so, that's taken care of... sorta

yesterday morning i got all gussied up and went to a screening interview with the DOE. this was not an interview for a particular spot in a particular school, it was more like getting the general gist of you as a person to complete your DOE application. except that it wasn't really. i told seb the night before, that the only concerns i really had about the interview were that i looked professional enough and that i didn't smell like dog. the rest was going to be a breeze, after going through three classes to get my maed and coming fresh from plenty of teacher-talk conversations. i'd even gone on some websites to see some interview tips for teacher jobs. the thing was , in the interview, the lady didn't ask me any of the questions i expected her to, like strengths, weaknesses, history working with kids, why i want to teach, blah blah blah... it was all situational, highly structured stuff, like 'what would you do if a parent wanted to talk to you about their daughter's special talents but you only observed average performance in class.' not only that, but it was like they were looking for a specific attitude in your answer, and were checking off how you scored. if the lady heard what she wanted to hear quickly, she'd cut me off midsentence and move on to the next question. i don't think i did badly, but i know i would have done better if i'd known what to expect, and i feel like i was only able to present the tiniest slice of my abilities, philosophies and experiences. hopefully, when/if principles call for positions, that interview will provide that opportunity. the problem is that the lady said (despite prevelant rumors to the contrary) that there were no current science positions open. i'm not that surprised, but i was hopeful. she told me though that there was a middle school math position open i could try for... based on my tutoring in math at the juvie center... great in terms of getting a job (if i was the one hired)... not great in terms of setting up a career in science teaching, it's hard to switch departments once you're there, and i have to do my student teaching next year in science to get certified in it. so, it's looking like after all this, i'll substitute until student teaching, get that done, and then look for a midyear position again next year. if there was a position for science at the beginning of next school year, and that school and my school let me defer my student teaching, i'll do that to snag the spot... we'll just have to be patient and see!