so I got a job interview this afternoon
 

in this economy that is news for some of us...

Its fairly legit with an Assistant Principal, at a charter high school deep in Watts (up) for a teacher's assistant gig ( I am NOT ready for first year teaching, the prospect intimidates me greatly)

I haven't had a legit job interview in years, I-man rastafari work under the table doing manual labor, I've been a plumber's helper and a landscaper for years now..

further, the last time i had a meeting with an assistant principal I was getting arrested on my high school campus...

it is quite the culture shock for me to be going on the gates of a high school for a job interview with the principal rather than being fucked with by the principal...

if only I-man still had the natty dread to complete the get up..

anyone else have some upcoming interviews or work for a school?

Good Luck!

thank you.

Teachers don't all have rods up their arses. My dad, when he first started teaching, was smoking pot, working as a painter/decorator and going to night school after fucking up high school. Now he manages two education centres for troublesome inner-city kids, but he hasn't had to change or compromise to get there.

Good luck with this, and may it be the first stepping stone towards a prosperous and meaningful career.

I hope the best for you my rastaman friend.
Let us know how it goes.

Good luck man!

good luck! i hope it goes well. don't be too nervous.

Best of luck!

YES! Best of luck, man!






“we’re gonna have…tryouts.”

Best of luck with this, SuchFriends. Hope that you get the job.

I had a job interview with a fancy shmancy private high school a few weeks ago, but I lost out to some schmuck with a masters degree. I did, however, manage to get offered a job in a not so fancy middle school, which is pretty much what I already do, except this job is in the BIG CITY.
Wear a suit, smile, and exaggerate whatever teaching experience you have.

DAMMIT!! I was looking for a picture of that for the "no new members" thread, but I couldn't find it. DAMN!

Oh, back to topic, cool news, our formely dreaded boardie

this interview went perfect.

(i noticed there were 91 views for this thread, I see you folks are as surprised as I am eh?)

the school is ghetto as can be, the majority of the kids are in transition from youth authority (juvenille prison camp) and the rest are dealing with situation of living in Watts/South Central..

but these kids are my peoplez, and I am looking forward to an opportunity to help..
what impressed me most was the vibe of the principals and teachers at this school, they carry themselves with a truely positive vibe and have genuine and sincere respect for these kids, when most teachers and administrators would be happier to see these kids back in jail than do get off their lazy ass and do the work the help them.

kids only fuck up because adults let them, the schools fail them, and people only grow up and fuck up because somebody failed them when they were youth. this school is not trying to fail on these kids..

no big shot "im an authority figure" vibe, it was like they were all a bunch of Ras or something!

I pray it works out, but I am content even with just the interview to be honest with you, it was fun to be legit for a minute of the day...

by the way it is for Locke High School, which became notorious in recent news after some so-called race riots which the local media blew up way out of proportion..
I get the feeling that I was one of the few applicants who was as enthusiastic to work with this community I as I am, but as I said, these kids are my peoplez.. drug dealing, strap packing, foul mouthed, in-and-out of the system, this is my life, and if anyone can relate to these youth and bring them out of the drama, it is me, through the grace of God.

That school straight needs me to bring the street to the staff.



ditched the suit as good as I look in it, went for the Probation Officer look, nice shirt tucked in, wingtips, slacks, no tie..

exaggerated like a true professional, after all 50% of teaching and working in a school is pontificating to begin with..

congrats on the upgrade, I never figured you the school teacher hat and beard, your kids must enjoy you terribly!

Race Riot in Los Angeles High School

Posted in Crime News, Homeland Security, The Front, Un-American activities by Rob Taylor on May 10th, 2008
Up to 600 Black and Latino students were involved in racially tinged violence at the Locke High School in South Los Angeles. The riot was described as the worst violence many of the faculty had ever seen in a high school plagued with violence and what the L.A. authorities are euphemistically calling “tagging crews.” It took 60 officers, some in riot gear, to restore order and only four arrests were made. One of the arrested was a non-student carrying a knife.
From The L.A. Times:

