Jobs in Private Schools

Let's think about the employment process from the employer's point of view. The person who will interview you has a list of reasons why she might want to hire you. Your task is to convince her that she can safely check all the boxes and report to her superior that you are ideal for the opening. To make that happen, here are some points to ponder.

The premise

First of all, assume that I am the head of school at a private school in the suburbs of a major American city. Our school serves students in grades Prekindergarten through Post Graduate year. There are essentially three schools within our community: a lower, a middle and an upper school. We offer a fairly traditional college preparatory program in our high school. We currently have 16 Advanced Placement courses. While the academic programs have their own distinctive components, we share facilities and staff across the curriculum as needed. We offer an extensive range of clubs and extracurricular activities which are guided by our faculty. Our sports program is professionally directed; however, we expect our faculty to assist with sports which they have played or to coach a team where we do not have a professional coach.

Note: You should be able to discover all of this information from the school's website. It is relatively easy to discern the main features of the various programs at that source. Do this as part of your preparation for the interview. You will

Perhaps you are thinking about teaching in a private school in the future or maybe you just started teaching in a private school during the current academic year. This article is written with you in mind. If you are coming from a public school, you will find several differences between teaching in public school and teaching in a private school. The differences are even more pronounced if you take a teaching position in a boarding school. If you have never taught at all, then the following article wil raise points and issues for you to consider.

Students who want to be there

Teachers want to teach. We love our subject. We want to share it with our students. Unfortunately it can be difficult to teach when you are more concerned about maintaining order in your classroom than you are with actually teaching. When you have a large class of, say, 30 or 40 students, maintaining order is an ever-present issue. On the other hand teaching a small class of, say 12-15 students, allows you to engage your students more or less constantly. It is very difficult for students not to be engaged when the size of the class is small.

This video illustrates teaching using Harkness tables.

Students attend private school because their parents want them to get a first rate education. The admissions process can be quite rigorous involving as it does testing and

Find Job Listings

Without a doubt, the advantage which job seekers in the 21st century have over previous generations is being able to do it online. The Internet allows you to learn about any job opening the minute it is posted online. The same applies to niche employment such as teaching and administrative positions in private schools. At the very least, most schools will have an employment link on their sites. There may not be many listings depending on the time of the year. However, bookmark the employment links for schools in which you have an interest. Job boards and agencies provide online listings as well. Bear in mind that there are peak times in the private school job search process. Typically, November through February is the time when your colleagues are out in force there looking for jobs as well. Most private schools like to have contracts for the next academic year signed and sealed by the beginning of March. As a result, you will probably find the highest number of online listings beginning in the fall.

This video discusses finding a teaching job. While it is aimed at public school teachers, the principles are

This is another article in a series that focuses on how to apply for private school employment. You are probably reading this, and thinking that applying for a job at a private school is just like applying for any other job. In some respects you're right. The actual application process will be similar. However, the questions which you will have to answer will require in-depth responses. Also, you will have to supply three references which the school will call if you make it to their shortlist of candidates. Understand these differences and distinctions so that you can beat out the competition. Yes, private school teaching positions are very competitive in most areas of the country.

When you apply for a private school teaching or administrative position, you will encounter several ways of presenting your personal data and information. If you are instructed to complete an online application or a downloadable application form, that resolves the issue of making your application easy to read. The school will have removed all those decisions from you and the other applicants.

Here is an example of an online application used by a Chicago private school.

On the other hand, if you are faced with a free-form situation with little or no guidance from the school as to what to present, or where the school expects you to write short answers or essays, then the tough choices are yours to make. The guiding

Most of us job seekers don't have very much experience with interviews. I know that from my many years of being one of those people who interviewed applicants for positions at the firm I worked for back then. It was always obvious to me which candidates had prepared for their interviews, and which had not.

Personally, I remember being in the same boat myself. As I recall, I was unhappy with the position I held. Honestly, I cannot remember the reasons why I was unhappy, but I started looking for a new job. I emailed my resume replying to a couple of openings and managed to land an interview for one of them. I never prepared for the interview. I simply turned up and winged it. I just assumed that my resume would show who I was and what I offered. How wrong I was! It was the worst interview experience I have ever had. I had no clue about what the job entailed or what questions to ask. Now, since I don't want you to have a similar experience, let's review some of the things which you can do to prepare for your successful job interview at a private school.

What kind of questions will be asked?

I know that the title of this article is Asking Good Questions. So, you are probably asking yourself why questions which the interviewer will ask are relevant. Good question! The interviewer's questions are relevant because you can use