I recently listened to a podcast by my good friends Mark and Sam. They are both elementary administrators in my school district and are authors of a book entitled Mission Monday: A Plan to Make Your School a Better Place One Week at a Time (you can check out their website HERE). In the podcast, which can be found below, they talk about qualities they look for when hiring teachers. After listening, I was inspired and called them up for further dialogue on the topic. I left the conversation inspired and thought that I would write about characteristics that I am looking for in teachers. Ultimately, I think there are some crossovers with what Sam and Mark talk about, but also some differences.
BE ABLE TO DESCRIBE YOUR VISION OF YOUR CLASSROOM
John C. Maxwell wrote in his book the 17 Indisputable Laws of Teamwork, "Someone said that only people who can see the invisible can do the impossible." I would contend that if you can't picture it, you haven't thought about it enough. Start thinking about it. Think about it daily until it becomes clear. If you want to work in my building, be prepared to describe your vision with great detail. In addition, don't tell me what you think I want to hear. Be bold. Be passionate. Know what you want your classroom to look like and be able to describe it.
UNDERSTAND THAT YOU WILL NEVER HAVE ENOUGH TIME
Your plate is ALWAYS going to be full. There will never be enough time in the day to get things done. Administrators and colleagues are constantly going to be asking you to do things. Rather than say, "Leave me alone and let me teach" embrace it with an open mind. Please know that your administrators do not wake up every morning asking themselves, "How can I make more work for my staff and make them hate their job and workplace." Teaching IS NOT an 8-4 job with summers off, despite what a lot of non-educators think or say. Teaching is hard work with unlimited demands placed on your time. Prioritize your responsibilities and make time to get done the things you have to do. You won't get paid extra for it, but your work ethic and how you go about it will get noticed.
BE POSITIVE AND AVOID DRAMA
Relationships are key in any profession/workplace. Are your relationships with your colleagues at school going to be positive and uplifting or are they going to be caustic? If they are going to be the latter, you need not apply. Teaching is hard enough the way it is and drama and negativity suck the life out of people. Choose your attitude and make sure you choose wisely or your likely to end up like the guy in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Let's leave the drama to the high school students that we are teaching.
Relationships are key in any profession/workplace. Are your relationships with your colleagues at school going to be positive and uplifting or are they going to be caustic? If they are going to be the latter, you need not apply. Teaching is hard enough the way it is and drama and negativity suck the life out of people. Choose your attitude and make sure you choose wisely or your likely to end up like the guy in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Let's leave the drama to the high school students that we are teaching.
KNOW THAT CHANGE IS INEVITABLE AND EMBRACE IT
The more you try to control things, the more out of control they will become. Change is inevitable and will likely happen more rapidly as we head in to the future. Heck, the iPad has been around less than 4 years and look at what it has done to education. The bottom line is that change will happen and you need to be able to adapt and embrace it because it will occur quickly.
The more you try to control things, the more out of control they will become. Change is inevitable and will likely happen more rapidly as we head in to the future. Heck, the iPad has been around less than 4 years and look at what it has done to education. The bottom line is that change will happen and you need to be able to adapt and embrace it because it will occur quickly.
EXPECT TO COLLABORATE WITH ALL OF YOUR PEERS
Teaching is not about staying in a square box all day. You MUST be able to get out and collaborate with others. If you are looking for a teaching job, talk about how you could collaborate with others and the ideas you have to break down the walls of a traditional classroom. Know that collaboration is a desirable behavior in education. If you are uncomfortable with this, you need to break the mold and understand that in the 21st Century school, collaboration is not an option, but rather, an expectation.
Teaching is not about staying in a square box all day. You MUST be able to get out and collaborate with others. If you are looking for a teaching job, talk about how you could collaborate with others and the ideas you have to break down the walls of a traditional classroom. Know that collaboration is a desirable behavior in education. If you are uncomfortable with this, you need to break the mold and understand that in the 21st Century school, collaboration is not an option, but rather, an expectation.
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