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Introduction to School Hiring
Introduction to School Hiring
School hiring is the process through which you will find your teaching position in the schools with which ITF partners. This is your chance to teach where you are needed most, where you fit best, and where you will be held accountable for raising student achievement.
Searching for a teaching position can prove both exciting and challenging, and we want to assure you that our program staff is working hard to make this a smooth process for each of you. Your job search will require flexibility and continued perseverance, just like your work in the classroom.
Our staff works with individual principals and school leaders to identify vacancies and facilitate opportunities for Fellows to interview for specific positions or attend school hiring events. While the office helps facilitate the hiring process, you are ultimately responsible for securing a teaching position within your certification area.
The next step is to interview with principals at individual schools to determine where you will be teaching in the fall. The interview and hiring process can take anywhere from weeks to months. School contacts that you make early in your job search may call on you to interview much later in your job search. It is important to stay connected to all your potential contacts throughout your entire job search experience. Ask yourself, how can I ensure that when a principal is ready to interview, he/she will call me first?
Please keep in mind that each person’s hiring experience will be different. Some teachers will find teaching positions early, while others will secure positions later, perhaps even in August. Moreover, Fellows should expect to interview for more than one position because the first interview does not always lead to an offer. Being thoroughly prepared for interviews at all times is not only a program expectation but also critical to your job search because every interview is an opportunity to secure your full-time teaching position.
PRIORITIES
PRIORITIES
Be prepared to teach where you are needed most. ITF exists to add teacher capacity to public schools where educational inequity is most evident. This means that your job search may involve interviewing at a school that, at first glance, does not match your exact preferences. Please remember that each vacancy involves a classroom with children where your skills and experience are needed in order to impact student achievement.
To be most effective in increasing student achievement (as well as meet the state's requirements for being "highly qualified"), you must secure a teaching placement that aligns with your certification area.
Keeping these two priorities in mind will help you remain flexible about your teaching position and ultimately find a school where you can make a difference.
TIMELINE
TIMELINE
The hiring process is designed to complement our district and school partners’ hiring timelines. As a result, hiring will occur from February through August, and you may secure your position at any point during that time. Please review our school hiring timeline below. Please note that this timeline reflects our current expectation of how the process will happen this year; however, these expectations are subject to change. There may be times throughout training when program staff require you focus on meeting expectations in core competencies related to the classroom and not engage actively in the job search. In these instances, program staff will communicate with you with next steps.
February - April
February - April
Become "school hire ready" using the guidelines here.
Create a resume for your search using the ITF template
Attend an ITF Site Visit and Hiring Fair (required). More information here.
Research ITF partner schools.
Respond to all communications to principals, schools, and staff within 24 hours
Copy ITF staff on all emails to principals.
Share job leads through the 2024 Cohort Facebook Group and emailing ITF staff members
Write/send thank you notes to principals within 48 hours of an interview
Respond to any and all offers within 1 week of receiving them (unless the school/network specifically gives you a different timeline). Notify ITF program staff immediately upon receiving an offer.
Some principals will be eager to interview you. Others may not want to hire until they know exactly what their vacancies will be. However, it is still critical to make contact with principals and schools, as they may have vacancies later in the season.
May - June
May - June
Meet all expectations to the left and...
Update your resume with field experience (PST summer school)
Actively send resumes to schools of interest
Attend the final ITF Hiring Fair
Respond to all communications to principals, schools, and staff within 24 hours
Copy ITF staff on all emails to principals.
Share job leads through the 2024 Cohort Facebook Group and emailing ITF staff members
Write/send thank you notes to principals within 48 hours of an interview
Respond to any and all offers within 1 week of receiving them (unless the school/network specifically gives you a different timeline). Notify ITF program staff immediately upon receiving an offer.
Principals will likely have their budgets and will be more eager to hire. They are more likely to feel pressure to fully staff their schools at this time.
Finding Your Position
Finding Your Position
The ITF program staff will notify you when you are eligible to actively apply for open positions. Fellows should not start applying until receiving specific guidance and go-ahead from the ITF manager. To become "school hire ready," you must first complete the following steps with can all be found on the action items page here:
Have a 1-1 Zoom Meeting ("Welcome Call") with the manager (enrollment item)
Carefully read through the School Hiring Guide
Update your Resume and School Hiring Bio using the ITF templates. You must format these correctly and incorporate ITF staff feedback.*
Complete the interview preparation activity - Submit this to the recruitment manager within 3 weeks of enrollment.
