For most of you, the ultimate aim of undertaking your Master of Learning and Teaching is to gain employment as an educator within your selected field. There are, of course, exceptions to this and other reasons for wanting to gain a qualification as an educator.
Rather than discuss the particular ideas put forward about resumes and interview skills discussed in this presentation, I would like us to talk about being ’employable’ more generally.
What do you think being employable means?
What strategies can you or have you put in place to make yourself more attractive to potential employers?
What are some of the enablers and barriers that you can see to gaining your first teaching position?
How might you either maximise the enablers and minimise the impact of barriers?
I am very happy for the conversation to explore and go beyond these initial questions.
I think if you are going to be applying for a job at a school where you have already done placement then they already know whether or not they want to hire you. They already know if you fit with the school, how you get along with other teachers, and most importantly how capable you are at teaching. So when it comes to prac we are our own walking resume.
Having to demonstrate your skills on paper is definitely harder. Being employable means showing that not only are you going to be good at your job but also that you are going to stick around for a while. Having to constantly recruit people would be time-consuming and costly.
My barrier to being employed will be more around the location. I won’t want to travel any more than half an hour to get to work. I am fairly confident that I will have a job at the school I’m currently at, but I won’t be graduating until the end of next year so anything can change as to whether they will have a position for me. But they know I am keen to work there so will just have to wait and see.
You are correct in say we are walking resumes and our actions speak for themselves while we are doing our placements.
To minimise the impact of barriers for us would be to ensure we are serious with what we want to do and not show up with a negative attitude.
This could mean we show up a bit earlier, stay a bit later, help out at an event the school is having, or partake in an event. For example, for R U OK day last year, I made sure I helped with the schools fundraiser and wore a pin I bought from the students. It may only seem like a small gesture but it is the small things I think that count and it is not only the staff that will notice, it is the students as well and they we know that I will want to be a part of their education and school experience.
In terms of attitude, we all know that there will be students that will be harder to engage with or deal with in terms of behaviour and learning but once we accept this and know that it occurs at ALL schools than we will minimise our own barriers and will be able to find a way that keeps the attitude outside of the school. Thankfully there has only been one teacher that had a really bad attitude about her job and constantly told me in the short time I was speaking to her that she should have done a different degree cause the money is better. After which I saw in her class how her attitude impacted the student’s behaviour and all she could do was yell. It’s a shame because she is created her own barrier which I think will impact her in the future, so with this in mind, going in with the right attitude and passion to help will limit this as we begin to find our place as a teacher.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this session. It is great that you feel confident that employment will come from your current school setting. And yes, a four week long interview takes place while you are there on placement.
A resume allows you to show a little more about yourself, the stuff that they can’t see on the surface or while you are in class. The stuff you have done in the past that will be invaluable to the school in extra or co curricula activities.
It is really good that you are aware of your location limitations as this will help you make informed choices on your Teacher Application forms and when offered positions.
This was very informative. There are definitely somethings I had not thought of. I also really struggle with talking up my skills. I recently had a teacher job interview and I had a feeling it went terrible. I did not get the job, but when I replied back and asked for constructive feedback, being that it was my first teacher interview, they never replied. This was incredibly unhelpful and depressing. I did not realize that USQ offered resume feedback. I think that this is a great opportunity to get some useful feedback. Plenty of useful hints and tips for interviews too.
Hi Brandy, do follow up with them as they may have just been really busy at the time.
It can be difficult to talk yourself up, as you say, but hopefully you will feel more confident when you complete your ePortfolio. It will give you some solid examples to talk about.
I put this on in the background to listen to while I was doing other study but it quickly became my main focus. Lots of actual helpful advice.
It’s hard to think about the next step (actual employment) when you are in the thick of study.
My major hurdle I think will be my struggles seeing myself as one of the grown ups at the table. Despite being a mother myself and having had a previous career as an accounts manager I still view myself as the kid who doesn’t quite measure up. I thought this would change after placements but it hasn’t. Perhaps it won’t really feel like I’m not the student until I complete my study. My rural location makes it tricky as I attended the school where I have done my placement and was actually taught by the teachers I was working alongside.
I do not know what I would do without already being in the education department. Is is a really big process hey! I am so lucky I got a job out rural and do not know what I would of done without it, I got offered my job over the phone in a ten minute interview. I felt the same on the phone I didn’t actually know how to say that I could do it, like to talk myself up haha.