I had my interview at the rural high school this morning.

I think it went very well.

This was just round 1; they’ll be doing callbacks for a second round of committee interviews, then bringing finalists back to be observed teaching a lesson.

BUT this is for an actual *job*. Not a long-term sub position. Someone is retiring.

And it sounds fabulous. Some sections of sophomore English, one section of juniors, and two senior electives. One of them being…CREATIVE WRITING!

I know. Too good to be true, right?

I got along quite well with the principal. The interview went about 40 minutes, and he said that he hoped to be seeing me next week for the second round. I said, “Well, I hope so, too.” (big smile)

Before I left, I popped in to the superintendent’s office to introduce myself. We talked for a few minutes about some of my old teachers, people that he knew. Small world, indeed.

Don’t want to get my hopes up too high yet, but I felt really, really good when I left.

God, I’m busy today. And wasting far too much time. 😛

Here’s what’s news…

Signed up for NaNoWriMo. Yep, I’ve committed. Eep! I’m going to have to put myself on a schedule, I think. I should also get practicing. Start doing some of those daily writing prompts over at TC.

Didn’t get the community relations job with the school district. I was more excited about it in theory…after all, what I really want is to be teaching. I actually had a moment of panic as I was calling the guy back, wondering what I would do if it was offered to me.

Haven’t heard yet about Monday’s interview. Still hopeful.

Have another interview scheduled for Friday morning. This is the one with the rural district where the guy from my hometown is superintendent.

Whee!

I got a rejection letter for the aide position that I didn’t want anyway. See? Moot. 🙂 (Incidentally, after talking to a couple of people in the field, I’ve determined that a paraprofessional position would be a good idea IF it was in a district where I’d like to get my foot in the door. This position? Not my ideal work environment anyway, so probably not where I’d want to be working.)

I have an interview this afternoon for a high school long-term sub position. Wish me luck!

The community college where I’m now teaching is advertising for a full-time job starting in January. Hmmm…

Back when I was deciding to go back to school, I had been thinking that teaching at the college level was my ultimate goal. However, I knew that this would probably mean pursuing a doctorate at some point, which I am not quite prepared to do. Then I discovered that I do actually *like* teaching high school.

This is to say that I’m at something of a crossroads right now. I could go either way. I feel fairly confident that I would be happy in either position, so if this opportunity in higher ed were to present itself to me, I would pursue it…I’ve always thought it was something I might want to do “someday” anyway.

I’m feeling very confident about interviews in general lately. I used to take rejections personally, but more experience has changed that. I realize now that a rejection doesn’t mean that I was bad, or that I performed poorly in the interview. More likely that they found someone who was, for whatever reason, a better fit for the position. I came out of two interviews last week feeling good…and so I know that if I don’t get hired, it wasn’t because they didn’t like me. Let’s hope this positive attitude stays with me!

Update on the job front:

Both interviews yesterday went very well. As I’ve mentioned before, I don’t like interviews. I hate them, in fact. So it was unusual for me to come out of not one but two interviews feeling confident.

The only appealing thing about job #1 is that it has benefits. Health insurance would be so nice. However, R warned me that it would probably be a mistake to take a job in my field that is “beneath” me.

“It smacks of desperation, and no matter how hard you try, you will never be able to get rid of it.”

“But I am desperate,” I joked.

No, seriously, it does make some sense.

I got a call from the HR director at the school district, job #2, telling me that I did a very good job and that the committee was still making their decision. He also said that they were going to be doing some background checking. This makes me nervous for several reasons:

1. I did not provide them with references. They didn’t ask.
2. I did not have to fill out an application.
3. The school district is in the same community as the evil non-profit agency that fired me back in 2001. I DO NOT want them speaking to the director of said agency.

eep.

Also, I have an interview scheduled for a long-term sub job in another school district next Monday. They called today, apparently just from going through their application files. Yay!

I also applied for another long-term sub job in a rural district where–get this–the superintendent of schools is from my hometown! (Well, sort of. A neighboring community that pulled into the same school district.) He taught at my school for a number of years, and I’m pretty sure I had a relative of his for social studies. Also, my grandfather was president of the school board when he was hired. Small world, eh? I sent the letter and resume directly to him and mentioned my town in the letter. Whee!

Lots to say about the weekend, but first I need to talk about my day. I decided to be bold and make a follow-up call on a resume I sent last week, regarding a job I am highly qualified for. The director of personnel said they’d already selected some people for interviews and my name didn’t ring a bell, but asked me to fill him in on my background. I did, and as I suspected, my combined background in journalism/PR AND education was intriguing. He said he’d give my resume another look.

And lo, I now have an interview for tomorrow evening. A 9-person committee interview, which sort of frightens me…

So here’s the thing. My class tomorrow normally runs from 4:30 to 5:45. I need to be at this interview at 6:15. In any event, I would have to cut the class short. (I’m talking like in half. I would *need* a solid 45 minutes to get from one place to the other.) So do I cut the class short, or cancel it outright?

I also got a call about an aide position that I applied for, which I am also interviewing for tomorrow. I’m freaking out a little bit.