Interview went alright...and it's a *contract* position! Now for the waiting...

I attended the interview today that I mentioned in yesterday's post. I had thought that the position was an LTO posting (i.e., just work there that one semester, then have to find myself a new job), but I learned today that it is actually a contract position! This means that I don't need to stay at my current school to have job security (if, again, I get offered this position, that is). I was also told in the interview that this is a very collaborative school. All the teachers who teach a particular course plan the course together, and a lot is already outlined and laid out. The department head pointed out that this means there is no more of this last-minute first-year-teacher panic saying, "Oh my goodness, what am I going to teach tomorrow?!?" While I have enjoyed being the course director, so to speak, of the one course I am teaching (since I'm the only person teaching it at my current school), I have experienced that panic many a time, so the prospect of a job where that would not be part of my daily experience is appealing. Another aspect of the collaboration is that each teacher teaching a course takes on one unit of the course and designs all the quizzes and tests for that unit (including a morning and afternoon version so multiple classes can write what is otherwise more or less the same test). The exam is a common exam (i.e., all the grade 11 physics students write the same exam, regardless of who their teacher is for their particular class), so this sharing of making up the tests and quizzes prepares the students to see exam questions from different teachers as well. All the teachers also offer input on the quizzes and tests, so that a first-year teacher like me doesn't have to worry about the students getting substandard evaluations when my unit comes up. This sharing of responsibilities sounds awesome. On top of that, it could be a shorter commute (approximately 10 minutes on city streets when traffic is good), although I don't really mind my current commute (approximately 20 minutes between city streets and the highway when traffic is good). All the other pros and cons were covered in my previous post.

Overall, it looks like if this position is offered to me, it is something I should be taking. Of course, that is a big "if." I have had very good interviews in the past that did not result in my being employed, and I wouldn't count this one among my "very good" interviews. In retrospect, I can see several ways in which I could have improved my answers, got more of the edumacational "buzzwords" out there, and so on. My "read" of the interviewers also was not exactly negative, but did not send me away with the sense of having nailed the interview that I've had in previous experiences. We shall see. I'll keep you posted.