Nothing endures but change

Yeah, I borrowed the title for this entry from a chapter in Anne of Green Gables. I've been officially done with Hartford Public High School for three days and in the interim I have gone on several interviews and applied for as many more positions. As grateful as I am for the opportunity to interview, I can't help but feel impatience at the tediousness of the interview process.

Getting a teaching job is not like getting a job in many other fields. Usually a first interview is a "screening interview." After the administrator in charge of the committee selects a handful of candidates who look good on paper, the chosen few are contacted for this screening interview. Then comes the dog and pony show, where you work at being the most enthusiastic, most innovative, and most committed educator since John Dewey (or Horace Mann, or Montessori, or whoever your particular education god happens to be). Usually the interview committee ranges from the blatantly nonplussed to the over-affected, whose interest-feigning is nearly as disconcerting as the attitudes of the nonplussed. Oy vey.

The time-line for information turnaround is equally distressing. Most administrators on panels like to tell you that they will come to a decision "soon." Now, soon could be the next day (this was the case for Coventry and Canton - thanks for playing and best of luck in your future endeavors, blah, blah, blah), or soon could be two, three, or four weeks from the interview date, at which point you have to pick up the phone or open a new email window only to find out that the position was filled prior to your physical interview. Now wait a minute....

Nevertheless I am committed to being hopeful. I have had a couple of interview experiences thus far that have bucked this trend of disinterested, insincere, watch-checkers. Their interest has led me to respond in kind - it really is so much easier to wax on one's experience and skills when one feels as though her responses are valued and, dare I say, interesting. Perhaps one of these panels will prevail yet. Until then, I remain,

A Poor wayfaring schoolmarm