When to Start Applying for a Teacher Job: A Comprehensive Guide for New Teachers

In this video, we're talking about when to start applying for a teaching job. Whether you're a recent graduate or considering a change, timing is everything. Join us as we explore the pros and cons of starting mid-year vs. waiting for the new school year and discover the key months when districts are actively hiring.  Plus, I share essential tips on what to do in the meantime to ensure you're fully prepared for the teaching hiring season. Don't miss out on landing your dream teaching job during your next teacher interview – watch now! 

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

So you might have just graduated with your degree or license, or you've discovered that your current districts may not be the district for you and you want to start looking for another position. Well, today we are going to share not only when you should start applying for a teacher job, but also what to do in the meantime to prepare if it's not the right time of year to start job hunting. So, with that being said, let's dive in. Hey Teacher Bestie, my name is Helena and I'm the creator of the Present Teacher podcast. I'm a first year teacher coach and in this podcast you are going to learn everything from simple, actual classroom management, social learning and teacher wellness strategies. You know that impact you want to make in the classroom, or we're going to make it happen here. Before we dive in, the first thing you're going to want to do is you're going to want to answer this important question, and that is do you want to start a position mid-year or do you want to start teaching in the beginning of the next school year? How you answer this question will greatly depend on when you should start applying for new teaching positions. There are both pros and cons to starting right away if it is in the middle of the year or waiting until the next school year. So let's break this down into the pros and cons of each. So first let's talk about the pros. The pros to starting in the middle of the year is it helps you gain experience sooner. It can also help you build relationships, discover if that district is a good fit for you without committing to an entire full year. It can help you get to know staff and co-worker sooner and it can help you financially make more money sooner, the sooner you join or make a job or get a job. However, unless you have a job or decide to sub until you get your first teaching position or your next teaching position, now let's talk about the pros to waiting to join your next teaching position until the beginning of the year. So the pros to waiting is that you have more time to set up and take any trainings or PD or research anything in the meantime. It can also help you give you more time to get to know the staff without having to start right away. You see, when you start teaching in the middle of the year, you kind of hit with the ground running because you are starting in the middle of the year and a lot of teachers already had that time to get to know each other and build out their classrooms at the beginning of the year, so that might put you on a slight disadvantage. Another pro to starting at the beginning of the year is you get to start with a new group of students like everybody else, and you get to train them how you would like, without a previous teacher previously showing them how to interact throughout the classroom.

Speaker 1: 3:02

Now let's talk about the cons of each thing. The cons to starting in the middle of the year is you're not sure why the teacher has left. Now don't get me wrong. A majority of the time teachers leave because something personal came up, or because they got sick, something like that, or they just found a different position in a different district. But sometimes teachers do leave because they had a hard time and they didn't have a lot of support in that district. So when they leave in the middle of the year you don't exactly know why the teacher left in the middle of the year. Another con to starting in the middle of the year is you have to train more students in the middle of the year, which means you have to balance not only training your students and modeling procedures, but you also have to probably teach content at the same time or you have a shorter amount of time to model expectations in the classroom. The con another con is you also have to start teaching sooner, whereas typically in the beginning of the year you have a little more time to get your students acquainted to you and the expectations in the classroom.

Speaker 1: 4:11

Now let's talk about the cons to waiting until the beginning of the year to start for next teaching position. The con is you could be waiting longer to make more money. You could have to work longer with the district. That may not be a good fit for you. And another con to waiting until you start in the next beginning of the year back to school season is that you'll have more people applying at the end of the year typically than you will in the middle of the year. As a side note, if you want to earn money but not join mid-year, I would highly recommend that you consider subbing. This is a good way to get to know the students, the staff and admin before getting a job there, to figure out what's a good fit for you and to start building those connections. That way, when you do start applying for jobs. Typically you will already know the staff on the committee, so you already have that connection built out.

