Sequoyah Reynoso
Sequoyah Reynoso, PhD, is a teacher at a private high school. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Neuroscience from Dartmouth College and his PhD in Neuroscience from the University of California San Diego. During graduate school, Sequoyah studied the role of glycans during reproduction. Now as an educator, he teaches chemistry and enjoys helping students learn and reach their goals.
Can you describe your academic and professional background? What path led you to pursue this field?
I majored in neuroscience and psychology during undergrad and loved learning about the brain and behavior. However, during grad school, I did not enjoy the hierarchy, the structure, the day to day, or the conferences. After I defended, I traveled for 7 months, then started teaching as an adjunct prof at a community college. From there I found a position at a private high school.
How did you find this particular position, and what was the hiring process like? Is there a typical structure for this in your field?
I found my current position on Carney Sandoe, a resource for pairing teacher applicants with schools looking to hire. There is no fee for this service on the employee end, though the school does end up paying Carney Sandoe. I don't know exactly how that factors into your offered salary. Presumably the school would have more in the budget if you found them directly and they did not have to pay Carney Sandoe, but Carney Sandoe is much better at finding job openings than you.
The hiring process was: interview at a giant Carney Sandoe conference in Feb-April for a job starting the following fall. You prepare a docket of your transcripts, your abilities, and letters of rec that you place in an online portal for schools to see. I interviewed with 10+ schools at the conference I went to. Then the schools reach out to you, and/or you follow up with the ones you spoke with to indicate further interest. At this point, the dean of faculty (or a similar position) may contact you and have an online interview. Then if they like you enough, they ask you to fly out to visit the school. Some of the schools will pay your airfare and lodging, some pay 50%. I only accepted interviews at those places that paid/reimbursed 100%.
Once you are in the area of campus, you usually spend 1-2 days walking around the campus, meeting a bunch of faculty/staff (especially in your department), eating breakfast/lunch/dinner with various folks, all the while chatting and interviewing and feeling out the fit. You typically gave a sample lesson to a class, in front of actual students, while other teachers watch. At this point in the process, though it doesn't feel like it, you are both seeing if you like each other enough to commit. At first I felt like I would take whatever I could get, but quickly realized to be more discriminatory based on the culture at the school, the people, and the responsibilities.
Typically, the school is flying in 2-4 applicants per open position, but they all come separately. So you wait until all of the applicants have come through and see if you get a callback offer. [As a small note, if you have any control over this, try not to be the first candidate interviewed unless you have insider information that you are a shoe-in. Otherwise you are used as a measuring stick, and even if you were a strong candidate, by the time the 4th applicant rolls around you get forgotten.]
Once you get an offer, you have 3-14 days to accept and/or negotiate a salary. Every single place that offered me a position was willing to negotiate on the salary (i.e. they were willing to give more than the initial offer. Do not feel like you are going to burn your bridge by asking for more! You are shooting yourself in the foot if you do not ask for more. Accept that it will feel stressful, then counter offer. One school went up by 10k.)
Though the school says you have 14 days to accept an offer, most schools start badgering you by the third day, cranking up the pressure and trying to get you to commit. Both parties have invested significant effort, and the school needs to fill the position. Play your card early here - if you need more salary, say so and be firm, don't feel like you can wait a couple days to pressure them into it. You still potentially need to work with these people.
Accept one offer, start getting more onboarding emails as the summer approaches, complete SORI paperwork (fingerprinting etc to show that you do not have criminal history), and start the school year. Ideally the folks at your new job have a great onboarding process (mine did, it was glorious. It was amazing compared to grad school. I still get warm. The head of school and many parents and students regularly say thank you for your work.)
Can you tell us about your current responsibilities? What is a typical day or week like in your role?
Plan for and teach classes. Typically you teach 4-5 classes, of which some are sections of the same course. For example, 2 sections of chemistry honors, 2 sections of chemistry regular (4 total). You will lay out a lesson plan (called a prep) for each course - 1 prep is easiest but can get boring, 2 preps is the sweet spot, 3+ preps is agonizing.
