The rose in this case is Matt's prospective promotion. Things are looking up. I won't go into detail, as I'd hate to jinx anything, but we are much more optimistic about things today. =)
The thorn would be the fact that my interview at Stevenson didn't go very well. I feel like I stumbled over my words and rambled on too much. I probably seemed overly eager, since it was my first public school interview in Illinois. I also don't think the specific examples I gave for some of the scenarios (curriculum development?!) were that great.
It was definitely a learning experience. Now I know to prepare answers for strategies for creating harmony among team members (I actually did ok with that question, but I could always do better!), curriculum development, example lessons involving differentiation (I kept using the same example! argh!), file management/organization (I explained I deal with that every day because my current job is administrative in nature, but it was hard to think of specifics on the spot, so I need to practice), and my strengths/weaknesses (I always feel like I could do better on this one!). This is not to say I totally bombed the interview, but I feel like I need to work on adding more substance to my answers here. I have a tendency to remain general, even though I could talk in specifics about education all day. I just get nervous and ramble. =(
Sometimes I think about leaving teaching for two years to start our family, but I honestly don't think I could do it. I love it too much. Whether I'm still at Ombudsman or working in an ESL classroom next year doesn't matter, as long as I'm doing what I love in some capacity.
3 comments:
The easiest trick about differentiate is to remember: PCP!
Or, rather, you can differentiate by process, content, or product. Meaning, you can teach the same thing and kids will either have differentiated WAY of learning (process), differentiated texts/materials for learning (content), or differentiated way of demonstrating mastery (product).
Differentiated Instruction seems to have a million different definitions, but I find that PCP works every time. I've taken five workshops and teach Diff. Inst. training at my school and I always say - take the PCP!
I'll keep my fingers crossed for Matt's promotion.
If anything the interview was a great learning experience and now you know what you can work on for your next one. The first one is always hard.
Oh I forgot to ask..did we get a new layout? Cuz I think something looks different around here!
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