Antonia Arch

I graduated from Slippery Rock in May 2013 with a degree in elementary and special education. After searching for a teaching job in Pittsburgh for a year I moved to Charlotte, NC in July 2014. I was hired as a special education teacher at Queen’s Grant High School and started there for the 2014-2015 school year. I co-taught English, Math, and Personal Finan...ce classes at the high school. I also was hired as the varsity cheerleading coach. After working at Queen’s Grant High School for a year I learned of an opportunity to work at the Queen’s Grant lower school, which is a charter school managed by National Heritage Academies. Elementary was obviously more of a passion of mine than high school, so I interviewed for that position. I am so blessed and thankful to say that I was hired at the lower school. It was bittersweet to leave the high school, and the first teaching job I ever had, but I knew this would be a better fit for me. So now, I currently work as an elementary special education resource teacher. My advice for preparing for an interview is to research the school as much as you can. It is important to know the values and ideals the school holds. It is extremely hard to go into a teaching interview and be expected to know every different type of curriculum, teaching style, and philosophy out there. It feels like the interviewer wants you to give a summary of everything you ever learned in your four years at college. So if you don’t know something, be honest and tell the interviewer that you are unsure, but you are always open to learning and you are interested in knowing more about the topic. I always took plenty of work samples with me to interviews and gave examples of work I had done previously. Interviewers always ask about “situations” you have been in. Try and think of the best examples you can, but don’t ramble. Be concise and to the point with any example and situation you give. The most important thing to do is be confident in yourself. Tell yourself that you are going to get the job and the school is lucky to have you there, not the other way around. Also, I know professional dress is rammed into your brains in the College of Edu, but it is really SO IMPORTANT. You definitely do not want to walk into an interview with wrinkled pants or dirty dress shoes.

In addition to working at the school, I also used my experience at SRU’s AOII chapter to become an alumni advisor to AOII chapter at Wingate University. Last year Alpha Omicron Pi colonized at Wingate and I was able to help a whole new group of girls be initiated into the sorority.

I loved my time at SRU. The education department there really inspired me to the best teacher I can be. Dr. Matt Erickson was definitely one of my favorite professors at SRU. I continually think back to his suggestions for special education and how I can incorporate his methods into my instruction. He also taught me to always be compassionate towards my students and remember that they are people too. Dr. Vogel was my advisor during my time at SRU. I know he doesn’t work there any longer, but I will always be grateful and appreciative for his guidance at Slippery Rock. He also was the first person to teach me how to write an IEP. It is funny to think back about how naïve and inexperienced I was in college, but the professors at Slippery Rock really did their best to help us get real world experience.