New certification

I have had no luck getting a job with this cruddy economy. I had several interviews at the beginning of the school year and they all had around 100 or more applicants interviewed for each position. That's how flooded things have gotten in teaching, and it's frustrating. I will keep pushing on, and doing what I can to market myself. I know I am a good teacher and the school that hires me will be getting a wonderful addition to their school. So now my job is to make that clear, to let them know I am the one teacher they don't want to go without. That's a tough sale when I've never really liked tooting my own horn. I have to be arrogant almost without being too arrogant. Again, that's a tough sale for me. But I've been re-evaluating my interview responses sense the last string of interviews. I realize there are many experiences I have that are a huge benefit in this field, that I wasn't really presenting. I have been trying to go over all those experiences and how they would be helpful in an interview. Then I write it out in a way that works well for interview questions in Education. That will be a big help, it will also be good that I now have experience in every area I had no real experience in last time I was interviewed. I can be much more confident when I know I have the experience to handle all interview questions. Another big addition this year is that I have added a certification in Exceptional Education K-12. This should really help in opening more positions, and some with less applicants. I am very comfortable working with young children, and with special needs children so this was a good direction for me to take. I have my own ideas of what type of teacher I would like to be, that may not fall in line with where I start at, but I think I will get there soon enough. I want to be a regular ed. teacher, with the ability to handle the exceptional children that will inevitably come to my classroom. I want to be able to teach a truly diverse class without leaving certain children behind, or without giving them an education that's not appropriate. All children deserve that, they deserve to receive a good education that is appropriate for each of them.