How'd the Interview event go?

Well, so last Saturday (well, a week ago saturday- Feb 10) was my big Chicago Teaching Fellows interview event. i arrived at Clemente High School bright and early at 8:20 to sign in for the 9:00 start time. i lined up with more than a hundred other candidates, signed in, handed over copies of my official college transcripts, and sat in an auditorium nervously going over my 5-minute sample lesson mentally. went through the introduction, welcome, explanation of the day, and listened for my name to be called in a room assignment list. room 404. i joined 6 others, who happened to all be women, in a small Spanish classroom and met my two evaluators- two young women who have been through similar programs in chicago. these women had been given the applications and personal statements of all seven of us that were assigned to them. they'd gone over all of our information and would watch as we took turns giving our sample lessons to one another, listened to a scenario and then spent 20 minutes in a group discussion about it, gave a two-minute written response to a concluding question about the discussion scenario, and wrote furiously for twenty minutes in response to another scenario designed to test our writing skills.

Then, we went back to the auditorium with everyone else, went through 45 minutes of general question and answer about chicago teaching fellows, and then everyone either went to or waited for their individual interview. individual interviews were conducted by one of the evaluators we'd spent the morning with, and were precisely 20 minutes long. i was the last interview for my group. i went and ate a leisurely lunch, thanked God for giving me a good morning and getting me through thus far, and wrote in my journal. then i went at 2:00 for my personal interview.

It sucked. well, at least i thought it sucked. as i walked out of the room i felt like turning around and saying "i really don't stand a chance, do i?" my second thought was, well God, at least now i'll know that if i DO get invited to be in this program it is TOTALLY YOU, cuz it sure as heck ain't me that impressed 'em.

what went wrong? i dunno. i just got the distinct impression that my interviewer didn't think i was inner city high risk high school material. like i wasn't tough enough. she read a scenario for one of the questions and seemed to belittle me for my first response being indignation at the scenario's school vice principal. um, okay, should everyone be indignant to hear that a vice principal brings a kid BACK into your classroom after you've sent him to the office and in front of your class, tells you that "if you can't handle discipline in your classroom i'll find someone who will!" yes, i should be angry, indignant, and surprised! the question then was, what would you do? so i'm trying to work through what on earth i would do, and so much of it is dependent on what the kids in that class were like, how the kid in question was being disruptive, etc. several things came into my mind, all very different, depending on those variables. she didn't seem to like my answers, and told me that many of the schools served by the program have administrators like this. i said "and people wonder why schools fail..." and she immediately began- well, almost defending administrators and saying how some teachers just don't cut it with discipline and need to be held accountable. um, i agree, but the scenario didn't say "you send him to the office for the third time that week" it said there was a kid who'd been giving you problems all year and this day you send him out of the room to the office. doesn't seem like an instance of bad classroom discipline, seems like an instance of poor administration support of teachers.

anyway, i latched onto how she seemed to be looking for the teaching discipline and emphasized that i had no trouble adhering to established discipline procedures, felt comfortable handling and de-escalating many situations while subbing and working with highly volatile kids at madison center, and that i was commended several times by school administrators when i'd sub in a particular class or school for NOT having to send anyone to the office and still be productive. (i was NOT a walk-over sub.) i think i only sent a kid to the office once. in almost a year of subbing in almost every school in our district.

so, i dunno. i'm not holding my breath. i AM then a bit confused about what God has in store for me- i know i'm supposed to teach, but where else other than this, what with my current financial situation??? i'll wait and see.

I'll know if i've been invited to participate, placed on a waiting list, or declined on March 9. I'll let you all know in a very timely fashion. (i find out this Friday if i passed the test i took January 28, which i have to pass if i do get accepted to the Fellows program.)