Have you seen the old gal?

After applying for a job at the first of the two schools I visited last week, I was very pleased to receive a call on the same day inviting me for an interview. I would have to teach a 15 minute lesson in the morning and then they would shortlist candidates for interviews in the afternoon. I was told they wanted me to "share a story" with a class of year 5 children (9-10 year olds) and that they would be looking for pupil engagement (are the children interested?), good pace (keeping the lesson moving at a good pace so the children don't get bored) and speaking and listening opportunities (not just reading a story to the children, but getting them involved in discussion).

I suppose many people may think 15 minutes is a long time, but actually I found it very hard to limit my lesson to 15 minutes. It is certainly not long enough to share a whole book with pupils, so as I thought most of the interviewees would probably be sharing an excerpt from a book, I decided to do something different in an effort to show creativity. So, I found this picture:

"On The Streets Of London" by Arthur Steele

and played the song “Streets of London” by Ralph McTell. Then we discussed what we might like to find out about the woman in the picture and what questions we could ask her and what the answers might be.

I enjoyed the lesson, but apparently more than the observers did. I didn’t get it.

However, although I am disappointed they did not like my lesson enough to interview me in the afternoon, I must feel pleased that out of 25 people who applied, I was one of 8 invited to attend the morning interview/lesson. They interviewed only 3 people in the afternoon, so I was not the only one disappointed. Also, I am applying for 2 other jobs which I would rather have than that one, so it did save me having to find a polite way of saying, “Thank you for wasting your time interviewing me, but I don’t really want the job anyway, I am only here for the experience!”

Got some hard work to do now on my personal statement for the next application due in tomorrow!