Teaching

10 Tips to Land a Teaching Job

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Whether you're looking for your first teaching job or you're veteran teacher, these tips to land your next teaching job will help you prepare and ace your next interview! #teaching #teacher #interview #tips #jobs

Searching for a job can be stressful and time-consuming. When I graduated college in winter of 2014, my plan was to substitute teach for the remainder of the school year in a few schools I was interested in teaching in. I happened to find a paraprofessional job at the end of February and worked as a parapro in a first grade classroom for the rest of the school year. In the summer I taught summer school at the same school district. I would love to say that helped me find a teaching job right away, but it didn’t. What it did do was give me experiences in different grade levels that helped me figure out what grade I wanted to teach, and were experiences that looked good on a resume. When I graduated,  there were hundreds of applicants for each teaching job that was posted in my area. Thankfully things have relaxed since then, but it took me a few years to get into a school district I could see myself in for the long-haul.  These are the tips I have learned through my experience looking for a teaching job over the years.

1. Look for jobs daily

Take a few minutes each day to check on the new job listings. In my experience, when a school knows that a teacher is leaving or retiring, they start posting the jobs as early as spring. Apply to the job early. Just because a posting is set to close at a certain date doesn’t mean that principals aren’t looking at applications and setting up interviews prior to then.

2. Go to job fairs

This is a great way to meet many people at once and there is a good chance that there will be principals and others that make hiring decisions there. Be sure to bring multiple copies of your resume that you can pass out to individuals you meet.

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Teaching

A Look Inside My Teaching Portfolio

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Hello! Today I wanted to share what I keep inside my teaching portfolio that I take with me to interviews. Just to share a little bit of background about me: after I graduated, I taught Head Start preschool for 3 years. Just last year I started my current {dream} job in Kindergarten. I love my current job, but it was a bit of a process to get there with a handful of interviews along the way.

Why have a teaching portfolio?

Over the past couple of years, I had some interviews and meet and greets in different local districts. The majority of interviewers did not ask to see my portfolio, but I was able to refer to it when answering specific interview questions. When creating your portfolio, think about what questions you may be asked in an interview and how you could use a portfolio to support your answer. For example, if you are asked how you communicate with parents, you could refer to your portfolio and show them the newsletter you send home and other documentation you use to communicate with parents. 

If you are interviewing for your first teaching job, use items that you created in your internship.

Want to create the perfect teaching portfolio? Use these methods and ideas to stand out! These have helped me land my DREAM elementary teaching job! #teaching #interview #education #elementary #school #raisingdawson

I choose to only have 5 sections to my portfolio

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Budgeting, Teaching

Got Ink? Color Printing on a Teacher’s Budget

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Save over 50% on ink using HP Instant Ink. Affordable Printing, Color Printing On a Teacher's Budget. #teacherbudget #colorprinting #classroomhacks #HPinstantink

This year I started my 4th year of teaching, and my 1st year teaching kindergarten in a new school district. My class was an add-on from the previous year, so I came into a brand new classroom that lacked a wide range of materials, especially for small groups. I know that materials take some time to acquire, but for the meantime, I needed to fill in the gap.

Pinterest has been such a great resource for finding activities and game, but my problem came when finding a cost effective way to print. I looked into sending items to Staples or Kinkos, but for the amount of materials I wanted to print in color on card stock paper, it would have cost hundreds of dollars. And driving to pick my prints up is inconvenient, especially since I prepare most of my materials at night after my son has gone to bed.

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Beauty, Teaching

Interview Makeup Tips

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Hello! I hope everyone had a fantastic weekend. Over the last year I have had a handful of job interviews and meet and greats with school districts. After you have prepared yourself for how you are going to answer common questions and you have researched the company a bit, the next part is preparing your look. I finally accepted my dream job as a Kindergarten teacher over the summer. 

Interview Makeup tips
 1. Allow extra time to get ready. Rushing to get ready in time is stressful and you don’t want to go into an interview flustered. Not only what you say is important, but how you look is important too. You only get one first impression.

2. Keep your makeup on the natural side. You don’t want your makeup to be a distraction. For my fav makeup, I used a medium coverage foundation with a Beautyblender and used a concealer to cover any blemishes and under my eyes. I used a light hand to apply a mauve toned blush and a light bronzer.  I made sure everything blended nicely into skin. 

3. For eye makeup, stay away from a dark smokey eyes and limit the amount of glittery/shimmery eyeshadows. I used neutral colors from my Tarte Maneater Palette to add a little bit of color to my lid and to contour to my crease. I applied black eyeshadow to my upper lash line and I blended a light brown eyeshadow on my lower lash line. I used an eyeshadow to highlight the inner corner of my eye as well. Apply a layer or 2 of non-clumping mascara. 

4. Be yourself. If you normally wear a red lipstick, go for it. I would stay away from anything too bright because it shouldn’t be a distraction. Make sure to exfoliate your lips the night before to prevent dry or flaky lips. I wore a nude- Mac’s Velvet Teddy.

5. For nail polish I used a light grey. I would avoid dark color polishes only because it is more noticeable if there is a chip. I painted them the night before and used a good top coat to avoid any chipping.

6. For my hair I curled it by wrapping it around a 1′ curling iron. I have been wearing my hair mostly natural, but curling my hair looks more polished and interview appropriate. Again, wear your hair in a style you will feel confident in.

Overall, the goal is for you to feel comfortable and confident with your look. Confidence will show when you are in your interview.

Good luck, Thanks for reading!

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