Teaching and Employment

It's tough enough getting an interview in the first place. So, why destroy your chances by turning up in the wrong attire? Because you are applying for a teaching position in a private school, you must be particularly aware of how you dress. Why is how you look important? The first impression an interviewer has of you is a lasting one. This snapshot of you must convey a positive image of who you are as well as the value which you bring to the situation. Indeed, many hiring decisions are made subconsciously as soon as the interviewer looks at you.

Because the job market is highly competitive, your primary goal is to have the first interview go so well that you make the shortlist for second interviews. The way in which you dress is one part of the picture your future employer will have. Make sure that you create the very best impression possible.

Dress to the level of the job environment.

Teachers are exemplars to the young people they teach. The way you dress sets an example, just as your speech patterns do. It is always sensible to dress conservatively when you interview for a teaching position. Nor does it matter what that position is. Whether you are applying for the Spanish teacher position or the Robotics teacher position, you must present yourself as a professional brimming with ideas and values who will make employers immediately think "Ah! She will fit right in." What may not be

Are you a 21st-century teacher? Are you adapting to new ways of doing things? Are you challenging your students to think critically? Are you preparing them to become global citizens? Yes, I know that you have taught for years. Your students have achieved excellent scores in their Advanced Placement exams. You are highly regarded both in your school community and within your profession. Again, I ask whether you can call yourself a 21st-century teacher. Let's review some of the characteristics the 21st-century teacher has and why these characteristics are so important.

It's a different world.

As the United States faces unprecedented challenges both at home and abroad, the need for schools to have teachers with a 21st-century viewpoint and 21st-century skill sets has never been more obvious. Dynamic, visionary teachers are needed to shape the minds of new generations of citizens who will have the abilities and creativity to lead and guide our country. If this sounds radical, it really isn't. It is the same principle and thinking which caused the Phillips family of Exeter and Andover fame to found those highly-rated schools back during the American Revolution. Those school founders knew that the infant nation needed well-schooled, well-trained people to lead it in the years ahead. They believed in this country and the concept of universal education so deeply that they put their money where their mouth was and created schools that still, to this day in the 21st century, reflect extraordinary

Social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube are real game-changers for communicating opinions and ideas. Inevitably we teachers will use social media to keep in touch with our friends and family. However, we teachers tend to be a tad naive and trusting especially when it comes to social media. So, with that in mind, let's look at some simple safeguards which you can put in place to protect yourself. Essentially you need to make sure that you leave no electronic evidence which could damage you, your reputation, and your career.

Protect your privacy.

Many teachers don't realize that the conversations, activities, and photographs which they considered personal and private are out there for anybody to see when they post on social media. When you do anything on social media, you have to understand that you are leaving an electronic trail of all kinds of information for potential employers, or anybody, for that matter, to see. Why does this matter? It matters because you never know how a future or current employer might interpret some of the things he sees on your Facebook page. Those candid photos of you and your friends enjoying a post-exam beer bash in college might be difficult to explain when you apply to St. Andrew's Methodist School. If you already have a position in a private school, be assured that your students will be searching the internet with a fine toothed comb looking for something - anything - about you. Make sure

Competitive employment markets mean that you must make the best possible impression at every step of the employment process. All it takes is a couple of common mistakes to quickly move your employment application to the bottom of the pile. You may think that yours is the only application for that math teacher position at Shady Grove Country Day School. Unfortunately, in these very tough economic times, your application will be one of the dozens of applications - perhaps hundreds - for that coveted teaching job. That's why it is so important to make sure that somebody reviews your application, and places it on the short stack of applications marked "Interview".

Put yourself in the place of the person who will be screening job applications. You understand how your students' minds work. Use the same approach here. Think about how an administrator determines who should get interviewed. She has advertised the position in all the usual places. Every business day she receives dozens of envelopes from applicants. Why should your application go on the stack of applications marked "Interview" instead of the one marked "reject"? Because when she scans your application, she sees most of what she is looking for. Remember: she's a very busy person. A lot is riding on her choosing the best candidate for the position which she has to fill.

Depending on how hands-on a person she is, she may delegate the initial scanning process to an assistant. Assistants can be very diligent and

If you are graduating this year, you probably have a game plan for finding a job in place. Naturally I wish you good luck with that and sincerely hope it works out. On the other hand should things not pan out the way you planned, why not consider teaching? We need teachers. We need talented teachers. In both public and private sectors. At home and abroad. I have several articles on finding , applying for and interviewing for private school jobs. So for the purposes of this article, we are going to look at teaching overseas.

Overseas? Yes, there are plenty of teaching jobs overseas. Hundreds of private schools in Europe, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean are always looking for qualified teachers. Of course, you probably have already seen dozens of emails from ESL schools in Taiwan. Are those jobs real? Yes, they most certainly are. But, caveat emptor. Do your research carefully. There are some lemons in the bunch. besides teaching English as a Second Language isn't all you are capable of doing, is it? Laura Light, Director of Educational Staffing for International Schools Services, explains what it is like to work in an overseas school.

We are not talking about only ESL teaching jobs. How about teaching in a country like Argentina? For example, let's say you are a Spanish speaking graduate with a degree in American language and literature from Brown