Seeking Advice re: Teacher Application Process

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Illinois Teachers Chatboard

Seeking Advice re: Teacher Application Process

by Brandon Zurvalec JD

Jun 14, 2017

To All,

By way of introduction, my name is Brandon Zurvalec and I am a licensed Illinois educator in secondary social science with a full endorsement in history. At present, I am seeking my first permanent teaching position and just have a couple of questions for now (and please bear with me re: the length of the second one):

(1) Are there any other chatboards/listservs like this one that anyone would recommend? I would naturally prefer ones that feature at least a fair number of Illinois educators, although this isn't necessarily a deal-breaker.

(2) As mentioned above, I am currently seeking my first permanent teaching position. For the most part, I am concentrating my efforts in Lake County as well as the north and south suburbs of Cook County (I would apply to CPS but the residency requirement makes this a non-option for me). As far as results go, I'm just going to tell it like it is: I have been applying to districts fo...See More

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(3)

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darfaz Hi, I think your situation is probably pretty common for Social Science teachers in their job search, so as discouraging as it can be, know that you're probably not in the minority. I have a poli sci endorsement, but I have been teaching Spanish (of course) for the last 13 years in a few different districts in the very far south west suburbs.
...See MoreHi, I think your situation is probably pretty common for Social Science teachers in their job search, so as discouraging as it can be, know that you're probably not in the minority. I have a poli sci endorsement, but I have been teaching Spanish (of course) for the last 13 years in a few different districts in the very far south west suburbs.

Some of my thoughts on your situation. - Can you coach a sport or an activity? I know in the districts I've been a part of, the social science teachers did some pretty heavy lifting. I doubt in my current job that they would even look at a candidate for a ss teacher that had no coaching or play directing or Speech coaching experience. Some districts are just looking for coaches, so you may want to try starting there. I have acquaintances that have coached 2 or 3 sports just to get their foot in the door to get a teaching job. - Your username has JD at the end. Did you graduate from law school? If so, you may be qualified for advanced pay, which sorry to say, probably makes you too expensive to hire as a new teacher. In some districts, the difference in pay between a Bachelor's and Master's degree pay is considerable. My mom teaches in Dupage county at a pretty sizable district and I think the pay increase is about 20%. Hiring principals might not even look at your application after seeing that. - Like I've already stated, social science is tough. Most teachers that I know that got jobs were doing anything and everything they could to get hired, and it did take a maternity sub job or student teaching experience to get noticed. -Grades don't mean anything really. Letters of rec don't either. I'm a dept. chair and have been heavily involved with hiring 5 teachers in my department and I'm not sure we even looked at either of those.

I don't mean to be discouraging, but it legitimately could take you a year or two to find a full time permanent job teaching history. I would find the first maternity sub, the .5 or .8 job that you can get. I'd also connect with teacher friends you graduated with that have found jobs. They might know where ss teachers are retiring, which could help a lot. You sound very realistic and positive with your thoughts, so keep on pressing on, even if it can be discouraging.

Jun 25, 2017

Jun 25, 2017

Brandon Zurvalec Darfaz,

Thank you for your thoughtful response. To answer your two questions:

(1) "Can you coach a sport or an activity?" To put it as simply as I can, I am willing to do WHATEVER IT TAKES to show schools/districts that I am an "all-in" team-player who doesn't even know the meaning of the phrase, "that's not my job." But to get a...See MoreDarfaz,

Thank you for your thoughtful response. To answer your two questions:

(1) "Can you coach a sport or an activity?" To put it as simply as I can, I am willing to do WHATEVER IT TAKES to show schools/districts that I am an "all-in" team-player who doesn't even know the meaning of the phrase, "that's not my job." But to get a little more specific, I've consistently checked between 15 - 20 extracurricular items on every Applitrack application I've completed and honestly believe that my experience directly coincides with at least a few of them (e.g. my work as an attorney would make me a great fit for coaching a debate team and/or reading/writing club; my experience in government would come in handy when overseeing student council/government, etc.). And while I've never actually coached basketball before, I could get up-to-speed with that very quickly, as I played a lot when I was younger and would say, with humility, that I know the game fairly well. But again, my main point, here, is that I am willing to do whatever it takes to give schools/districts and their students the kind of all-around teacher that they would need in me, should they decide to bring me on board.

(2) "Your username has JD at the end. Did you graduate from law school?" I obviously more or less already answered this in my answer to your first question but yeah, I graduated from New York Law School in 2006 and ran my own law firm for about three and a half years before deciding to make a career change (long story short, practicing law just didn't give me the professional fulfillment that I desire and teaching has proven to be a much better choice, in this respect). Needless to say, I'm not exactly thrilled about any policy/practice that punishes job candidates for having "too much education" (especially when, as here, we're talking about applying for jobs IN education) but it is what it is and I'll just have to deal with it. And just so there's no ambiguity on this point, I know this issue stems from our deplorable state budget situation and has nothing to do with people like yourself.

So that's basically what I have in the way of answers to your great questions but if you have any further questions and/or comments for me, I would love to hear them (and I'm going to look into all of your suggestions, by the way, including keeping an eye out for basketball coaching positions). Aside from that, let me just leave you with the link to my online educator portfolio, should you or anyone in your school/district be interested in learning more about my qualifications and background: http://www.zurvalec-teacher-portfolio.com. I know I'm new and that the competition is fierce, but I strongly believe that I have what it takes to do this job with excellence and anybody who ultimately brings me on board won't regret it for a second. Thanks again!

Regards,

Brandon Zurvalec

Jun 26, 2017

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