I am a most fortunate person for a lot of reasons but during the hiring season one reason stands out above the others. I get the benefit of meeting those fresh new graduates looking for their first teaching assignment. Those fresh faces, full of new learnings from the universities, full of the energy and enthusiasm that taking the first step on a journey brings with it, are refreshing. The youth is exciting and the potential in that energy is boundless. If I could sell it I’d be stupendously rich but I wouldn’t sell it, I’d revel in it. Ah, youth, it is wasted on the young.
When I sit down at the interview table, and stare across at these young faces, I remember my own start in this field that I love so much. Wide eyed and innocent, I knew I connected with kids. I didn’t know a whole lot about literacy and numeracy teaching, I didn’t know how VERY important classroom management was and I certainly didn’t know about how to knock an interview out of the park. I sat at the interview table on the other side and I likely seemed as naïve as the young graduates sitting across from me now. I had pat answers to the typical questions and I spoke confidently on my abilities to connect with kids. I was ignorant of my ignorance. I wish I now knew half of what I thought I knew then.
Now, sitting on the interviewer side, I see that same excitement that I held then, and I see the confidence in these young faces. They are ready to change the world, or at least a classroom. I ask the questions that reveal so much to an interviewer and the answers, typically, are innocent and well thought out but, like when I was a fresh graduate, they lack the wisdom that years in the classroom bring. Years of experience change a teacher. The youthful exuberance is replaced with a more realistic tempered approach to the class. No longer do we think we can change a child completely in a year, we now know we an make a difference that could have lasting implications on a child and we know we don’t have a clue when we say something that connects with a child. Those few minutes that may make the “aha” moment for a child are elusive. Sometimes we never hear what those moments are. We simply try to create entry points to self discovery.
As an interviewer, it can be hard not to be a little jaded at the fresh excitement of those fresh out of their teacher training. I know I am not, though. I find great joy in the interview process. I am graced with making decisions that may influence a school for a very long time. I am not naïve. I know that these new recruits bring with them a lot of potential work for a principal and the rest of the staff. They need mentoring and they need positive support. They take teaching ideas from colleagues and return little, as they know little. What they contribute is a reminder of why we got in this field,. A reminder that we got into this because we know that teachers matter.
I love my job. While I may not be quite as peppy as I was a few decades ago on entering the field, I still get excited when my newest issue of Educational Leadership comes out and I still feel the electricity that exists in the halls of a school. I wish all the best to recent grads entering their field. May you be blessed with as full a career as I have been.
God bless and keep on learning,
Dave
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