u/soft_orchid_0

Need a quick response from someone who’s been there recently. Can you walk in to OPI at court street during their office hours or do you need an appointment? The email says appointments are highly recommended but I cannot find where to make one.

Brand new teacher who was just hired. I’m stuck on background investigations in applicant gateway

When I was filling out the background questionnaire a while back, I (perhaps stupidly) clicked 'yes' on the question that asked if I had ever had a teaching license denied. I did, but that was because I had to apply for the license to figure out which courses I needed to take to fulfill it. Obviously, the license was denied; they told me which courses I needed to take. I have since taken the required coursework and now my certification for that license is pending (this was for an additional certification. The cert I was nominated for, I am fully certified in).

Super frustrated because I'm reading that my onboarding might now take 1-4 weeks to complete. I did briefly explain in the questionnaire that the 'yes' was because of missing coursework. Will the 'yes' on my questionnaire affect how long it'll take to complete my onboarding? Has anyone ever been in this situation or something similar?

For reference, I completed my I-9 today and I'm now on the background investigations step.

Hi all! New teacher here, I just came back from getting my photo ID/I-9 verification at 65 Court St. My Applicant Gateway portal shows that I'm now on the 'background investigations' step. Does anyone know how long it typically takes for the rest of the steps to be completed?

Hi all! I have some questions about 65 Court Street.

My I-9/photo ID appointment is next week; is it really only 15 minutes like it says online, or are there other things that factor into wait time? Trying to plan my day accordingly. Also, do you have to dress up like you're going to an interview or hiring fair, or is it just like a jeans and T-shirt kind of thing? TIA.

Hi all, I'm very confused.

I accepted a job offer via email yesterday, and the principal said he intended me. I just saw the nomination in Applicant Gateway and was just looking through the forms, when I saw that the nomination was withdrawn?

The nomination was for ESL, but the principal told me he would nominate my Common Branch license, and then switch me to ESL once my TESOL license came in. Was the nomination withdrawn because they entered it into the system wrong?

Edit: My principal got back to me and said he would look into it, and that what I wrote above was probably the issue. Super annoying. Now I have to wait until Monday, at the very least, to get things rolling again 🥲 Welcome to the DOE to me I guess lol

After the most gruelling job search this spring and summer, where I applied to almost 100 schools across different districts and boroughs, multiple job fairs, and several interviews/demos, I've finally been hired!! Just gave my new principal my SSN, and I'll be waiting for the onboarding emails.

I'll be teaching 4th-grade ICT. I'm looking forward to meeting and planning with my co-teacher, but does anyone have advice for things I should be doing/buying/preparing for the start of the school year as a brand-new teacher? Super excited!

Hi all! I was just offered an elementary position. I'm certified in Gen Ed 1-6 and am finalizing my TESOL cert this summer. The school says they will hire and nominate me under my gen ed license, but that I would have to switch to my TESOL license once it's issued. I was also told I would be working as the gen ed teacher in an ICT class.

When they say 'switch licenses', does this mean I will have to go through the process of switching my entire license area shortly after being hired under another license? I'm hoping my TESOL license will be issued this summer to avoid this issue altogether.

I just got word that my demo lesson with Summer Rising for tomorrow is a mix of gen ed, ICT, G&T, and 12:1:1 kids. I'm interviewing for gen ed. Is it okay for me to be demoing with 12:1:1 kids even though I don't have SPED certification? Will those kids have paras assigned to them for tomorrow?

I've done demos before during the school year, but not during Summer Rising, so I don't know if this is typical or not.

Possibly a dumb question, but a school emailed me about scheduling a demo lesson late last week. I tried to confirm a time, but they told me the slot was taken, so I emailed back to confirm another time, and the principal said the time was available and asked if I wanted to confirm it. I replied yes. However, I received no further communication; for my other demos, principals gave me a quick 'thanks, see you then' kind of confirmation email. The school didn't; they also never responded to a logistics question regarding the demo.

The demo is being held at a different site than the actual school; at this point in the day, it's too late to call and ask. I followed up via email earlier today, but still never got a response.

Should I assume the demo is confirmed and go? It's supposed to be on Wednesday.

Hi all! I have a demo lesson in a couple of days with Summer Rising kids- the site is different from the school I'm demoing for. For anyone who also did/is doing demo lessons this summer, did they give you access to some kind of SmartBoard?

Okay, I don't know if this will be a problem for hiring purposes, but for student teaching I was input into my placement school's Galaxy system and assigned a DOE email. Did I automatically fall off that school's Galaxy portal when my student teaching ended, or am I still in that school's Galaxy and will it somehow cause issues if another school tries to hire me? Or does a student teacher being put into a school's Galaxy even affect future hiring at all?

Hi all! If a school received the same amount of small class size funds this year as last year, do those funds only sustain the teachers hired last year, or would that mean the school can hire the same number of teachers this year as last year? Couldn't find an answer to this.

For reference, the school I'm wondering about received the same amount in C4E class size reduction funds but got an increase in class size reduction planning funds (in the upcoming year's galaxy allocations)

Anyone know of any D27 elementary/K-8 schools hiring for 2026-27? Certified in gen ed 1-6 and very close to being additionally certified in TESOL (exam passed, only one summer course left to take). I already reached out to a couple of schools on the vacancy spreadsheet and on NTF, but was wondering if anyone had any other leads. I couldn't attend the D27 hiring fair in May because I had a demo/interview that same day

Hello! I did a demo lesson for one of my top-choice schools in June, which went well, and they told me to reach out in a couple of weeks when budgets were finalized. I reached out yesterday, and they got back to me the same day, saying that as of now, their positions haven't been funded and that they would get back to me once the budget office catches up with the funding.

I know that budgets were apparently finalized on 7/1, but is there any possibility that I might get this position, or does this mean the school didn't actually get their funding? Does anyone have experience with budgets being delayed?

Yes, I'm still reaching out to other schools.

Hi all! I did a demo lesson for a school I really like in June, which went well, and they told me to follow up in a couple of weeks once budgets were out. I followed up this morning, and they got back a few hours later and told me that their positions hadn't been funded yet, and they're waiting for the budget office to catch up.

Is this a good sign that I might get the position, or does it really mean nothing at all?

(Yes, I'm still actively applying elsewhere, so not putting all my eggs into this basket, although I really would like to.)

Hi all! I did a demo lesson/interview on 6/22. The admin and teacher whose class I did the demo in seemed to like how my lesson went, and admin told me to follow up in a couple of weeks once they knew for sure if the hiring positions they anticipated were actually available. I know many schools had their budget meetings recently. Do you think I should follow up this week, or wait until next week after the July 4th weekend?

For everyone who has one (or more than one) of the Dear Birds, what do you think of it in terms of quality? I have my eye on a couple of them and I want to hear what everyone thinks! I've mostly been seeing posts about the Hair Salon labubus, buuuut I'd also like to hear from any Dear Birds lovers (or haters!)

Hi all!

I did a demo/interview for a school back in May, but because the AP wasn't there that day, the principal said they would call me back in to meet the AP. Now the meeting with the AP is scheduled for this Thursday. What do you think I should expect from this meeting, considering I already interviewed and did a demo?

Hi all! I have a demo lesson/interview tomorrow at one of my top-choice schools. This isn't my first demo/interview, but I guess I feel more pressure because I admire this school a lot (I did some of my observation hours there when I was doing my master's). I'm doing a 45-min ELA demo for 4th grade- an HMH lesson that's already prepped and ready to go- objective, I do, we do, you do. There's a separate differentiated assignment for a few Entering-level ELLs.

Any last-minute tips or advice to help with my nerves would be appreciated haha