A fight between rival groups of black and Latino students at Locke High School quickly escalated into a campus-wide melee Friday, with as many as 600 students brawling until police restored calm with billy clubs.
The troubled campus in South Los Angeles was locked down after the fight broke out at 12:55 p.m., as students returned from lunch to their fifth-period classes. Overwhelmed school officials called Los Angeles police for help, but students and faculty said it took about half an hour before dozens of officers, many in riot gear, restored order.
“The kids were crazy, running from place to place, jumping on other kids,” said Reggie Smith, the school’s band director, who said he ran to pull his students from the melee. “Some of my kids were crying because they were walking to class with friends and they got jumped.”
Los Angeles Unified School District police said that there are only two officers assigned to Locke but that the school police force brought in about 60 officers after receiving word of the brawl. The Los Angeles Police Department also dispatched more than a dozen patrol cars and about 50 officers.
Susan Cox, an LAUSD spokeswoman, said police arrested four people — three students for fighting and one non-student for illegal possession of a knife. Four students were treated in the school nurse’s office for minor injuries.
The campus at 111th and San Pedro streets has long been one of the city’s most troubled. This school year has been particularly difficult, with near-daily fights — albeit on a much smaller scale — during much of the fall and winter. Locke is about to be reorganized as a cluster of charter schools run by Green Dot Public Schools, which will take over in July, and some faculty and staff have accused the district of letting the campus drift in its final year as a traditional public school.
“Morale has really dropped because they don’t feel like they have everybody behind them,” cheerleading coach Marlo Jenkins said recently. “There are just fights upon fights upon fights now.”

Not the kind of leadership needed in areas where the growing tensions between Blacks and Latinos is creating a culture of racist warfare. Locke High School is 65% Latino and 35% black, and though many students say there isn’t much open hostility the people interviewed in the article admit to both self-segregation of the groups and near constant “black on brown” fights. The actions of the police after restoring order should tell you how bad the situation really is in Los Angeles despite the rosy picture many try to paint regarding race relations:

After securing order, authorities rounded up the students who hadn’t returned to class and segregated them by race, holding Latinos in the boys gym and African American students in Hobbs Hall, the school’s multipurpose room.
Beginning at 2 p.m., school officials began releasing students in small groups to go home. The school remained on lockdown until the last group had left about 3:15 p.m.
LAUSD’s Cox said that there would be an enhanced police presence at Locke during school hours next week and that the district would send human relations staff to the school to talk to students.
In recent years, melees have broken out periodically at many campuses with a black and Latino presence, including in Los Angeles, Lynwood and Compton. There have been fights between Latinos and Armenians in other areas that led to campus lockdowns.

Soon we’ll end up with segregated schools. The Latino vs. Armenian violence mentioned is a problem that has been going on since the 90s apparently, with a gang called Armenian Power forming up specifically to protect Armenians from Latino gang violence. A.P. is small but extremely violent and have fought MS-13 on occasion. In ‘05 there was a riot in Grant High School involving Latinos and Armenians.
If the youth in Los Angeles is any indication then race relations in America are getting much worse. The fact that authorities can barely control the groups involved make America’s future look bleak indeed."

...I can't even get an internship.

Seriously, people don't even want me to work for free. Goddammit.

Congrats man, especially when the terminator is trying to terminate thousands of goverment jobs.

Thanks. Glad your interview went well.
Two years ago I never would have figured myself for a school teacher either, especially the ages I teach (12-15), but it turns out I love it. My kids and I get along really well, perhaps because I'm about on the same maturity level as them.
I hope you enjoy teaching as much as I do.

Wow ! Congrats on the interview going well. No matter what, your attitude is admirable.

How do you suppose these other teachers come to be? How do they escape the clutches of cynicism that bear down on most, standing by the belief that its the world that has failed the kids, rather than that the kids dont even have the chance?

Yahman!

because its as Peter Tosh sang to us,

"You can't blame the youth, you can't fool the youth, no you can't blame the youth, when they don't learn and you can't fool them.. cuz you teach the youth about Christopher Colombus, and you said he was a very great man.. you teach the youth about the Pirate Morgan, and you said he was a very great man.. but you can't blame the youth, no you can't fool them.."

There are many schools who know that the system has failed these kids, these kids who are good people living in bad circumstances, and all they need is a little love and attention with a drive and focus.

The mainstream system would rather see these kinds of kids back in jail then deal with the hard work it takes to rehabilitate them, but there are bright souls like these and myself who see no other work worth doing.

If somebody doesn't work with these kids who will? Who is better to work with them than people who can relate? Just like Hat and Beard relates to his kids because of his "maturity" so to can people like me relate to these kids because we come from the same place, and at the least, people like me serve as an example to these kids that you can come up from nothing.

great story & congratulations, but i'd recommend against discussing actual details of your job that requires criminal background check and fingerprinting in the same internet forum where you discuss your drug use AND post your photos. call me paranoid, but i think that's asking for unnecessary trouble.