8 Critical Themes of a Teacher Interview

Here is a truth of life: You possibly can ship out all of the resumes, contact all the varsity districts in your state, and write all the quilt letters you need – however you’ll be able to’t get a educating place except you interview. With out the interview there could be no educating. Do nicely on the interview and the job is yours! Do poorly on the interview and, regardless of how spectacular your credentials, regardless of how excessive your G.P.A., regardless of how stellar your letters of advice – the straightforward fact is: you will by no means get the place!

Each instructor interview is based on eight primary themes – each meant to uncover and showcase your abilities, skills, and attitudes. Every one is designed to separate the mediocre from the great and the great from the good. The whole lot you do, every little thing you say, and every little thing that happens in a instructor interview is tied to those themes – individually and collectively. Your success in any interview will probably be primarily based in giant measure on the way you fulfill every (and all) of the next:

1. A Ardour for Educating

After I interviewed elementary and secondary principals and requested them to establish the single-most essential attribute in a top quality instructor candidate, guess what all of them instructed me? You guessed it – “A Ardour for Educating!”

What actions, initiatives, or assignments have you ever engaged in that show your ardour for educating? What have you ever performed that exhibits you might be prepared to go the additional mile for college students? What have you ever performed that demonstrates your honest dedication to educating? The place have you ever gone above and past? Did you do one thing in pupil educating past the atypical? Did you do one thing throughout your pre-service years that went above and past your school’s necessities for instructor certification? What actually excites you about educating?

2. Abilities and Expertise

One of many first issues it’s good to do in any interview is to ascertain your capability to do the job. In a nutshell – Are you able to train and might you train successfully? In most interviews these would be the preliminary set of questions you will be requested. Many of those questions will probably be factual in nature and can give you a chance to spotlight your abilities and abilities and the way they are going to be utilized in a classroom setting. That is when you could provide particular info quite than generalities. Additionally it is the time to be utterly goal about your self – with confidence and assurance.

What’s going to you convey to the educating occupation? Why ought to we rent you? Why do you need to be a instructor? What did you study in pupil educating? Please do not make the error of assuming that these are simple questions – they aren’t! They’re typically requested close to the start of the interview as a result of they assist “arrange” the remainder of the interview. Optimistic solutions to those questions assist make sure the success of the complete interview.

3. Likeability

Here is a primary fact you could discover tough to consider. An important issue each interviewer is in search of in a candidate is NOT the breadth and depth of her or his abilities, schooling, or skills. It is likeability! In a current evaluate of greater than 100,000 face-to-face interviews there was not one candidate employed who wasn’t, at first, preferred by the folks doing the interviewing and hiring. You would possibly assume that one’s character can be of much less worth than their educating prowess, however such isn’t the case. Merely put, folks get employed as a result of they’re preferred.

4. Pupil Orientation

Candidates with no sturdy pupil orientation are candidates that do not make it any additional within the hiring course of. With out that orientation, with out that dedication to pupil life, and with out that need to work hand-in-hand with children no one ever will get employed as a classroom instructor.

How do you encourage an unmotivated pupil? How do you assess college students? Inform us about your hardest pupil – how did you deal with him/her? How do you deal with cultural variety in your classroom? What do you get pleasure from most about working with youngsters? What are some challenges you have had in working with youngsters? In addition to pupil educating, what different work have you ever performed with children? Come to an interview with a robust and honest pupil orientation and you could nicely stroll away with a job provide.

5. Professionalism

The sphere of schooling is altering quickly – new expertise, new requirements, and new curricula – plenty of new stuff. Your willingness and eagerness to proceed your schooling is a key think about your “hireability.” Candidates who assume that simply because they’ve a level their schooling is over are those that by no means achieve an interview. Any administrator desires to know that you’re a fixed learner – that you’re prepared to continue to learn by way of graduate programs, in-service packages, on-line seminars and webinars, membership in skilled organizations, books, magazines and journals, and a bunch of different skilled alternatives that sign your eagerness to maintain your schooling transferring ahead.

6. Administration and Self-discipline

You’ve got in all probability seen school rooms by which college students have been orderly, work was productive, and a way of goal and path crammed the room. You may also have seen school rooms that have been chaotic, disruptive, and seemingly uncontrolled. Perhaps you have been even a pupil in a single or each of these school rooms at a while in your instructional profession. Principals are vitally concerned with how you propose to handle your classroom. Your administration abilities and self-discipline coverage will probably be vitally essential within the determination to rent you. Know that you can be requested a couple of query on this space. Learn, analysis, and evaluate every little thing you’ll be able to – your success right here will ceaselessly be a serious deciding level.

7. Lesson Planning

What are the important parts of an efficient lesson? Consider a current lesson you taught and share the steps that you simply included to ship the lesson. Share your strategy of brief and long-term planning for delivering efficient instruction. Consider a lesson that was ineffective or didn’t meet your expectations – what variations did you make to deal with the lesson? How do you infuse expertise to reinforce your instruction? It is important that you simply present an interviewer with perception into your lesson planning, lesson supply, and lesson evaluation. Anecdotes and examples should be important parts of your responses.

8. Flexibility

Are you able to ‘roll with the punches?” Are you able to “flow?” Are you able to “change instructions in midstream?” Are you able to “bend within the wind”? All these questions must do with maybe essentially the most vital attribute of any good instructor – flexibility. Interviewers need to know which you could deal with all kinds of classroom conditions, a variety of educating challenges, and a wide selection of adjustments, modifications, or alterations – all at a second’s discover. Your willingness to current your self as somebody who can adapt with out getting flustered or change with out getting upset is a key attribute – an attribute that may typically “nail” the interview.

The themes above present up in each instructor interview. Follow them, be ready for them, and evaluate them frequently. Your preparedness will provide help to beat the competitors and get the educating place you need!