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By December 30, 2008 at 10:48 PM

Teachers are invited to join many professional organizations. Should you join or not? Only you can answer that definitively, but here are a few thoughts I have. The two largest general teacher organizations in the U.S. are the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). Both these organizations are sometimes referred to as “unions” or “the union.” AFT is affiliated with the AFL-CIO and is, in fact, a union. Chances are that one of these organizations has a chapter in the district where you teach or will teach and represents local teachers in the collective ...
Teaching Profession

By December 22, 2008 at 1:40 PM

About a year ago, I wrote an entry for this blog on holiday tips for the job seeker. One thing I mentioned was using the post-holiday sales for wardrobe development, both for teaching and for interviewing. This topic, however, has nothing to do with retail shopping. Instead, I refer to what I call “job shopping.” The fall Education Interview Day at our institution was a couple of weeks ago. I overheard an administrator exclaim to an interviewing “candidate,” “I hired you last week!” The candidate shared that she, indeed, had been hired by the administrator’s district, but had been ...
Job Offer

By December 9, 2008 at 11:38 AM

When sitting on the sidelines, it is easy to second guess the coach’s play calling. But, when you’re put into the position of making the calls yourself, you quickly find out it’s not as simple as it looks. The same is true when you become an administrator, decisions that looked like “no brainers”, are not so clear cut when you’re the one that has to make the call. So, how do you know if becoming the “coach” is the best career move for you? Here are some ways you can find out if moving into administration ...
Professional Development

By December 1, 2008 at 2:25 PM

A special education job candidate came up to me at a job fair not long ago and said with a huge smile, “I didn’t think that anyone besides my mother could love me this much!” At the same job fair, I encouraged job candidates in social studies, elementary education, and health and physical education to not take the disinterest of school district representatives personally. Of course, these candidates had been warned when they declared their major that their job search would be extremely competitive; now they were experiencing the challenge of finding a job in an area of teacher ...
Job Market

By November 19, 2008 at 11:10 AM

You got the call! After investing hours in the job search, a prospective employer has called to invite you for an interview. You’ve prepared for this moment by researching the district’s website, reviewing sample interview questions, participating in a mock interview, and developing questions to ask the interviewer. However, when the caller indicates that you should plan to teach a ten-minute lesson, your anxiety level escalates. As you graciously thank the caller for the upcoming interview and opportunity to teach a lesson, your inner voice is screaming, “Where do I start?!” First of all, don’t panic. You’re...
Interviews

By November 13, 2008 at 8:52 AM

We live in an online world, and you have chosen a public profession – a potential precarious combination. Online social networking sites provide education majors and teacher candidates a challenge to balance online activities with the realities that just about everything in the life of a teacher is public. A recent survey of employers by NACE (National Association of Colleges and Employers) revealed that 29% of the employers use social networking sites as part of their recruitment effort, an increase from 17% the year before. An unflattering online presence can lead to a job candidate being removed from the employment consideration. ...
Job Application

By November 6, 2008 at 2:46 PM

How much time are you prepared to spend on your job search? A few hours a week? A few minutes a day? Well, those who have been successful with their search tell us that it took 6-8 hours a day for many weeks before they obtained the job offer they were seeking. A job search is like a full-time job, reviewing job posting sites, attending job fairs, making phone calls, filling out applications, mailing resumes, sending e-mail messages and keeping good records. Just finding the teaching opportunities that match with your license will take many hours. This will require research ...
Job Search

By October 30, 2008 at 11:59 PM

You start the year with high hopes. The interview went well, and the job (or student teaching placement) sounds ideal. Sometimes your expectations are realized, and the fit is perfect. Sometimes, though, it is not. How does this happen? I wish that I could say that every job that LOOKS good IS good. Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case. What goes wrong? It may be one of the following: • You looked at the job idealistically, rather than realistically. When we want something very badly, we tend to see only the highlights and overlook the drawbacks. • You didn’t do ...
In the Workplace

By October 21, 2008 at 8:52 PM

As you begin to transition from your military service, there is a way that you can continue to “Be All that You Can Be,” and “Aim High,” and still “Be Part of the Action,” as you “Let the Journey Begin,” as one of “The Few, The Proud,” become a teacher. If you are considering making a career change into the teaching profession, know that teaching is not just another job and that teaching is not for everyone. Teaching is a career in which you are able to make a difference in our youth and children, society and the world. Keys ...
Teaching Profession

By October 16, 2008 at 9:08 PM

“When I was in high school, I made a really stupid mistake. I went to a party and all my friends were drinking, so I did, too. I had a curfew, and I knew that my parents would worry if I didn’t get home on time, so I drove – even though I shouldn’t have. I hit a car, and the investigating officer smelled alcohol on my breath. The bottom line is that I was charged with a DUI. It’s a felony in our state. My dream, since I was in third grade, was to be a teacher. ...
Teaching Profession

The opinions expressed in Career Corner are strictly those of the author(s) and do not reflect the opinions or endorsement of Editorial Projects in Education, or any of its publications.

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