The Interview Day

For weeks before the interview day, I came up with a lesson plan that would "wow" the selectors. All interviewees would be placed in groups of nearly 10 and have discussions with each other around a central point, would "teach" the group a concept, and would then have a one-on-one interview.

I was most nervous about teaching the group. I chose to teach a lesson about synonyms and antonyms. I practiced for weeks for my husband. He knew every part of it.

I practiced at work with Izzy and we gave each other feedback on how we were dong. We were both so excited and so nervous.

Finally, the interview day came. We met each other at the front door and walked in together. We met the head of the program in our city and frantically looked at the list to see what rooms we would be in for our interview day. We were in the same room! It was hard to believe.

We patiently listened to the background and information about the program, and then went to the interview room. We met the other people interviewing and the interviewees. We interviewed first by doing our lessons, then by engaging in a discussion (hard, by the way, because you were getting graded on your answers and you needed to fight to be heard!), and then writing a short essay answering a question. I believe the question was about being assigned to a school that you were supposed to be making a difference in or something...I can barely remember. I answered the best I could, all the while feeling completely unprepared and praying I gave the right answer.

There was a long lunch after that, while we each waited to be interviewed individually. The individual interview was excruciating. The questions were "what-ifs" and things that I knew nothing about, that I took crazy guesses for. The interviewer wrote down my answers, dragging it on even longer. It was pure torture.

One question that Izzy and I discussed later was "Give a percentage of whose responsibility it is for a student to learn." I didn't give an exact percentage and was nicely reprimanded by my interviewer and told to give a percentage. I settled on the teacher being primarily "to blame", with parent and students following up behind. Izzy told me that she settled on an even 10% for all, though she knew it didn't add up to 100%.

And then we were left to wait for weeks to hear if we made it in.