It's interview season. You filled out application after application, you mailed your credentials, and you waited for the call. You were probably busy when the unknown number crawled across your Caller ID. You answered with a tentative "Hello?" and someone asked you if you were interested in interviewing for a teaching position. Plucked out of a large pool of applicants, you were one of few lucky prospects to receive a call. You schedule the interview, fumble for a pen, listen for directions to the correct door at the district office, and hang up, elated. If only the rest of the process were so easy.
Are you prepared? How do you prepare for a teaching job interview?
Simply, there is no one right way to prepare for a teaching job interview. Unless an aunt or uncle is on the interview committee, the questions will remain a mystery until a panelist opens his or her mouth, uttering a flurry of educational jargon for you to decipher. Buried deep in that blizzard of words is a simple question to test your pedagogical knowledge and reveal details of your past teaching experience.
The interview began easily enough with the go-to question, "Tell me about yourself." Be prepared to tell a story. Though it may seem like a fluff question, it can spark unscripted questions from the panel. Work on a narrative for yourself and make it interesting. Go back as far as you need. Mention the college(s) you attended and the degree(s) you received or are about to receive. That information may be readily available on your resume, but it never hurts to reiterate it for the panel. Chances are, they did not prepare to hear about you today and performed no research in your name. Describe unique work experiences and talk about the places where you have lived. This is a chance to make connections to your interviewers and the context of the interview to come. You may find yourself answering a question toward the end of the interview that relates to a prior nugget of information that you unearthed while speaking about yourself at the beginning of the interview. Tell a story about yourself, one that has a beginning, a middle, and an end.
After you have introduced yourself, the fun begins. You will have some softball questions lobbed at you about your educational philosophy and content knowledge. Be prepared to answer these without hesitation. Speak slowly, clearly, and confidently. Answer honestly. Make plenty of eye contact and smile at this time. Re-read papers you were forced to write for graduate school and steal concise segments to repeat as soundbites in response to these questions.
Depending on your level of experience, questions about classroom teaching may be the most difficult for you to answer. When you have amassed several years of experience, the questions are easier to answer, but may prove challenging if you have not had direct experience with the example given in the question. If you have never taught in a co-teaching model, it is better to be honest about your lack of experience than get yourself pinned by a lie that you cannot muscle away. To have declarative knowledge of something is much different than having procedural knowledge of that thing. Again, sincerity will be the finest weapon in your interviewing arsenal.
The questions continue in this manner at varying degrees of difficulty throughout the interview. Know your hot-button issues.
Be prepared to speak about:
1. Classroom Management (Harry Wong, etc.)
2. Behavioral Modification (Redirection, Positive Reinforcement, Expectations and Consequences)
3. Differentiated Instruction (For all the learning modalities in your classroom)
4. Student Achievement (Assessment, Success Stories)
5. Parental Contact / Involvement
6. Teamwork and Team Teaching (Do you play well with others?)
7. Models of Special Education (Inclusion, Resource Room, Consultant Teachers, etc.)
8. Curriculum (State Standards, National Standards, Standardized Testing, Curriculum Mapping, Your Personal Curriculum)
9. Cross-Curricular Integration
10. Extracurricular Activities
(This list was not prioritized, simply ordered in the way they came to me.)
Point to your portfolio when possible. Do not fumble through it looking for the inspiration to answer a question. Illustrate your accomplishments and refer to concrete examples of things that have happened in your classroom. It should not be seen as a crutch. It is a visual aid, nothing more. Speak, support, move on.
You need to be prepared without sounding overly rehearsed. Your personality is the star of the interview. When they build robots to replace teachers, we can stop worrying about behavioral interview questions. You are not a machine built at a factory to do a specific job. You are an interesting person with experiences that you alone own. The ways in which you have learned and the things that you have experienced will be by your side when you are teaching a lesson in front of a class of 25 easily bored kids. If the interview is like a painful first date, do not expect to be called back for a second chance. Be yourself, be interesting, and be honest.
General Tips for Teaching Job Interviews:
1. Dress appropriately. Your interview is not a black tie affair. Wear a nice, clean suit. Get a haircut. Men, please shave clean or trim yourself into an archetypal facial hair adornment. Unless you're planning on making a 9th inning save, the curly handlebar mustache needs to go. Look like a professional.
2. Arrive Early! Do not arrive too early, though. Walk into the office about ten minutes before the actual time slot.
3. Speak to the secretaries, or administrative assistants, should you discover the title they prefer. They can offer inside information on the job and may be your first test of the interview, depending on what information gets back to the panel from the front office. Remember, these folks interact with the administration every day. If you leave a favorable impression with them, it may pay off down the road. It's likely that you will meet the person who called you for the interview, so be pleasant and thankful. Relax your nerves a little bit by talking to someone who will not be interviewing you in ten minutes.
4. Research the district before your interview. Know something about your potential employer. Read their mission statements and be able to work something directly or indirectly relating to it into your interview. Understand the demographics of the area served by the school district. Memorize the job description and the responsibilities, whether explicit or implicit, contained therein.
5. If you know the name of at least one of your interviewers, the principal, perhaps, check out the district website and find a picture of that person. When you see this individual milling about the office and making small talk with the staff before your interview, you will not be surprised when this person walks over to you with a hand extended and introduces himself as Mr. Soandso, High School Principal.
6. Be ready to speak to a panel of teachers and administrators when the door opens to an outdated conference room hidden somewhere in the main office. Walk around the room and introduce yourself to these strangers by shaking hands and making eye contact with everyone. Do not give a dead fish of a handshake. Do not let your eye contact linger and develop into a stare. Listen to their names and try to remember their function within the school. You will probably forget their names, but if you can remember that the person on the far left is a Social Studies teacher and the person on the near left is a Special Education teacher, it will do you well when answering their questions.
7. Speak positively in all of your responses. Avoid sarcasm. No self-deprecation allowed, unless you are truly humorous. This works for some people.
8. Be honest. Unless you are an excellent liar, your lies will sound different from your truths. Insincerity will leave the interviewers wondering why you bothered to show up.
9. Be prepared to talk about "your favorite lesson." Whether or not it actually is your favorite lesson, make sure the example provided is student-centered and involves an activity.
10. Craft a few questions for the end of the interview. You will be asked if you have any questions. Have a few and base them on the research you did on the district. Ask about the hiring process. How many interviews will there be? When will the position be filled? Do you need any supporting documents from me? Will there be a demo lesson?
Here are links to a few interesting resources on the subject of teacher job interviews:
- Sample Teacher Interview Questions
- Ten Tips on Preparing for a Job Interview
- How to Prepare for a Behavioral Interview
- Teacher Interview Tips 101
I could go on and on, but I'd rather hear from you. Do you have any interesting advice on interviewing? Please comment below!
