I was offered a position at a school today teaching my desired grade level (4th). If you have been following my posts, this was one of the 2 interviews I had the other day and this one I felt REALLY good about overall after the interview. No trauma following this interview. I know all to well not to get too overly excited until "the contract" is signed. Although we don't have contracts here, just email confirmation, and since I'm transferring within the school system it's a bit more click and accept. But I had to share that information because I'm very excited by this offer and moving on from the "trauma" I experienced in my last school. I do have a few other interviews I did this past week I should hear from so I'm wondering how I should respond if they call to offer me a position? I wouldn't take any of those offers over this one. But I don't want to close any options down should this offer God forbid not go through.
Congratulations! Unfortunately, if you receive other offers from backup schools, I don't think you can leave any of them hanging while you wait to close the deal on this one. Sometimes you have to just take a leap of faith and hope for the best. If you're really afraid that this one could fall through, then I'd keep applying elsewhere in the meantime. But, you can't really tell a school, "Thanks, but you're my backup. I already have an offer that I want over yours. I'm just waiting to close the deal. If it falls though, I'll get in touch." I mean, you can say that, but they'd probably want to rescind their offer after you do. What you could do is contact the HR department at this school and let them know that you have received other offers and want to close the deal with them. Maybe they'll hurry things up for you if they know you have others who want you, too. Personally, I'd just turn down any other offer that would be considered a back-up and hope for the best.
I think you can tell them you have another offer and would like a couple of days to decide. This process shouldn't take very long, right?
Yeah I think the leap of faith is just something I have to believe in. I got burned once a few years ago where I accepted a position gave my 2 weeks notice as it was already September and then they said oh someone on the board wants the P to interview her niece for the position. Obviously I didn't get it and then wound up unemployed. I know this time is different as I'm transferring in house so there will be no loss of a position but I just REALLY don't want to return to my current (soon to be former) school.
Congratulations! I would think since all the schools are in district, that as soon as you accept one, the other schools will know. If you get another offer before you click and accept this one, simply say you would like time to think about it.
They called you on a Saturday? When you accepted, did they tell you what the next step was and when? I wouldn't worry about what if you get any offers from your other interviews. They haven't called you yet. I had 2 offers with contracts waiting to be signed from 2 different schools last summer. I dragged one contract out for like a week waiting to hear from the other offer. I was paranoid for sure but it worked out in the end.
Yes on Saturday. The P originally called Friday morning and left a message but when I tried to call the school back nobody answered. I know all the next steps but it's possible that things will take a week as the P isn't back at the school until next Monday. I know I need to and should just send out withdrawal of my candidacy emails to a few schools.
The principal will be back tomorrow or the monday of the week after? Isn't HR responsible for the next steps though. I wouldn't withdraw any applications because you have not signed anything yet. I would withdraw when I at least signed a letter of intent.
Next week Monday the 17th. HR is and isn't responsible for the next steps. The P has to put in the request and do some stuff to appoint me. Then central/HR handles the rest by updating the computer and my file. From being on these boards a long time I realize NYC does things a little differently than other places because it's such a large system. I almost never dealt with HR except when I first got hired to make sure all my paperwork was in. Usually the school secretary and the P handle most things HR handles in other places.
Congratulations! That is very exciting! Can you share some of the questions they asked you? It seems like you had a lot of interviews and could share your experience in detail.
Honestly with the 10 or so interviews I had there's a lot of questions. Most were the same and each interview felt like it blended with each other. Plus I feel like a lot of the questions asked are things that came second nature so I didn't have to really think about how to answer them except the one question of "Why do you want to leave your current job?" But here are the ones I remember: What is your methodology to teaching? What is your philosophy of teaching? What coteaching models do you use? How do you support ELL's in your classroom? Tell me about a time a child was disruptive, what did you do? What are some behavior management strategies you have implemented? How do you use data to drive instruction? If you disagreed with a coworker in a meeting would you say something or keep it to yourself? How do you deal with a difficult coteacher? If you're teaching a lesson and in the middle you realize the students didn't understand it what did you do? What piece of feedback did you receive but were resistant to follow? What are your strengths and weaknesses? How do you build classroom community/culture? How do you incorporate technology into your lessons? If you got the position what would be the first 3 things you would do to get ready for the school year? What do you think you could bring to your grade level team and what do you think you could learn from them?
