The person that contacted me for my interview on Monday told me to sign in at the main office. Well, when I got to the school I ran into a man just after the front door who signed me in and directed me to the attendance office (where he said I would meet the man I had come to see). However, when I asked for the guy, the people in the office told me he had just left. I was like "what the...?" I asked when he'd be back and if I should wait, and I got no response to either question. So I decided to wait. And I waited. And waited. And waited for 30 minutes. And then I suddenly thought, whoa, what if he's in the main office. Ding ding ding. Man. MAN!! He WAS in the main office, and he had been waiting there with two assistant principals, three teachers, and the principal for the past half hour and they all thought I didn't show. Needless to say, this was not going well.

Everyone had already dispersed and the guy said we would have to schedule another interview. I felt like I was being blown off, which wouldn't have been too surprising, given the fact that I had kept them waiting for a whole thirty minutes, but I was bummed anyhow. The next minute, though, he decided that he could pull together another interview team. We headed on over to the principal's office and we went in search of more teachers (since the last ones had already returned to their classes). Unfortunately, however, two teachers walked in who had their period free and agreed to sit in on the interview. Let's backtrack.

Going on two months ago I went to this same school for an observation. It was right before I had to give notice to my then current job and I was completely nervous about my decision. I'm not the most financially secure person right now and I wasn't completely sure that I could handle this quick "jump" into teaching, especially at a high need school. What if it really wasn't for me? What if I couldn't manage the kids? What if I didn't get a teaching job? The questions and anxieties went on and on. I figured that it was my last chance to speak to a real teacher, and so I candidly asked all my questions and bared all my concerns to these two teachers at the end of my observation. And guess who these two teachers were. Just guess. They were the two who just walked into the principal's office!! The ones who were about to sit in on my interview!

I had a small heartattack and began breathing in a chaotic way. I had no idea what they were going to say during the discussion, or even afterwards for that matter. The interview went relatively well, actually, and I was feeling okay about it. It was the only real teaching interview I had ever had, and I thought I answered most of the questions to the best of my ability, given the fact that I haven't had extensive classroom experience or exposure to massive amounts of teaching theory. The question did come up, however. One of the teacher's said," I remember when you came here a month ago. You were nervous and hesitant about teaching and weren't sure it was the right thing for you. Has this changed?" So that really sucked. Of course it changed. I wouldn't be interviewing at a school if it hadn't. I obviously quit my job and committed myself to the program. What else was I to do? I answered the question and hoped that I had made some sort of a save there, but you never know. No one at my interview was smiling, except me of course, and I didn't feel a connection with anyone in the room. It looked to me like I was boring them. Oh well.

I went to another job fair on Thursday and put another nail in the South Gate coffin. I saw the AP from my current practice school and went to say hello. He asked if I was on the interview list and I said "no, but I don't need to be right? You're going to hire me anyway?!" It was all in fun, and I was completely joking, but when I turned around, the guy from South Gate was behind me. I freaked and didn't even say hi to him. Geez. Real smooth, huh?