Thursday, April 12, 2007

April 3, 2007: A Full Day of Interviewing

8am I was supposed to have breakfast with the Dean. It was snowing, so MRM drove me to the restaurant. I was ready to leave in time to walk on my own and was actually looking forward to walking in the snow. But when she offered, I jumped at it. I decided it really would be better to not have to walk if I didn't have to. Then it turned out the paper didn't come and she wanted to go to Mickie's Hallmark and get a paper. So we went to Mickie's (they open at 6am just for their newspaper-buying customers) and walked around until it was time for my breakfast.

Breakfast with the Dean was really nice. Breakfast was yummy, too. She dropped me off at the Education Center and then drove away to find a parking place. Oooh, getting door-to-door service is very nice!

I got ready for my presentation to the class. This presentation is actually a teaching opportunity and the 2 student members of the search committee are students in the class. It turns out I could've taught anything I wanted related to technology integration, but since I knew the class was content literacy, I tried to find out what that was and then talk about integrating technology into content literacy. I had borrowed a classroom set of Palms from UNT and brought them with me after the February break and will take them back when I return in April. How handy that I have them! Guess what technology the content literacy class is going to learn about. ;-) The beauty of that presentation is, the Palms are so captivating, it will make me look good. AND, they really are a viable and powerful tool for use in content literacy. I had a blast! I used the document camera to show what was happening. I have taught using Palms a million times with only talking people through it, but if you can add a visual component, both auditory and visual learners will have better success. I knew we had a document camera, so I tried it out earlier in the week so I'd be familiar with it and then actually taught the class how to use it and made them brainstorm ways they could integrate it into their content area teaching.

After that, the 2 student members of the committee took me to lunch in the dining hall and then gave me a campus tour. They knew I'd been here for 3 months so they asked me what I wanted to see. I had a list: dorms, the fitness center, Preble Hall, and Roberts. They were all places I hadn't seen. It turns out the 2 students are both Resident Assistants (RAs) so they gave me a GREAT tour of dorms. We hit the other spots on my list and even went to the Media Center in the basement of Roberts. Neither of them had been to that place and were just as fascinated as I was.

I had a little break and then met with the Department Chair, the Director of the Teaching and Learning Cooperative, the Director of Field Services for the College of Education, the Provost, and the professor who teaches special education for Secondary/Middle Education Department. Shwew! Then I met with the Practicum team before going to dinner with the Department Chair and his wife, and 2 other members of the department (both of whom are on the committee).

Day 2 over and successful!

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