the interview

My interview today seemed to go fairly well. The position I was interviewing for is unique. I was told on the phone only that it was for a "middle school writing position." When I got to the interview, the principal gave me some more information.

Essentially, the school is not happy with the students' scores on the writing portion of the ISATs, and wants to create more of a focus on writing. The schedules and curriculum for this year are set, so they cannot add another period or drop another class from the students' schedules. So, this writing teacher will co-teach with the science and social studies teachers, teaching each group of students (4 groups per grade, total of 12 groups) twice per week. Essentially, the writing teacher would be going into these other classrooms, and teaching writing through the lens of science and social studies. The writing teacher would grade students on writing conventions, while the content teacher would be grading on content. The ISAT tests on narrative, persuasive and expository writing, so these could fairly easily be taught through social studies and science. The idea is that within 2 to 3 years, this program would be phased out as the content teachers learned to teach writing within their own classes, and the writing teacher position would become a creative writing class.

It's exciting, because it would be a really exciting challenge, creating a curriculum from the ground up. They've really only got a loose outline, indicating that the program will depend heavily on the person they hire and their interests and abilities. They also indicated that they specifically want a new teacher, because this position is so unusual - they'd interviewed some experienced teachers, but felt that they were too structured and rigid and would not adapt to this kind of teaching experience.

They said they are still interviewing, and would be calling their top three back in a few weeks (but would be calling everyone, regardless), as the position would start at the beginning of November, for this year. The ISATs take place in early March, and then we would be focusing on preparing the 7th and 8th graders for a test they take that sort of decides which high schools they can get into. Next year, the position would start at the beginning of the year, so there would be less of a rush.

This next week, I am planning to put together an outline of how I would organize this curriculum, and send it to the principal. Taking initiative!