teacher interview questions Archives

Teacher Recruitment Days

Here’s a question from our new EDU Edge friend (Alex) in New York… “Teacher Recruitment Days are coming up in the spring – What are the most important ways to make a great impression at a job fair or teacher recruitment day?”

Alex- You are right on the mark so far as wanting to make an impression. The main goal at a recruitment day is to be noticed and remembered. You want the recruiters to: (1) see you as someone they would want to hire and (2) to remember you when and if a position were to come up. Most of the school administrators who are a part of The EDU Edge consortium have served at recruitment days as representatives for our districts. We believe the best way to make the right impression and be remembered is to appear knowledgeable about teaching and learning and enthusiastic to make a difference in children’s lives. Knowing what school leaders are looking for in interviews or at Teacher Recruitment Days is important (see Chapter 1 – What Schools and Districts are Looking For in The Insider’s Guide to the Teacher Interview ©2012.)

Secondly, while Teacher Recruitment Days are more casual than actual interviews, candidates tend to be asked similar questions to those asked in actual formal committee interview settings. The EDU Edge finds that administrators from all over the country report the same thing. Consequently, it is wise to prepare for the same questions you would expect in a more traditional interview setting. Preparation is key to mastering the interview, key to making a good impression, and key to showing off your knowledge about teaching and learning (see Chapter 8 on how to master hundreds of interview questions through the ‘Umbrella Approach’^tm).

Finally, Alex- smile, smile, smile … let your personality show … and be yourself. It is so important to go to your recruitment day with a positive, optimistic outlook. Before the recruitment day, take some time to be a bit reflective. You need to think, really think, about why you want to be a teacher. Let those reasons, emotions, and your passion for children show. Recruiters are looking for teachers to inspire minds and teachers who will do great things for their kids. Show them that you will be that special teacher they are looking for and at the same time demonstrate that you know your craft on the technical end. If these two facets come across during a recruitment day interview, you are going to perform well on your score sheet and get a call back for additional interviews, even if it is a few months down the line when a position comes open and the admins head to their recruitment day files.

Good luck to you Alex! Please come back after the teacher recruitment day and let us know what worked and what needs work so we can all learn together.

Yours in a Partnership in Learning,

The EDU Edge

(Please feel free to contact us with additional questions … we’re on Blogger, Twitter, Facebook and you can email us at info@theeduedge.com. Tell us what interview obstacles you’re dealing with and trying to overcome. We’ll do our best to respond and welcome dialogue from others going through the same process.)

Top 4 Books on Classroom Management: Secondary Teacher Interview Prep

Last week we answered an EDU friend about our Top 3 Books on Classroom Management for Elementary Student Teachers / New Teachers. Those postings have been read by hundreds and quickly the Secondary Education folks were wondering about our Secondary Recommendations. This blog post is for EDU friend Katie via Twitter (@kates89). Again, we are thrilled that you all are asking these types of questions because reading professional literature is crucial to becoming a great teacher and highly correlated to success during your teacher interview.

Below are The EDU Edge recommended Top 4 Books on Classroom Management for for candidates preparing for a teacher interview in secondary education:

©2009 The First Days of School: How to be an Effective Teacher by Harry Wong – The EDU Edge believes that Harry’s First Days of School remains an informative and readable primer for new teachers in classroom management. If you’re looking for a beginner “how to” book … this is the one!
©2008 Discipline With Dignity: New Challenges, New Solutions by R. Curwin, A. Mendler, and B. Mendler – The EDU Edge believes this to be a must read for new secondary teachers. It is not just a book of strategies but will help you create a system of prevention and intervention.
©2008 The Skillful Teacher: Building Your Teaching Skills by – J. Saphier, M. Haley-Speca, & R. Gower – This is a practical guide for new practitioners working to broaden their teaching skills, the book combines theory with practice.
©2003 Classroom Management That Works: Research-based Strategies for Every Teacher by R. Marzano, J. Marzano, & D. Pickering

And don’t forget to read the essential interview handbook for anyone headed into teaching, ©2012 The Insider’s Guide to the Teacher Interview. In this book we tell you exactly what to expect when you go in front of an interview committee. It really will give you the edge over other candidates.

Good luck to you Katie! And, good luck to all of you following The EDU Edge. Please come back and let us know if you enjoyed these books and if our advice benefited you and your goal of becoming a full time teacher that makes a difference in your students’ lives. We want to know because we want to grow and learn with you along the way.

Yours in a Partnership in Learning,

The EDU Edge

(Please feel free to contact us with additional questions … we’re on Blogger, Twitter, Facebook and you can email us at info@theeduedge.com. Tell us what interview obstacles you’re dealing with and trying to overcome. We’ll do our best to respond and we welcome dialogue from others going through the same process.)

Top 5 Books on Instruction: Secondary Teacher Interview Prep

Last week we responded to an EDU Edge friend regarding our Top 5 Books on Instruction for Elementary Student Teachers / New Teachers. Those postings have been read by hundreds and quickly the Secondary Education folks were wondering about our Secondary recommendations. This blog post is for EDU Edge friend Katie via Twitter (@kates89). Again, we are thrilled that you are asking these types of questions because reading professional literature is crucial to becoming a great teacher and highly correlated to success during your teacher interview.

