Teacher Career Fair Attendees Find Schools Have Many Mid-Year Openings - November 16th, 2009
Almost 500 job seekers and 150 recruiters attended The University of Texas at Austin College of Education's fall teacher career fair.
Thahn Nguyen is feeling very optimistic about her job prospects after attending The University of Texas at Austin College of Education’s recent teacher career fair. Like many future teachers who will be graduating in May, Nguyen elected to attend the fall fair and start making contacts early, practicing her interview skills and gauging the job market.
Thanh Nguyen, who hopes to teach kindergartners and first graders.
“I’m finding that there are job openings even now, mid-year, so that makes me really hopeful about next spring, when I’ll be needing to definitely get something,” says Nguyen. “I wanted to go ahead and see what this experience was like so that I’ll be very prepared in the spring and won’t be so nervous. I’ve gotten good tips from the school districts who are here and I think I’ll feel confident and comfortable about interviewing later.”
"There's a lot to master when you're becoming a teacher — difficult skills like evaluation and classroom management — but I feel fully prepared and like I'm going to do well in my own classroom once I'm hired. This is not a career you go into with only half of a commitment — for me, it's something I'm putting my heart and soul into."
— Efron Gil, a history major who went through UTeach's liberal arts program
By the time students in the College of Education’s teacher preparation program reach the job fair, they have received detailed instructions and assistance in interviewing, portfolio creation and resume writing from the college’s Education Career Services office. They have had opportunities to ask human resources representatives from a wide array of school districts about how best to present themselves, attend recruiter panels, do research in the career services library, do mock interviews in order to identify areas that may need improvement, and assemble impressive visual and written evidence of their teaching successes.
The College of Education’s Education Career Services office presents two teacher career fairs each year, one in the fall and another in the spring, and they are among the most well-attended in the state. Unlike most other university teacher career fairs, The University of Texas at Austin opens theirs to anyone who is interested in pre-K-12 employment, not just to UT students and graduates. In addition to teachers, school librarians, counselors, principals and school health professionals also are invited to attend and make job contacts.
The fact that there are teaching positions available in the fall is good news to future teachers and the fact that the fair attracts so many top teaching candidates is great news for the recruiters.
"I think some new teachers may have this feeling of being lost in the classroom and have trouble managing all of the aspects of teaching in the first year or two, but we received such great training here that I feel very confident. This is something that I want to do for life — I love the students and love my subject area. I feel very lucky to be in this profession."
— Daniel Pabon, an English major who went through UTeach's liberal arts program
As Dr. L.S. Spencer, executive director of human resources at Klein ISD, commented, “School districts from far and wide come to this job fair because The University of Texas at Austin produces the best teachers. We always get excellently prepared professionals when we hire from here.”
Even though the fall career fair is in schools’ hiring “off season,” this year’s attracted almost 500 job seekers and around 150 recruiters. Recruiters included Texas school districts as well as many out of state public schools, non-profits and private schools. Employers from as far away as South Carolina and California were in attendance, and Mexico was represented for the first time.
In addition to two teacher career fairs each year, Education Career Services also hosts fall and spring Kinesiology and Health Education Job & Internship Fairs. These are designed for students majoring in general kinesiology, health promotion, athletic training, sport management, and youth and community studies.
Future history teacher Efron Gil, education services program coordinator Rita Moreno and future English teacher Daniel Pabon.
“I’ve had such thorough preparation for my job search,” says Nguyen, who hopes to teach kindergartners or first graders, “from career services as well as from the classes I’ve taken and my apprentice teacher experiences. I think teachers who go through their training at The University of Texas at Austin leave college absolutely ready to take on the challenges of teaching.
“I started teaching, really, when I was a just a child myself and would help my mom, who was a babysitter. I was always teaching the littlest children how to do things. When I was in high school I participated in a paraprofessional program for future teachers, was in Americorps where I prepared science labs for pre-K students, have done a study abroad program in Mexico for teachers and will be going to Italy to teach English there – if there ever was anyone who was ‘meant to be a teacher,’ it’s me. Nothing at all is more rewarding.
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