Dorit Sasson's Blog

Posted by Dorit Sasson

Now when many school districts are hiring teachers for next year, I'm reading many requests from teachers on how they can prepare for those teacher inteviews.

i actually think that the best thing is to ask the right kinds of questions that show you understand what is expected of you as a teacher and especialy those which help you appear both thoughtful and reflective.

• Do you have a school wide discipline policy? Do you have a mentor program?
• What options are there for assessing struggling readers?
• How do you deal with students of special needs?
• Do you have a specific textbook series or curriculum for this class?
• What duties outside of teaching are part of the job description?
• How are students assessed on report cards?
• Go to this site to catch up on the demographics, test scores, student-teacher ratio, school districts and any other particular piece of information that you think would be useful for first hand knowledge.

When I was first hired, I told my principal how much I loved teaching lower peforming classes. She was impressed with my enthusiasm for teaching children, which I believe was responsible for getting me hired.

Also, focus on communicating how important it is for you to make a difference in children, because that is what you will be doing for the next upcoming school year!

Good luck to all !

Posted by Dorit Sasson

Lately, I have been doing some catching up on reading news about new teachers and their impact on education policy. I believe I read something like the burnout rate for new teachers was 50% of new teachers leaving only after teaching five years because schools failed to provide a nurturing environment including the support of a long-term mentor.

I was doing a bit of reading on the New York City Department of Education website and came across an interesting news link applicable for teachers applying for teaching positions in the tri-state New York City area.

Mayor Bloomberg has recently developed a new school initiative with smaller classes and personalized learning environments.

If any of these teaching positions interest you, I suggest doing a complete research profile of the school. Learn of the mission and of the school's values regarding new teachers. For any teaching position which you are applying for, always find out if the principal has complete autonomy in the decision process of hiring and mentoring new teachers. A principal with too much autonomy is a sign leading to trouble.

Posted by Dorit Sasson

When you think about it, teachers teach students through the material by taking out the time to getting to know them and how to actually motivate them. I call this setting up a “live curriculum.”

There are just so many things about writing a lesson plan that is dynamic that you can only learn this on your own. Reflective teaching is applying classroom theory and coming up with your own recipes for motivating students and building effective instruction.

In the early days of teaching, I chose to not absorb myself with the pressure of standarized testing, rather to observe students and how they interacted with the material. I loved to watch them in various classroom activities, interacting during pair and group work activities, listening to how they read and what they said to each other. I described these experiences in my teacher journal, which actually motivated me to plan the next few lessons.

It became much easier to be more spontaneous in the classroom.Years down the line, students won’t remember the grammar tense or the laboratory terms you just taught, but who you are and meant for them as a teacher.

Posted by Dorit Sasson

Many classroom teachers have to combine their teaching job with at least another source of income. Many do part time tutoring positions to supplement while others write about their teaching experiences.

Hopefully, you'll be able to take these experiences and write about them. What can you actually write about? Just about anything of course that is helpful for a new or seasoned teacher to read. In one of my earlier submissions I wrote about how a struggling ELL student overcame his language barrier and learned to love studying English. Today he is a very successful businessman at a high-tech software company in Israel. These experiences provide the slice-of-life lessons that educational companies like to receive.

If you’re still unsure how to transform your wonderful ideas and classroom experiences into marketable articles and blogs, try the following ways:

• Keep an ongoing teacher’s journal - Journal writing is an excellent technique for reflecting on your lessons. You’ll be surprised at how many ideas you can write about from just one journal entry.
• Read about ongoing research trends in education. Subscribe to teachers’ blogs and articles and read about their classroom stories.
• If your thing is to write more scholarly, researched based journals, attend a few in-service meetings and conferences and catch up on the latest hot issues in literacy and education.

Always read the online version of the teacher magazine first to get an idea of the type of writing and voice they include in their articles. Keep mindful of the guidelines and word count. With my cup of coffee, I like to find educational writing jobs here and here.

Posted by Dorit Sasson

Yes, you guessed it. I'm in the middle for applying for teacher certification and since I'm right at the very beginning, it's not as difficult as I thought.

Well, wait. Let me correct myself.

First, I called the Board of Education of Pennslyvania and asked them the procedure since my teaching credentials are from abroad. They said that I would need to apply for a teaching certificate and I would need to pay to have my credentials and education evaluated, which I already did.

Then, I still need to have a health certificate signed from a doctor. I'm still waiting for that to come in through.

The packet will then be evaluated and then sent back to me. I will need to take the appropriate Praxis test and the necessary ESL courses for applying for a ESL certification.

I'm not sure though which Praxis test I will need to take, but I think it would be the professional reading and writing one. I have to double check on that.

All these procedures take time. If you plan to apply for a teaching job, leave yourself enough planning and waiting time. Don't leave your job search for the last minute.