Here are The EDU Edge’s Top 5 Books on Instruction for candidates preparing for a teacher interview in secondary education:

©2006 Inspiring Active Learning: A Complete Handbook for today’s Teachers by M. Harmin and M. Toth – This book answers new teachers fundamental teaching questions and gives over 250 practical strategies on how to transform your classroom into communities of active and responsible learners.
©2002 Working on the Work by Philip Schlechty – This book shows teachers how to improve the quality of the work that students are asked to do and then shows them how to properly reflect on the work that students produce.
©2001 Classroom Instruction That Works: Research-Based Strategies for Increasing Student Achievement by Marzano, Pickering and Pollock– This book promotes teaching strategies that have positive effects on student learning: Identifying similarities and differences, Summarizing and note taking, Reinforcing effort and providing recognition, Homework and Practice, Nonlinguistic representations, Cooperative learning, Setting objectives and providing feedback, Generating and testing hypotheses.
©2001 How to Differentiate Instruction in Mixed-Ability Classrooms by Carol Ann Tomlinson – This book provides practical examples to begin to differentiate instruction in your classroom. Strategies include curriculum compacting, “sidebar” investigations, entry points, graphic organizers, contracts, and portfolios.
©1997 Kagan Cooperative Learning by Spencer Kagan – This is a must have resource for the new teacher. Use of sound cooperative learning structures not only is good instruction but it IS classroom management.

Good luck to all of you following The EDU Edge. Please come back and let us know if you enjoyed these books and if our advice benefited you and your goal of becoming a full time teacher that makes a difference in your students’ lives. We want to know because we want to grow and learn with you along the way.

Yours in a Partnership in Learning,

The EDU Edge

(Please feel free to contact us with additional questions … we’re on Blogger, Twitter, Facebook and you can email us at info@theeduedge.com. Tell us what interview obstacles you’re dealing with and trying to overcome. We’ll do our best to respond and we welcome dialogue from others going through the same process.)

Top 3 Books on Classroom Management for Elementary Teacher Interview Prep

EDU Edge friend (Beth @bmariefoster) asked via Twitter … “What books do you recommend for student teachers / new teachers on classroom management?

Below are The EDU Edge recommended Top 3 Books on Classroom Management for young people (like yourself) doing their student teaching or in their first year or so as an Elementary Education teacher:

©2009 The First Days of School: How to be an Effective Teacher by Harry Wong – The EDU Edge believes that Harry’s First Days of School remains an informative and readable primer for new teachers in classroom management.
©2002 Teaching Children to Care – Classroom Management for Ethical & Academic Growth, K-8 by Ruth Sidney Charney – The EDU Edge believes that this is a quality work about classroom management that will show teachers how to turn their vision of respectful, friendly, academically rigorous classrooms into a reality.
©2006 The Daily Five by Boushey and Moser – This is more of a pragmatic text that provides detail on specific instructional and classroom management structures that can be used in the classroom everyday….easy reading and provides the “practice” that comes from the “theory.

And don’t forget to read the essential interview handbook for anyone headed into teaching, ©2012 The Insider’s Guide to the Teacher Interview. In this book we tell you exactly what to expect when you go in front of an interview committee. It really will give you the edge over other candidates.

Good luck to you Beth! And, good luck to all of you following The EDU Edge. Please come back and let us know if you enjoyed these books and if our advice benefited you and your goal of becoming a full time teacher that makes a difference in your students’ lives. We want to know because we want to grow and learn with you along the way.

Yours in a Partnership in Learning,

The EDU Edge

(Please feel free to contact us with additional questions … we’re on Blogger, Twitter, Facebook and you can email us at info@theeduedge.com. Tell us what interview obstacles you’re dealing with and trying to overcome. We’ll do our best to respond and we welcome dialogue from others going through the same process.)

Top 5 Books on Instruction for Elementary Teacher Interview Prep

Question from an EDU Edge friend (Beth @bmariefoster) via Twitter … “What books do you recommend for student teachers / new teachers on instruction?

Beth – Thanks for contacting The EDU Edge. We are thrilled that you are asking these type of questions because reading professional literature is crucial to becoming a great teacher and highly correlated to your success during your interview for full-time teaching positions, which The EDU Edge specializes in. We are a little biased but we think that the next book you should read is The Insider’s Guide to the Teacher’s Interview by Bill Kresse and Mike Vallely. This is the essential interview handbook for any teaching candidate. OK … now after that shameless plug … let’s answer your question.

Below are The EDU Edge recommended Top 5 Books on Instruction for young people (like yourself) doing their student teaching or in their first year or so as an Elementary Education teacher.

