One in 1,700 Applicants
He’s not quite one in a million, but it kind of felt that way.
The Wainscott School District has hired a new teacher, Mark Carlson of Hampton Bays, who was chosen from a pool of about 1,700 applicants for one job, which became available when Dorry Silvey retired in June.
The Star reported in April — when Wainscott had received a mere 1,200 résumés — that, according to a spokesman for the Eastern Suffolk Board of Cooperative Educational Services, the elementary school job market was “pretty flooded.”
By the time the figure hit 1,700 applicants, Mr. Carlson had heard the numbers. “To say it that way . . . it sounds overwhelming,” he said on Tuesday. “I’m very blessed, and I’m very fortunate to have this opportunity.”
Mr. Carlson, 35, is a certified elementary teacher who holds a bachelor’s degree in elementary education and a master’s degree in special education, both from Southampton College. He is currently enrolled in a certification program called TESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages). He comes from the Southampton School District, where he was a teacher assistant for four years. Prior to that, he worked in Eastport-South Manor and East Quogue.
“I’m looking forward to just getting started and really developing relationships with the children and with the community as a whole,” Mr. Carlson said. “It’s such a small school that it’s very important that I develop those relationships with those kids and their families.”
Small, indeed. As the new second and third-grade teacher, Mr. Carlson will have a class of eight this year. He has experience teaching multiple grades, having taught fifth, sixth, and eighth graders together in a special-education classroom.
That part of his background appealed to Stuart Rachlin, Wainscott’s superintendent. “With our setup — two grades, with potentially four grades’ span in abilities — someone who has taught in heterogeneous settings has a huge leg up over others,” Mr. Rachlin said, adding that Mr. Carlson “has a calm demeanor, pleasant smile, and interacted wonderfully with the children when he did his demonstration lesson.”
Not only was Mr. Carlson one in 1,700, he is also most likely the first full-time male teacher in the Wainscott School’s 285-year history, according to the superintendent.
Mr. Carlson and his wife, Jessica, who is originally from Montauk, have two young daughters. In addition to all his other experience he has coached lacrosse and football, which he said will be on hold until he adjusts to his new job. He enjoys teaching math and science the most, he said, incorporates technology whenever possible, and likes to get students up out of their seats and moving around.
When he was a boy, his said, his own teachers could have done a better job with him.
“I was very outspoken. I liked to get up and walk around, talk to everyone. I was just a boy that liked to have fun,” he said. “My teachers would send me out of the classroom a lot and write it on my progress reports. The way it was handled encouraged me to not want to teach that way.”
“Once I started student teaching and tutoring at different schools on the East End, I really felt at home. I said, this is how I want to spend my life.”