[gertegan]

It's been a few years since I've posted, because I thought I was done teaching. I was non-renewed a few years back, from a school I was happy to get away from, and thought I'd never go back to teaching. However, my daughter started middle school this year and just listening to her reminded me how much I enjoy teaching middle school. So, here I am, starting to watch the boards and praying my non-renewal won't screw up my chances of getting a new position. I couldn't resign, I have kids and they like to eat and the economy was crap at the time, so I had to ensure I could get unemployment. Any advice?

[GreyhoundGirl]

I just say I wasn’t a good fit with the building. I wouldn’t worry about it.

[basketball777]

I’ve had difficulty getting hired again, 18 interviews so far, so hope it’s not like that for u.

[Kinderkr4zy]

I would just be honest but I wouldnt elaborate too much. As a PP mentioned- "That school and I weren't good fit. I am a better fit for a school that embraces encourages___ ."(enter your strength here-i.e. technology, or equity and anti-bias learning, project based learning) and then list all the ways that you are highly skilled at it and hope to implement it in a school. I can help if you have some idea what direction they are moving in as a district so that you can see if anything they are trying to work towards is something that you are already strong with. You can get this information for the district website usually by reading their mission statement and LCAP goals.

My point is acknowledge it, dont place blame, and quickly get move the topic onto more positive points rather than getting stuck holding that hot potato of a question.

I was let go from my last school, but I have been happily working in my current district for 3 years. There is still opportunities after non-renewal. I was also hired when my area was hot for teachers (2 districts near me were opening new school and a third was growing and adding classes in addition to replacing those who retired or left) so I even had multiple offers-but I also had a history of good experiences and good recommendations from other Principals and department heads. If you find it harder to get hired then I suggest subbing for a while to make connections in your district.

[gertegan]

Two interviews so far. Question, how many of your districts have printed, formulaic questions that the interviewers ask? It's a very odd form of interviewing and I'm not really comfortable with it, it's hard to get a flow of conversation going when they're just ticking off questions they're supposed to ask.