Career Corner
In this blog, members of the American Association for Employment in Education, a professional organization for college career-center directors and school district recruiters, provided career advice and discuss developments in the education job market. This blog is no longer being updated, but you can continue to explore these issues on edweek.org by visiting our related topic pages: career advice and job huntjob hunt.
Teacher Preparation
Opinion
What Do Buzzwords Have To Do With My Career?
The 2017 AAEE Job Search Handbook for Educators contains an article on page 35 titled Know the New Education Reform Initiatives. Yet, this article only touches on some of the issues, terms, and acronyms you need to know. And one of the initiatives in this article, "Race to the Top (RTTT)," is a program under President Obama. Does it still exist with President Obama no longer in office? That's what you, as a future educator, should know.
Teacher Preparation
Opinion
Only One, Please
While school administrators want to see your passion to be a teacher, your writing never needs more than one exclamation point per sentence!!! One exclamation point indicates passion as effectively as two or three or four or five or ... you get the idea. Would you use multiple question marks??? Multiple apostrophes '''??? Looks sloppy and unprofessional, don't you think? Yes, it does!
Teacher Preparation
Opinion
No Kidding Around
I believe the word kids can express a genuine warmth and passion for teaching students. You may feel the same. But if you are interviewing with a professional who feels that word is disrespectful, your opinion will not matter.
Teaching Profession
Opinion
Find "Your Person"
No matter what stage of your career you are in, keep your eyes, ears--and heart--open to finding "your person." Why? Because you are called to a profession with quite a daunting task: educating, supporting, and loving the children and youth who are our future.
Career Advice
Opinion
MEET YOUR BRAND
Today, take ten minutes to create--or better manage--your personal branding campaign. Make this a 3-4 times a week habit and you'll be building a solid, professional reputation in no time. A few ideas to get your started:
Teacher Preparation
Opinion
My Residency Experience: Paying it Forward
I know I owe much of my current classroom success to Louisiana's Believe and Prepare program for providing the support and yearlong residency training that prepared me to be the teacher I am today.
School & District Management
Opinion
A Principal's Challenge
The challenge was great; find teachers who were prepared for a classroom where students came with academic, social and emotional needs. This was a far greater obstacle than I had imagined. The new teachers who we interviewed were naive to the challenges teachers face in a realistic classroom setting: teaching to rigorous academic standards, planning highly effective activities where all students are engaged and challenged, and managing a classroom of students who rely on structures and procedures for their success. Many of those new teachers knew the theory of what it meant to be a highly effective teacher, but the implications of that theory had not been practiced or witnessed first-hand with a master or mentor teacher supporting them in the process.
Teaching Profession
Opinion
Why Consider Substitute Teaching? (I'm Talking to You, December Grads!)
Subbing is be a bridge to full-time employment for many educators. All of us who have ever filled out a standard application with a question about whether or not we'd be willing to substitute have paused to consider the option carefully.
Teacher Preparation
Opinion
Teacher Support: Elimination of stress begins with identifying your stressors
Before you can tackle stress you need to know what is stressing you out.
Equity & Diversity
Opinion
Teacher Support and RTI
Determine what RTI information your school would like to present to staff, as well as the degree of faculty input and discussion needed.
Teacher Preparation
Opinion
Collaborative Teacher Support: "Seeing Is Believing"
Establishing a culture of teacher support begins and ends with support systems that are designed to promote collaboration and feedback among teachers.
Teacher Preparation
Opinion
Is your school's teacher evaluation system focused on teacher support or teacher dismissal?
School leaders with a negative orientation toward teacher evaluation typically focus on pointing out the negatives they've observed and issuing mandates for improvement or dismissal. On the other hand school leaders who develop a positive orientation toward using teacher evaluation as a teacher support mechanism are making the strides necessary to meet their student achievement goals and teacher satisfaction goals.
Teacher Preparation
Opinion
Teacher Preparation is Evolving
Recently, Louisiana's state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education adopted teacher preparation policies that provide a yearlong residency for all aspiring teachers. These policies will take effect for all preservice teachers in the fall of 2018, but Monroe City Schools is not waiting until then to get involved.
Teacher Preparation
Opinion
Professional Reflections of a Mentor Teacher
Imagine you learn that a loved one is in dire need of an emergency, life-saving surgery. Think of the flood of emotions, anxiety, and concerns you would immediately feel. Now imagine discovering that the doctor slated to perform the operation was in her first year of practice.