I believe it was back in March that I found out the reading specialist at my school was retiring. The teacher I work with suggested that I make an appointment with the principal. When I met with the principal later that week I explained that I heard that the reading specialist was retiring and that I would like to apply for the position. My principal responded that the reading specialist position required professional development experience (of which I have none) and that she wasn't even sure if the district was going to hire anyone to fill the position.
Several weeks went by before the position was officially posted on the OLAS website. I applied online and then casually talked with my principal again letting her know that I had applied and would really appreciate the opportunity for an interview. Again my principal was noncommital. The teacher I worked with also said it would be a good idea to go to the superintendent's office and hand her a copy of my resume and cover letter.
When I arrived at the superintendent's office I immediately had to go to her secretary. Since I've worked in the district for two years I've spoken with her on quite a few occasions about issues such as health insurance. I explained to the secretary about how I was applying for the position and that I was hoping my resume would get passed along to the superintendent. The secretary asked if I had any professional development experience and I replied that I didn't have any formal experience. This didn't go over well. Basically she told me that if I left my resume with her that she would throw it in the garbage and that I would never get an interview.
You can imagine my suprise then when my school's secretary called to set up an appointment for an interview. I was given lots of advice on what types of questions the panel would ask (yes, I interviewed with 6 people - the principal, the current reading specialist, 2 teachers, 1 teaching assistant, and a parent). The interview was to take place on Friday at 3pm. Not just any Friday, mind you. It was field day - which would have been exhausting on it's own, but it was also the day after we were down a t.a., we had a sub teacher, and we had our concert. For field day I had to wear a tie dyed t-shirt and jean capris. This meant that I also had to bring a change of clothes with me for the interview.
When I went to the office I was handed a chart and a sheet of paper and told that I needed to write an essay stating my observations from the chart and what I would do to remediate the situation. There's nothing like writing an essay in a school office during dismissal time, let me tell you :). From there we had to restart the interview a couple of times due to all of the loud announcements being made regarding dismissal. Of course most of the questions I was asked were nothing like the ones in which I thought they would ask. Nevertheless everyone was smiling at me through the interview and made comments that made me think I gave some good answers. As I was leaving I heard one of the teachers comment that it was an excellent interview.
I have no idea if I'll actually get the job because school politics are very tricky. All I know is that I shouldn't have gotten even an interview and yet God orchestrated that I got one and HE helped me answer the questions despite being exhausted, so if by some miracle I do end up being offered the position I will know without a doubt that it is where God wants me - even if I'm not entirely confident that I'm qualified for the position.
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