Off to the Alaska Job Fair June 2019

When Loana and I looked into how teachers were hired in Alaska, we found that one of the avenues was the Alaska Teacher’s Job Fair. What is unusual is that it is held in 3 states outside of Alaska. We decided to attend the Job Fair in Houston, Texas, since it was the closest location to us in South Carolina. This was strictly a fact-finding mission for us, it would be close to impossible to even consider a move for the 2019-20 school year. http://www.alaskateacher.org/alaska_job_fairs.php

We attended the job fair with the expectation that some school districts would want to interview us while we were there, even if we let everyone know we were looking at the 2020-21 school year. We talked to at least 10-12 different school districts, spending 5-10 minutes with each one. We met some awesome people at each district and learned something fascinating about each individual region. We were asked to interview by three districts. Loana and I each did separate interviews. We were offered positions by two districts on the spot, and had to turn down substantial incentives to make sure that we did this on our time-frame. It was an insightful experience, and it helped to get our name out to the different districts. For us it was acknowledgement that we were needed and valued in Alaska, even though we wouldn’t be applying for jobs until 6-7 months later. At least we knew our plan was possible!! It was also great to check out the Gulf coast beaches and enjoy the salt water, if even for a short time.