Inside the Trenches of the Principal: Week 39

I kept a close eye on the weather throughout the week in anticipation of our school’s spring fling on Friday night! We planned to have it outdoors, which means rain could have easily ruined those plans. Luckily, the sun came out at just the right time and we had a successful event. I committed myself to the dunk booth, which equated to an hour and a half of getting submerged in ice cold water! Thankfully, one of the dads saw me shivering atop the tank and offered to relieve me for the final thirty minutes!

It was a quick turnaround from Spring Fling Friday night to Saturday morning, where we had our district job fair. Each of the 83 schools in our district had a table and perspective teachers and staff came around to share resumes and chat about what they were looking for in a school. I ended up with 78 resumes in my hand at the end of the morning, and a lot of conversations scrolling around in my head. After talking to so many people, it made me think about why certain people stood out to me. I wanted to share a few thoughts on good and bad strategies that stood out to me from people:

• Good strategy: Approach with a great smile, firm handshake, good eye contact, and a greeting that shows you’re enthusiastic about your life.
• Bad strategy: Approach and start talking for three minutes without coming up for air. There’s a difference between an elevator pitch and a stream of consciousness where I zone out and stop listening.
• Good strategy: Seem interested in learning about the school. Behind me at the job fair we had a table that we set up with items like our dragon display, five large painted eggs in our House colors, a backdrop with our House crests, etc. I was far more impressed when people asked something like “Tell me about these eggs” or “Can you talk about your magnet program?”
• Bad strategy: When a candidate is not comfortable having a conversation with my fifth grade student there, that’s a bad sign! You’re a teacher, you should be able to talk with kids!
• Good strategy: Making yourself memorable! Be different! How do you stand out? For me, I am looking for people who can bring something to my school that makes it better. The fact that you’ve been teaching for 20 years or you have a masters doesn’t make my school better. I want people who can bring something to the table that I don’t already have.

Overall, meeting so many people in a short amount of time is challenging. I sit here today with a large stack of resumes I am going to start going through to see candidates I will contact for potential openings (since I don’t have any currently). For those I invite to the next round, I will be requiring video submissions or live lessons so I can see the candidates teaching. It’s important to see if a great resume matches great instruction!