Hunting for Teaching Positions

Keep your e-mail address current with me (Jim Olsen) and especially let me know if you are looking for a job, so I can contact you.  Often I will hear of "emergency" job openings mid-year or even mid-semester.

Using the Internet is probably the easiest way to conduct a job search in this day and age. You will still need to send letters to request applications (December & January), fill out the six-page marathon applications, develop a resume, copy transcripts, set up a credential file, etc., but the Internet will help you find information on school districts.

The way I see it, there are two ways to start:

1. If you know exactly what school districts you are interested in, then go to the State of Illinois web site which provides links directly to districts and schools with web sites. Then hunt down information from there.

2. If you don't know exactly where you want to look, then start with the Illinois State Board of Education web site (or whatever state you are looking at). From there you can connect to Regional Offices of Education, which will list school districts and schools for you, possibly give you postal addresses, and provide links to them.

Either way is good. The great thing about this process is that you can go to district web sites, read profiles, check out the districts, and see what makes them tick. You may realize you don't want to apply certain places, whereas others may suddenly look like good prospects.

The key is that once you are interested in a district, you need to request an employment application. Some school districts now let you do this online, others have hotline numbers you can call to leave your address, others want good old snail mail requests. For these kind, address the letter to whomever it is that is in charge of Personnel/Human Resources/Staffing/etc. This is usually an Assistant Superintendent with a title longer than could possibly fit on an envelope.

One thing to remember is that Western offers a job fair for education majors, but so do other schools. If you are closer to N.I.U. than W.I.U., check their web site for information on one they may offer (or any other public or private school).

Below are the URLs for some great web sites. The general sites are for the State of Illinois, Illinois Board of Ed., and others which have links to Regional Offices of Education. The more specific sites are for particular counties. These addresses are good as of January 12, 1999 (supposedly, I still have trouble getting to some).

State of Illinois: www.state.il.us/
Education sites through the State of Illinois site:

www.state.il.us/educate/default.htm
This provides direct links to school districts and all schools in Illinois from elementary through college level (public and private).

Illinois State Board of Education: www.isbe.state.il.us/
Information regarding: career vacancy listings, Illinois Learning Standards, ISAT, TCIS Teacher Certification, Grant/Bid Links, Teacher's Retirement System, and more.

ROE links from the ISBE site:
www.isbe.state.il.us/regionaloffices/roelinks.htm
www.isbe.state.il.us/regionaloffices/rc3/superintendents.html

"Area Six Learning Technology Hub" - Links to some Regional Offices of Ed.
www.lth6.k12.il.us/partners_roe.htm

+ County/Area Sites +
Chicago Public School: www.cps.k12.il.us
Cook County: www.cook.k12.il.us
North Cook County ROE: www.ncisc.org
West Cook County: www.wcook.k12.il.us
South Cook County: www.scook.k12.il.us
Du Page County: www.dupage.k12.il.us
Kane County: www.kane.k12.il.us
Will County Public Schools: www.will.k12.il.us/pubsch8.htm
Grundy County: www.grundy.k12.il.us
Lake County: www.lake.k12.il.us
Mc Henry County: www.mchenry.k12.il.us
De Kalb County ROE: http://kids.lth.k12.il.us/KIDS/ROE/DeKalb/indexD.htm
Iroquois/Kankakee: www.ikan.k12.il.us
Caroll/Jo Davies/Stephenson ROE: www.roe8.lth2.k12.il.us
Hancock/Mc Donough ROE: www.ltm.com/roe1

GOOD LUCK!

Author: Kate Fijalkowski
Posted by James R. Olsen, Western Illinois University
E-mail: jr-olsen@wiu.edu if you find links that don't work.