In the meantime, we highly recommend that you familiarize yourself with all ITF partner schools. A tentative list of partner schools and their websites is available here. You can also browse the Teach Indy website to learn about resources that are available to you as you go through the hiring process.
Check out the Indiana Department of Education’s Compass Tool or check out Great Schools to research school demographics and student performance. Principals often prefer candidates that have some knowledge of their school, so make it evident that you have done research when crafting your cover letter and answering interview questions.
Additionally, consider watching any of the below videos from Alumni about their hiring stories:
Keeanna Warren Alumni Hiring Story.mp4Weston Bonczek Alumni Hiring Story (1).mp4Emmanuel Harper Alumni Hiring Story (1).mp4Alumni Hiring Story_Ashli Adams.mp4WHAT TO DO✅:
Be considerate of principal and school leader schedules. Be cordial and concise in your outreach communication. Being aggressive in contacting a principal can backfire, leaving the principal with a poor impression of you and of the program as a whole.
Use email. The best way to communicate directly with principals, as it is unlikely that you will get through to most principals by telephone, fax or letter. When following up on interviews, you will want to email the principal or assistant principal with whom you met.
Use your networks. Reach out to Fellows from previous Cohorts and ask them to share your resume with their school leader.
Customize your cover letter. Hiring leaders recognize when an applicant has knowledge of their school or are sending a generic cover letter.
Research every school at which you apply or interview.
WHAT TO AVOID🚫:
Dropping by schools unannounced. School leaders are extremely busy throughout the day and are usually not available for on-the-fly inquiries about vacant positions. It is not advised to stop by schools to drop off resumes or request tours unannounced. Most school leaders prefer electronic copies of your application materials anyway. If you do go to a school, make sure you have an appointment with a specific person.
Expecting immediate results. In the past we have seen that contact with principals in the spring will often lead to a hiring later in the summer, so don't be surprised or disappointed if your spring search doesn't yield anything immediately.
Interviewing as an Alternative Route Teacher
Interviewing as an Alternative Route Teacher
Your interviewers may represent a variety of school staff - principals, assistant principals, human resource directors, and teachers. While you are not yet a classroom teacher, don't apologize for your background, experience, or lack thereof. Many alternative routes to teaching exist in Indianapolis and school leaders have likely hired someone from a non-traditional path in the past. As a non-traditional, new teacher candidate, principals will want to confirm that you have some basic knowledge of instructional strategies and classroom management techniques, but will be interested to learn how you can translate and apply your past experiences into success in the classroom:
Transferable "soft skills" like goal setting, leadership, communication, and creative problem solving
Reflect on experiences where you have
exceeded expectations in the face of challenges
guided a team or group towards a solution
managed a tough conversation
monitored progress or evaluated outcomes
designed a program or created a process
facilitated a workshop or training
Involvement with youth or high-need populations (families, individuals with disabilities/special needs, low-income communities, English language learners)
Consider your involvement in these settings and see what you can apply to a school-based teaching position:
Non-profit or school-based jobs
Volunteering
Tutoring, Mentoring
Coaching or other extra-curricular
K-12 classroom assistant
Collegiate or adult teaching, facilitation
Demonstration of a growth mindset
Beliefs and mindsets are typically evaluated through scenario-based questions. To prepare, isolate past experiences and practice developing responses that communicate:
Resilience or commitment, in spite of obstacles
Self-reflection and continuous learning
Collaboration and cooperation
Solution-oriented
Creativity
Passion and excitement for your content area
Student engagement is critical to learning so principals will want to see and feel your subject area enthusiasm.
Brainstorm or research standards-based lesson objectives and identify a few different ways to teach the same lesson (start with betterlesson.com)
Describe how you will use your experience and perspective to make learning connections for students
Your willingness to develop through receiving feedback
Communicate that you know there is a lot to learn about teaching and that you plan to approach your new classroom with openness and humility.
Emphasize your commitment to ongoing learning and growth, noting that you will seek out a professional advisor and ask questions of excellent teachers.
Point out the coaching and development support you will receive throughout your first two years.
Highlight other experiences where you have been faced with challenges and discuss how you accessed resources or reached out to others to help overcome these challenges.
