Finding a Job!

Finding a job is what many first year educations students are worrying about, myself included. I know this feeling will only increase as I enter my second year of education. I think it is good to be aware of this, rather than being naïve and assuming getting a job will be easy, when the reality is, many of us will not.

One thing that I feel I can be doing right now is subbing and volunteering to get my name out in different schools. If a job does not come open for me my first year out of school I will more then happy to substitute teach and gather ideas from different teachers.

I really liked in class the other day how you mentioned cover letters and how you feel that your one cover letter got you an interview and potentially the job. I would have never of thought to work an analogy into my cover letter, but once you mentioned it I thought it was the best idea! Anything that sets you apart from the rest is going to help you in the long run.

I really found today’s class beneficial, we could have easily done a whole week on this topic!! The six points you mentioned that will most likely show up during a job interview were, classroom management, assessment, curriculum, working with parents, philosophy of education, and lesson planning. I agree that all of these are extremely important and as was mentioned in class all of the potential candidates being interviewed are going to know the answers to these areas. I feel that in order to stand out you need to find away to stick in their minds. In my view, this is finding unique ways to build strong parent-teacher relationships and it is something that I am going to stress during interviews. I also believe that your philosophy of education is going to set you apart from other candidates. For example, in my philosophy the classroom set up is something I highlight. I believe that it is part of my preventive discipline. The thing that I feel I will have to practise is being confident. I am a confident person, but when I am nervous or in this case want to find a job with everything in me I am going to put a lot of pressure on myself.

            Jackie, I just wanted to conclude by saying I had a wonderful year with you. I looked forward to coming to your class everyday and found I got so much out of it. Your assignments challenged me and made me think outside of the box. I can honestly say that the assignments I completed in Classroom Management and Professional Teacher I will use and I know they are going to help me find a job! So, thank-you. I really hope that I am able to have a diverse career such as yourself.

WestCAST

I have to be honest I was a little hesitant of presenting at WestCAST. I pictured a group of people presenting to a large group of people in the gym and it overwhelmed me! However, after attending and presenting my opinion is completely different. I had such an amazing time and I learned a lot. I cannot image the work you and some of the other professors must have done to make it a success.

One session that I attended was on engagement. The presenter was extremely knowledgeable in her field and successfully taught how to get students engaged. Her ideas included rewording things so that students are excited to learn. Place assignments in envelopes so that gets are curious as to what their assignment is and build up that anticipation, then they can’t wait to rip it open and see what it is. Turn things into a game, so that it seems fun for students and they feel as though they aren’t forced to learn from you (this feeling depends on the grade). Finally teach with enthusiasm and passion, so it transfers into their learning.

Another session that I went to was all about rubrics and evaluation. She emphasized the importance of rubrics for assessment. She believed it was important to make a student friendly rubric and go over it with the class so that they can understand what is expected of them. That way the assignment is set out in advanced and the grades are recorded fairly. Many of us at the session felt that we would have loved the session to be long, because we were learning so much.

My favourite part of the event was presenting. Everyone wants to be there and they are excited to hear your ideas and I found that to be an extremely positive feeling. The sessions that I went to I learned a lot at and know I will incorporate the ideas into my teaching. I feel as though I got a lot out of conference and I know others did as well!