The hiring process was very frustrating for me, simply because I wasn’t getting any interviews! While most of the fellows were off interviewing over and over (and a few even getting hired) I wasn’t receiving anything at all. I had had one interview before institute but at that point I wasn't well-prepared to answer the types of questions they were asking. In the end I finally got called for two interviews on the same day, a week before school was to start. Institute had ended and those of us without jobs (about half) were feeling very stressed about our prospects. The RITF staff, who were always incredibly supportive and optimistic, seemed to be feeling the stress too. But now that I was finally getting a chance I was feeling good. After all, my training over the summer was the best interview prep I could possibly imagine. Those two interview were probably the best two interview performances of my life. There wasn’t one answer that I would have changed. And my self-assessment was on target - I was offered both jobs. So I had a choice to make... teach in a middle-class district where life would be easy or teach in the urban district that would be much more challenging but potentially more rewarding. I chose the latter, and now that I’m two months (feels like six) into my journey I have to admit there are days that I question that decision. But on the whole I do feel like I’m making a difference, even if things outside my control make it so much tougher than it should be. But it could be worse - my team is the best one in the school, and we’ve managed to have some fun. We took a trip up to Mount Wachuset and hiked all the way up, and we took another trip down to Foxwoods (my connections paid off) to see the “Bodies Revealed” human anatomy exhibit. Plus, my kids are actually learning some math (trust me, that’s a new thing for most of them). So far so good...

 When I was selected to the first ever Rhode Island Teaching Fellows cohort, I was positively thrilled. Based on the interview process, I was hopeful that it would be far more than just a way to bypass the traditional route to teacher certification (contrary to what you may have heard, the primary purpose of the certification process is to protect union members by keeping career changers out). Before summer institute started, my hopes were validated. The printed materials we were given were excellent, and the expectations for our work were very high. This was clearly going to be a highly productive training program. And so it was. We taught summer school each morning, then were off to institute for the afternoon and then had to fit our lesson planning into the brief amount of time we had left in our days. The best way to describe the experience is that it was boot camp for teachers. It was exhausting, and I’ve never worked so hard in my life. All the while, I could see the value in it, and that’s what kept me going. It’s an excellent research-based program run by talented teachers that have put the program into practice. And the speed and rigor of the instruction was at a very high level, which was only possible because of the hand-picked nature of the cohort. As great as the program is, the best thing about my summer experience was the great new friends I’ve made. My fellow fellows (“fellows squared” in math terms) are amazing people, and I’ve never felt like I’ve belonged to a group as much as I do with them. After our graduation, we arranged an impromptu “after party” at my apartment that was a blast. I’m an old man in this group, but even with the age differences I know I’ve made friends for life with some of my fellows. It’s been an experience I wouldn’t trade for any amount of money. Next: Getting hired to teach.

The story continues (with misc. photo)

...so I waited to hear whether or not I’d be invited for an interview. Within a couple of weeks, I received the good news that I would be interviewing the following Saturday. But what I found really interesting was that the interview was going to take up to six hours! They gave me an overview of the process, which let me know what to expect and what I needed to bring with me. The biggest piece I had to prepare in advance was a five-minute lesson. Since I had never taught in a classroom setting before I was a bit nervous about presenting my lesson, even though I was confident that it was well thought out. When I arrived, I noticed that there were a lot of people interviewing. After an introduction to the selectors and an overview of the program, we were divided into groups of seven or eight and off we went. In addition to the lesson, we wrote an essay and had a long group discussion while being observed. It was all very interesting. The final part of the day was one-on-one interviews. When it was all said and done, I was felt very good about my performance and would have been quite confident in receiving a spot except that I had heard that there were other interview sessions like this one and that only 20-25 of us were going to be selected. I quickly did the math and came to the conclusion that they would be interviewing over 100 people, and with those kinds of odds I made it a point not to raise my hopes too high.