I applied via Indeed over the weekend, and was called the following weekday. I was asked very briefly if I had time for an interview later that day, I agreed, and went over to the school. I had a relatively short interview with an adminstrative assistant, that went fairly well. I basically told them about myself, my degree, my goal and career plans, background experience, and why I wanted to work there. The questions asked were all related to that as well. She gave me a brief introduction to what the school was all about, what they stood for, and showed me around the campus. Overall this portion of the interview was very pleasant, and she was very nice, as was the staff I met that day. All very welcoming and loving. Next I met with the Director of the school (for my region), and we talked for about another hour. He asked for a brief mock lesson to one of the instructors in my field. I did so for about 10 minutes, in which case the instructor said it was great and I went back and had a discussion with the director for another 30 minutes. We discussed a variety of things form teaching methods, to the type of students I would work with, to the scheduling, money, and planning, the type of classes I can teach, etc. This went pretty well, and the Director himself was also very nice and welcoming. At this point I was asking serious questions about how to set up classes, and different ideas I would like to implement *if I were hired (I was really interested in working here), and whether I could or not. I was assured teachers were given the freedom to implement the systems they liked. My point here is, the lower management seemed very flexible, passionate, and loved helping these kids succeed in life. Afterwards, I decided to actually have some discussions about the subjects I would be teaching with the other teachers. They showed me how they've taught classes and planned things out before, and I was given my schedule. This is where problems started to appear. I am a BS Chemistry major, and have experience tutoring for 3 years anything from high school to college Math and Chemistry. The job description said they wanted Bio and Physics as well, and I thought I could implement them as well (not too much of a stretch). I was assigned absolutely no Chemistry, 1 Bio class, some geometry and algebra classes (not really a problem), anatomy (never took an anatomy class in my life), and some middle school earth/physical science classes. A total of 7 different subjects, to 10 different students. This was completely different from my interpertation of say 4 subjects taught to 10 students. This meant I would need a separate teaching plan for each subject, some I'm not even familiar with. This however, I decided wasn't a problem, enough hard work and effort, and I can do it. They wanted to pay me 27/hr however, for this work. So only paid for teaching time, not planning. I went the next day to discuss the pay was no where near enough for the amount of work I would have to put it. That I was willing to either discuss my current schedule with higher pay, or an alternative schedule with lower pay. They were not open to any discussions of the sort. No pay change, nor any schedule change, in which case I unfortunately had to decline their offer. I felt bad, because I felt like the adminstration here really did care, and so did all the teachers. I feel like they truly believe the schools mission and the students themselves; however, upper management is not providing the resources possible for them to truly succeed. Teachers here do not get paid nearly enough. I could tutor every single subject, and make at least 30/hr tutoring (I used to charge 35, sometimes up to 50 depending on the difficulty of the subject). Teachers at high schools make more than this teaching just 1 or 2 subjects. They want to give you part time hours (so no benefits) and pay you abysmal low rates, while asking you to personalize each course. This smells like greed from a mile away from the upper management. They also hire people who are unqualified to teach (i.e. ME), because they know a real teacher with real teaching credentials would be appalled at the pay (i.e. other teachers were the ones who told me not to take the job without higher pay). All in all, interview was very casual, nice, welcoming, and warm. The people here really do care about the school and students, but upper management has left them to get run over and struggle. If you apply to this school, keep in mind, you will be doing a lot of work, with little pay, and the schools have a high (for the exact reasons stated above) turn-over rate. Just look at the reviews, most people leave after 1 year when they realize the pay isn't enough. Good luck anyways if you're really strapped for cash (even though it's almost minimum wage when you calculate the time you really put in).

First contact was an email to schedule a phone interview. At the end of the conversation, we scheduled a meeting for a mock lesson. They provided a topic and a student profile to create the lesson, as well as a couple writing prompts. I gave the mock lesson to a student on campus and continued with an in-person interview afterwards.