He’s looking for words of wisdom, so if you have any, chime in please!
This is what I told him off the top of my head:
- Know the curriculum for the grade/s and area as well as the before and after grades. Think of some exciting teaching techniques that are hands on that you can use across multiple topics. You will almost certainly be asked how you would teach so-n-so and they will be looking for innovation and student involvement.
- Think through your philosophy of education. Write it down in bullet form to help you really know it. You’ll probably be asked some questions on which you can use a great deal of material from that document. For instance, I believe that all children can learn (if they wanna). Everything I do – pushing, pulling, reteaching is based on that philosophy.
- You may be interviewed by a team. This one always slays me as someone 1) either doesn’t like an answer someone else seemed perfectly happy with OR 2) someone isn’t listening and you find yourself answering the same question.
- If it’s a public school you’d better know all the latest on the TAKS test and what the latest thoughts are on it. Find out how the school you are interviewing with has done on it. Go to greatschools.com for that info.
- If it’s a private school, know what test they administer. Those tests are very generic and you have to address how you’ll follow the curriculum and have them score highly on the test.
- What kinds of assessments will you use – you need a happy medium between paper and pencil and on your feet kinds of checks to something right in the middle.
- How are you going to use technology in the lessons AND ask about what kinds of technologies they have. Document readers are all the rage. Up to date schools will have those (and they are called a variety of things like ELMOS) as well as smart boards and laptops and LCD projectors. Medium tech schools will have computer labs and a bank of computers in the rooms. Look into a couple of classroom response systems so that if this school has sets, you can ask about them.
- How will you incorporate reading and writing into the subject? Unless it’s English of course 😉
- You may be asked about teams you’ve served on before.
- In some states you can get some kind of teaching credit for teaching related work – your youth work may count here.
That’s it off the top of my head.
So what’s your advice for a teacher interview?
Jack Of All Trades 