Speaker 1: 5:13

Now that we've talked about both the pros and cons to either waiting mid-year to join a teaching position versus waiting until the next back to school season, let's talk about the ideal time to start applying in the year. So if you don't mind working in the middle of the year, depending on where you are applying, you can honestly apply any time you see an opening. While some states are a little more competitive than others for teaching positions, many states, like the one I'm currently in, have a teacher shortage. So you can apply at any time and probably get a teaching position at any time. If you are wanting to start during the next back to school season. Here are some ideas to figure out when you should start applying for jobs.

Speaker 1: 6:03

So typically, teachers won't put in their notice that they're not renewing their contract for the upcoming year during the last one to three months of the school year. So to figure out when the best time to start applying for teaching positions for the next school year find, a good way to figure this out is to find the districts you want to apply for and start looking at those last three months of their school calendar. However, some districts may not hire until school is out. It is completely dependent on where you are at the school district and how prepared they are to start hiring for the upcoming school year. A general guideline to follow is to start looking for teaching positions for the new year between April and August. These are the months that districts are hiring, although they may be earlier or later depending on where the district is located at. So now that we talked about not only if you should apply mid-year or at the beginning of next year, let's talk about what to do in the meantime. So now that you know when to start applying for teaching jobs, here are some things you can do in the meantime to start preparing for hiring season, so you are ready to go once positions are posted.

Speaker 1: 7:26

So the first important thing and this is something that I don't hear enough people talk about is discovering what it factor. One thing you should do to prepare for your upcoming interview is figuring out what makes you stand apart from other candidates. Your it factor is what makes you stand out from the other candidates and ensures that you are the one that they should be hiring. So ways to figure out your it factor is to figure out why are you passionate about teaching and what makes you a good teacher. Check out the ultimate interview guide I'll put a link in the description to figure out more about not only your it factor but other commonly asked questions about interviewing, including what you should wear and how to answer teacher interview questions.

Speaker 1: 8:15

The second thing you want to do to prepare for the upcoming hiring season is to rate schools or districts. So it's never too early to start rating or researching possible districts that you want to start applying to. So one way I personally like to do this is I like to go to nichecom and I look up any districts or schools that I am interested in working at. So again, that's nichecom. Once you type in a school, it'll give you a rating and a breakdown of the school or even district, down to how many students per teacher ratio, how many are below poverty or receive free or reduced lunch, what the general rating of the school is, what their statistics are for passing state testing. All of those are really good to know. And it also leaves the option for teachers, staff, parents and communities members of the community to leave a review on that school. So save this. I would start writing a write down districts that you want to start working for now so you can refer back to it later when you see a job posting. You can then go back and double check and make sure that they have a good rating or one that you feel aligned and comfortable working at.

Speaker 1: 9:34

The third thing you want to do while preparing for the upcoming hiring season is you want to figure out the mission statement. So this is the last step you can do for applying for a teacher job is figuring out the district's mission statement or the school values, and the reason you want to write this down and have this on hand is this will help you when you start creating things like your cover letter, your application or even how you answer interview questions for future job opportunities. I would highly recommend you save the mission statement and or the school values for later, so you can refer back to it later when you start creating and personalizing things like your cover letter in the future. If you want to learn more on how to prepare for a job interview in a single weekend, I want to invite you to join Land, your Dream Job. It's a self-paced program that I created that have you prepared and confident in your ability to apply for a teaching job in a single weekend, all the while figuring out, nailing down your it factor. That wraps up when you should start applying for a teaching job. If you found this helpful and you want to learn more, I want to invite you to check out the ultimate interview guide.

Speaker 1: 10:59

When is the best time to apply for jobs? Where you are at? Let us know in the comments below. As always, remember we are stronger together and I will see you next time, teacher bestie. Bye. Thank you so much for joining me on today's episode. I hope that you were able to take away some value that will help you thrive inside and out of the classroom. It would mean the world to me if you could take five seconds right now and leave a review on this podcast. And if you found this podcast especially helpful, make sure to take a screenshot of this episode right now and tag me on your socials to let me know you're listening. As always, remember that we are stronger together. With all the love in the world, helena, aka the President. Teacher. See you next time, teacher bestie.