a waiting game.  Luckily this was the last week of school at Bret Harte, so I had plenty to distract me.

On Monday, June 21, I received a phone call from the principal of the middle school.  She was very friendly and invited me in for a first-round interview.  To my great relief, she barely skipped a beat when I told her that I was still in California, and suggested that we do a Skype interview on-line.  Yay!

Skype Interview

The interview was scheduled for early Wednesday morning, June 23, with the hiring committee.  This left me about a day to get ready.  I received a lot of useful advice from friends about how to prepare, particularly regarding the specifics of an on-line interview.  I tested the camera on my laptop and chose a location with good light and nothing too distracting in the background.  I tested a Skype connection with my brother to make sure it was working, and practiced looking into the camera instead of at the screen to have better eye-contact. I also spent time with Sarah practicing some typical interview questions, particularly the tricky ones like “What’s your biggest weakness?”

Meanwhile, Yoni suggested that I send the principal a virtual portfolio with some materials that I might want to discuss during the interview — the electronic equivalent of having some handouts to pass out.  I spent most of Tuesday combing through my files to find a representative sample of my best materials.  (In addition to being brilliant, Yoni’s suggestion was prescient, since the principal contacted me later on Tuesday saying it would be helpful if I could pass along some curriculum materials to help the committee assess my teaching!)  Late that afternoon I sent along my portfolio, including a class syllabus, a sample six-week lesson plan, a PowerPoint presentation, a selection of graphic organizers, and a few example assignments.  In the e-mail cover letter I described each file and my rationale for including it.

At 8:30 Wednesday morning I sat in front of my laptop, in my wedding suit (which I would never wear to school, of course), feeling very professional.  The interview began on-time at 8:30 on Wednesday.  The hiring committee included the principal, the dean of diversity, the chair of the history department, and the other 8th grade social studies teacher.  They were all present for the Skype interview, but each took a turn in front of the camera, asking questions (so that way I could see the person I was talking to clearly).  The interview was, fundamentally, a blast.

In-Person Interview

The next step was a flight out to Saint Paul to visit the school and interview in-person.  I paid for the flight, but SPA covered my hotel.  I was exhausted during the visit, but it was immediately apparent that the school was a good fit. Everybody I met was impressive and asked exactly the sorts of questions that I would have wanted to ask a potential colleague. The mood was less “interview” and more “talking about education.” The specifics are already blurry (I didn’t get enough sleep the night before) but there were few questions about curriculum or classroom management, and nothing about standards or testing. They were interested in my general philosophy of education and we talked a lot about how the emotional and developmental needs of children must be addressed in order for authentic learning to happen. I felt a little bit like I had died and gone to teacher heaven. (Remember, I was written up last year for allowing my students to have a farewell party for their student-teacher.)

At lunch I realized that they were as hopeful that I would accept the job there as I was that they would offer it to me–not a bad situation!

Finale

I signed the contract.

I’m still pinching myself.