The intensity of the Indianapolis Teaching Fellows program
Although you will not be teaching a full schedule this summer, the Teaching Fellows staff pushes you to apply the skills you are learning in the context of teaching full time.
Explain that you will spend many hours each day learning, observing, and applying a variety of instructional methods through practice teaching, skill-building sessions, and practice-based coaching.
You should also mention that you will receive frequent feedback and mentoring from your Teacher Development Coach - both during pre-service training and the school year.
Qualities School Leaders Value
Qualities School Leaders Value
Goal oriented - you set and accomplish ambitions goals in your personal life and with students.
Think of an ambitious goal you have accomplished. You can use this example to demonstrate that you will set similar goals for your students and work to meet them.
Constant learners - we all make mistakes, but you learn from them.
Think of a time that you failed or something didn't go as well as you wanted. You can use this experience to demonstrate that you will be willing to constantly improve your teaching practice.
Problem solvers - regardless of the challenge, you will find solutions.
Think of a time that you encountered a challenge in your professional life and worked to generate solutions to meet the end goal. You can use this example to showcase the fact that you will always find a way to overcome obstacles in order to raise student achievement.
Committed to ALL students - you believe that all students can and will learn.
Think of a time that you went above and beyond to help a student/tutoree/mentoree achieve. If you don't have a specific example, this is a trait you can highlight simply by saying "I know that all students can achieve when they have great teachers, and it is my job to make sure that happens."
Responsible - you feel personally responsible for your own actions.
Think of a time that you stepped up to the plate and took matters into your own hands. You can use this example to emphasize that you feel personally responsible for what happens within your classroom walls and that you won't make excuses. Focus on controllable factors.
Resourceful - you know where to look for answers and when to ask for help.
Think of a time where you didn't have everything you needed to accomplish a goal, but were able to do so anyway. You can use this experience to prove that you will figure out a way to raise student achievement, even if you don't have enough resources.
Focused on raising student achievement, despite obstacles.
Making a Commitment
Making a Commitment
The final stage of securing a teaching position is the most exciting part: the “commitment,” which represents an agreement between you and a school hiring representative (typically the principal or an assistant principal) that you will begin as a full-time teacher in this specific position in the fall. Verbal acceptance of an offer may be taken as an official commitment to the school. Even a verbal commitment is difficult and sometimes impossible to reverse. For this reason, when offered a position, please be professional, thoughtful, and direct as to whether you are formally accepting or whether you will make a final decision in a specified number of hours or days. Our expectation is that you reply to all offers with an acceptance, decline, or an ask for more time to decide within 1 week of receiving the offer. You should not ask a school to wait longer than 14 days to hear your final answer. This is to ensure our school partners can move on to the next candidate for their open position if you choose to decline. Additionally, be sure to copy ITF Program Staff when accepting an offer.
How to Express...
I definitely want to work here
I definitely want to work here
Feel free to use the email format below:
Dear Principal_______________,
Thank you so much for your offer to work at (School Name). I am excited to become a (School Mascot) and want to officially accept your offer to teach (Content Area) in the 2024-2025 school year. Please let me know of any next steps I need to complete. I am looking forward to working with you!
Thank you,
(Your Name)
Sending this email means that you are done with the hiring process and should stop your job search immediately.
I do not want to work here
I do not want to work here
We strongly discourage you from declining an offer if you have no other offers on the table. If you are considering declining an offer when you have not yet secured another offer, please speak with your ITF manager first. The way you decline an offered position is just as important to your professional reputation as the way you accept one.
Feel free to use the email format below:
Dear Principal ______________,
Thank you so much for your offer to work at (School Name). Unfortunately, I'll be declining your offer to teach (Content Area) in the 2024-2025 school year. It was a joy to meet you and your staff, and I wish you all the best in the coming year.
Thank you,
(Your Name)
This means you are pursuing a position that is the best fit for you, and you are certain this offer would not be a good fit, or it means you've already accepted another offer. If a school emails back asking you for feedback about why you've chosen to decline, please reach out to your ITF manager for help in crafting your response.
I'm not sure yet
I'm not sure yet
Feel free to use the email format below:
Dear Principal _________________,
Thank you for the offer. I'd like to request some more time to review this offer. I will get back to you with an answer by <date>.
Thank you,
(Your Name)
If you send a "maybe" email, you need to provide the school leader with an exact date you'll get back with them that is less than 14 days from your offer.
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