Interview

Welcome to a watching post-season baseball game edition of Wise Madness. The reason I’m writing so late is what I have to write about. At 10 AM I had my third and final interview with the charter school group I applied to teach at. For many of you that’s the middle of the day, for me it’s early. I have been on poor sleep schedule of late getting less than six hours a night often interrupted. I woke up at my usual 8 AM and unusually for me made my breakfast at 9. I usually eat much later but I always want to have eaten and had coffee before doing anything important. Then I dressed for the interview. This is the one great thing about the pandemic, the interview was via zoom so getting dressed meant putting on a dress shirt. Turns out that for naught. The building hasn’t turned the heat on, and it was freezing. I decided it was more important to be comfortable than stylish and put a sweatshirt on over my shirt. As soon as we started, I explained about the heat and asked if were OK and they told me no problem. I should back up a minute and talk about last night’s prep.

The heart of the interview was teaching a lesson. I wasn’t worried about that, I can fall out of bed and teach any middle school math lesson with no prep. Forget middle school, same for high school and college through calculus. The hard part is that I had to prepare by making a lesson plan. I was given a template and an example. The topic I chose was order of operations. I wasn’t sure when and how that is taught in common core. I looked at the common core website and couldn’t make heads or tales of it. It looks like it is taught ever year, but they give no details. What about all the weird methods that parents complain about? I’m fine with the weird methods, they are all variations of things that I do myself. I couldn’t find any guidance. I decided to call an audible and switch to solving linear equations. I couldn’t get much guidance on that either but as long as they don’t use any of the silly methods that some teachers taught my college students, I’d be fine. The silly methods go against common core which is based on understanding what you are doing. That’s how I think and how I do things. Now the hard part was mastering the technology. I didn’t have a whiteboard, I had to use PowerPoint or Google Slides. It took me some time to get things looking like I wanted them to. Turns out I could have saved myself the trouble and simply written it in Word as I would in handouts. The one slide I made that was different was the title, “Solving Linear Equations.” Part of the reason I didn’t get enough sleep was that I was up making a slide deck. I was told that I should prepare an entire lesson, but I’d only give 15 minutes of it or until they told me to stop. That’s foreshadowing.

Now back to yesterday. I was on the zoom with four young women all of whom reminded me of friends. One had purple hair. I found that encouraging. I like the idea of working for a company that is comfortable being represented by a woman with purple hair. It certainly made me feel better about the sweatshirt. The idea was that I would teach a lesson and the team would make believe they were my students. We were now in my wheelhouse. People think I have self-esteem issues as I make so many self-disparaging jokes. I say them because they are funny, it’s nicer to make fun of myself than other people, and I’m confident that I’m not stupid and nobody will think I am no matter how many times I call myself an idiot. I come across as relaxed because I am relaxed. I know that’s odd for someone with my anxiety issues, but I was in my comfort zone. I started with a typical touch of mine that few teachers use, I pointed out that they are called linear equation because their graphs are lines, it’s right there in the name, linear. My teachers never pointed it out to me, and I didn’t notice it until I was an adult. I didn’t go into my favorite associated etymology, line comes from the same root as linen, flax fiber. Why? Because the way ancients made a line was pulling a rope or threat taut. I love the way these things are inter-related.

I went to the next slide, defining what it means to solve an equation. That’s where the play acting came in. One of them answered her cell phone and I had to stop her. I thought another one had a real life distraction, she put her zoom on mute, but that was part of the game too. I thought that she was on the phone but the student she was playing said she wasn’t. I wasn’t sure, I didn’t see the phone, I just saw her get up and look to the side. I guess she was simulating passing a note or talking to the person next to her. I got a little snippy once I found out this was part of the act and she then asked a question on exactly what I said when she wasn’t paying attention, so that’s what I said, “You’d have known if you hadn’t been on the phone.” I never got to the next slide. They stopped me after maybe five minutes.

All I saw was smiling faces and hearing praise. They loved my bit about the origin of linear. They loved how well I knew the material. We talked about what I thought I did well, I said the most important thing was the jokes landing. I had to say what I did wrong and said how I handled the phone call that wasn’t a phone call. They loved those responses. I was a little puzzled about how I would “lead for racial equality.” “Lead” seemed a strange word to use, and I told them that I’d say, “worked towards.” Racial equality is a core issue for me and one I’ve thought a long time about. I explained that it’s usually not about somebody saying, “I hate blacks.” It’s about making decisions that negatively affect POC more than whites. They liked those. They liked everything I said. The entire experience was an ego boost.

When they asked if I had any questions, I asked the expected, like the hours. The school day is 7-4. Remember how I said 10 AM is early for me? For me to get to Brooklyn by 7 I’d have to leave at 5:30 and get up at 5! I’m not going to just move to Brooklyn but set up camp in the school so I can just roll out of bed and into class. I then asked MS. Purple Hair about my ponytail, which I showed them. I asked if I could keep it. She said, “They are OK with my purple hair, they’ll be fine with your ponytail.” Whew. It would not be a huge deal if I had to cut it but I’m happier keeping it. It took me a time to grow. Some people grow sour bread starter, I grow my ponytail. If it ever reaches my belt I win.

After the interview I should have written but I didn’t. I watched the beginning of the Avengers. I took a nap. I went on the shopping walk which is longer than the Donut Walk™, 4.29 miles. It’s 10:01 PM I better post this.