Ideally you have a team you are working with in your department (i.e. several teachers who all cover chemistry) to divvy up the preps. Sometimes you are scrambling during the morning of to complete a prep (avoid this). Sometimes you have three weeks worth of classes planned and are bouncing on your tiptoes across the quad, fist bumping students while enjoying a tasty soup during an hour long lunch.
Serve as an advisor for 6-8 students. You are an additional adult advocate for them, you meet several times a week to rehash the week.
Potentially coach or lead an extracurricular activity.
Create and grade assignments and assessments.
At some schools, you write "comments" at marking periods, 150-250 word summaries of how each student is doing. The administration wants these to be tailored per student, which is tedious.
Parent-teacher conference 2x a year.
Typical day: arrive at school @ 7AM to prepare. Two 60 minute classes a day, with the other time spent prepping, grading, meeting students for extra help, and various activities. Coaching or club at 3-4/5:30 (depending if varsity sport). Go home, do some grading or prep a class. (Some days you are up planning lessons at night, which means you are working 10+ hrs a day).
What do you enjoy about your current job and work environment?
I enjoy the interaction with students and colleagues, the performance of teaching, watching students when they have aha moments, helping a student complete a goal, working amidst bright eager minds, planning lessons, solidifying and building my knowledge base. I enjoy the lunches (which are exceptional at my school, there are 3 chefs, better than 90% of the food I get when going out to eat). I enjoy bantering with the faculty. When sports/theater/music are available, I enjoy seeing my students perform non-academically. I like building class plans that are fun, engaging, and useful. The school is advocating for social justice, and we all complete work for diversity, equity, and inclusion throughout the year. The culture at the school definitely needs this, and it is great to see the acknowledgment and attempt to rectify inequity.
What are some of the challenging aspects of your job? Is there anything you wish you had known about your job or industry before joining?
Grading piles up quickly. Writing comments at marking periods is monotonous and oddly stressful. Following up with students and parents after academic integrity violations (cheating, plagiarizing, including inappropriate content, etc) is also one of the most challenging aspects of the job.
Do you have any professional plans for the future? What are some future career paths that could open up for someone in your position, 5-10 years down the road?
Potential future paths are to become the department chair, or a grade dean, or a dean of faculty, or a head of school. At the moment, none of those sound attractive to me. However, dean of faculty and head of school come with significant pay increases (2x-5x my current salary).
What’s changing in your industry? Are there any future trends we should be aware of?
There will likely be more online teaching.
What activities, internships, or organizations would you recommend someone get involved with to help them break into this field?
TA more than necessary, ask to guest lecture, become a lead instructor over the summer for summer school programs, or be a lead instructor for an undergrad class if you can.
Is it common for people in your field to have a scientific/academic background (i.e. have PhDs)? Can you think of any advantages or disadvantages someone with a PhD might experience while pursuing or working in your field?
Of the new hires in my department, 2 out of 4 had a PhD (myself and a Harvard PhD). Private schools want to say they have PhD teachers. Applicants with masters in education, or prior teaching experience at a high school level may have a leg up on you in certain circumstances. Many teachers at my school went to a private school for their own high school, and a significant portion went to an Ivy League.
Do you have any final words of advice for those navigating these career questions? Is there anything you would have done differently given what you know now?
Trust that life will get better after grad school, and that you have useful, valuable skills that others will pay for. A lot of the people in higher positions in grad school are, intentionally or unintentionally, regularly making you feel small and ineffective. Power structures like this are great at maintaining the status quo and controlling others. It is possible to enjoy, get better paid, and be fulfilled by what you do without feeling beaten down and unvalued. After jettisoning from my lab and spending a few months dusting off the psychological toll of grad school, my happiness took a rocketing turn northward. My goodness there is so much beauty in the world.
