I got another call from Natalie this afternoon. In my e-mail to her this morning, I wrote that I would be stepping out for the afternoon (I wanted to dognap Dixie), but I would have my phone on me if she needed to get in touch with me. Apparently, she did.
I was in Chris’s office when it started ringing, lucky for me it wasn’t while I was walking Dixie. I took the call in the living room so I could get my little notebook just in case.
She said that she wasn’t able to get a hold of her colleague in the UK and asked if tomorrow morning would still be all right. She understood that I wanted some time to look over stuff, but it would probably be better overall to just take the first interview. It’s kinda funny ‘cuz initially, I was all about taking the interview tomorrow and then managed to freak myself out, hence the reason for requesting a rescheduling.
“Actually, my co-worker Ryan taught at Grey Coat. He was in the Maths Department. Let me just pass you over to him and he can fill you in a bit more on the school.”
Ryan’s first question to me was “How ya going?” Thank God I hung out with Aussies; there was a time there when I didn’t know what the hell that meant. Mostly ‘cuz we Americans say, “How ya doing?” I’m not all together sure if I answered appropriately, I said everything was fine, but it was sufficient enough for him to continue.
When I was looking at the website this morning, I had questions about the school. Of course, when I finally got someone to answer my questions immediately, I forgot them all. I felt pretty stupid.
Ryan told me all about the school. He said that it’s one of the best schools for placements and that he always tells candidates to take the position if it’s offered to them. The building is old, but classic; the school itself is split up into two campuses, the one for the younger grades is called St. Andrews and is a ten minute walk from the upperclassmen campus.
He asked me if I knew who my interviewer would be, which I didn’t. He said there’s usually two people who do the interviews so it would either be a woman named Flavia, or a woman called Sandra Young. He said that both women are great but made it a point to say how delightful and friendly Sandra was.
He gave the the basics of the Grey Coat interview process. He said they would be looking for candidates with strong subject knowledge (admittedly, I’m not positive I have that) and they always ask about behavior management and the first day of class.
Here, he made a point to say that the school administration backs the teachers 110% when it comes to classroom management. If I tell the head teacher or another teacher that a student is giving me problems, they bring the student into a meeting to have a discussion about her behavior. (I can use the singular pronoun “her” because well, it’s an all girls school.) He said Grey Coat is the best school he’s taught in regarding administration support.
He assured me I’d be fine in the interview. He said that it was probably in my better interest to take the interview as soon as possible because if I try to reschedule it the interviewers might wonder why. Some part of me couldn’t help but think most places give you a bit more notice than the day before, but I didn’t say as much. He said I should just be positive and energetic and I’d be fine. (He repeated as much several times throughout the phone call.)
I decided that I’m not very good at talking to strangers on the phone. I have a tendency to just utter fillers like “that’s great” or “awesome” and even “cool”. (This does not necessarily bode well for my phone interview tomorrow.)
He also said that since it’s a phone interview, I have the benefit of having the cheat sheet with me. They sent a typical 20 interview questions sheet in the registration packet so he recommended jotting down a few notes to help me if I freeze up. I was kind of amused by that because I’d already done so back when I first registered with Global Education. (Of course, some of the questions I hadn’t filled out yet.)
He reassured me a few more times, then passed me back over to Natalie. She filled me in on how the process would most likely occur. I’d receive a phone call from her colleague in England about fifteen minutes before the actual interview, I could use that time to ask any last minute questions and stuff like that. She said that I would then be transferred to a conference call with the interviewers.
She said if I had any more questions to feel free to call or e-mail her. She also mentioned that she checks her e-mail quite late into the evening so if I thought of any questions past office hours, there was a good possibility I would still be able to get my questions answered. I thanked her for setting up that information conversation with Ryan and thanked her in general. She wished me luck and we bid each other good-bye.
I was feeling pretty good about things. I went back up to the office to tell Chris O about the phone call.
And now, as I write this and try to prepare myself for the interview, I’m getting a bit more nervous.
I really hope I don’t screw up…