©2002 Reading with Meaning by Debbie Miller – A wonderful and insightful book that takes the proficient reader research and brings it to life in the elementary classroom.
©2011 The Continuum of Literacy Learning, Grades PreK-8, Second Edition by Fountas and Pinnell – This is not so much a teaching instruction manual, but rather a detailed description of connecting assessment to instruction using research based classroom practice at all reading levels Pre-K to 8th grade.
©2004 The Writing Workshop: Working Through the Hard Parts (And They’re All Hard Parts) by Katie Wood Ray – Most teachers find it very informative and helpful in setting up a writing workshop in their classroom. This is typically not taught in pre-service education courses or at least not in any detail.
©2008 Better Answers – Written Performance That Looks Good and Sounds Smart by Ardith Davis Cole – An easy-to-implement, step-by-step protocol for helping students focus upon acquiring the basic literacy skills to meet state standards in the English language arts of writing.
©1997 Kagan Cooperative Learning by Spencer Kagan – This is a must have resource for the new teacher. Use of sound cooperative learning structures not only is good instruction but it IS classroom management.

Yours in a Partnership in Learning,

The EDU Edge

(Please feel free to contact us with additional questions … we’re on Blogger, Twitter, Facebook and you can email us at info@theEDUedge.com. Tell us what interview obstacles you’re dealing with and trying to overcome. We’ll do our best to respond and we welcome dialogue from others going through the same process.)

Teacher Interview Question Trap

Beware The 300 Teacher Interview Question Trap

Here’s a question via email from our new EDU Edge friend Amanda, a senior at the University of Rochester in New York

“I’ve Googled ‘Teacher Interview Questions’ and there are all these sites that have hundreds of questions … Really? I feel very overwhelmed when I think of trying to prepare for hundreds of questions. Help!”

Amanda – we know exactly what you are feeling. Personally, we remember vividly being an undergrad going to our College Career Center and getting a photocopied list of dozens and dozens of questions only to find that, in an actual interview, they didn’t ask any of the questions we had prepared for or “thought” they would ask. In a perfect world, some little elf would hand deliver each of us the list of questions the interview team was going to ask the night before the interview so that we would be prepared …but that is not likely to happen.

Here’s the deal. In The Insider’s Guide to the Teacher Interview (a publication of The EDU Edge) you will find hundreds and hundreds of questions that have been asked in interviews around the country . To be honest Amanda, we’ve never counted them before until you sent us the email, but we have over 300 questions listed ourselves. But, unlike those in your Google search, we know from personal experience that having a list of 300 questions in your hand is basically USELESS because the actual interview team that you encounter during the interview is only going to have time for around 6-10 questions. Even worse, are those Google searches who claim that they know the “Top Questions” asked in teacher interviews. We do not give a great deal of weight to this because while there are certainly trends and questions that are asked more often than others, no one can predict the answers YOU will encounter in YOUR specific interview, for YOUR specific job, in YOUR specific school.

YOU and YOUR interview is what matters most to us … we want to help YOU succeed! Consequently, The EDU Edge has gathered questions asked by interview teams all over the country. After studying literally thousands of questions, we have been able to identify commonalities and patterns that have allowed us to divide them into twelve domains. Each of these domains is addressed by what we have called an “Umbrella’ Question” that we feel covers the domain. We believe and have seen from experience helping aspiring teachers just like you that if you write out, prepare, and practice for these 12 Umbrella Questions, you will be able to use them as a springboard for other answers to similar questions in the domain. We feel very confident that by mastering responses to these twelve umbrella questions, you will have responses ready for any question an interview committee might throw at you.

Please understand … our “Umbrella Questions” are not the “Top Twelve” questions that are asked during teaching interviews. They are the twelve questions that, when practiced, will best prepare you for any question that may be thrown at you during the interview. We not only believe, we know from personal experience helping aspiring teachers just like you, that practicing and preparing for these twelve questions will give you the edge in the interview (see Chapter 8 – Interview Questions: The EDU EDGE ‘Umbrella Approach’).

Good luck to you Amanda! Good luck to all of you following the EDU Edge. Please come back and let us know how you make out so we can all learn together.

Yours in a Partnership in Learning,

The EDU Edge

(Please feel free to contact us with additional questions … we’re on Blogger, Twitter, Facebook and you can email us at info@theeduedge.com. Tell us what interview obstacles you’re dealing with and trying to overcome. We’ll do our best to respond and we welcome dialogue from others going through the same process.)

How Important is GPA in Getting a Teaching Job?

GPA Question from a new EDU Edge friend (Mark) in Alabama … “I am at the end of my junior year and haven’t really applied myself. Is my poor GPA going to hurt me when looking for a teaching position?”

Mark – Thanks for contacting the EDU Edge. We would love to make you feel better by telling you that your GPA will not affect your job search, but one of the reasons we have been successful in coaching teaching candidates is by providing the ‘straightforward insider scoop’. Unfortunately, a low GPA will affect two aspects of your job search: (1) how your resume is constructed and (2) how a school district reviewer reacts to your resume in the initial screening process. Let’s take a look at each.

First, when you build your resume or curriculum vitae, you will have the choice of listing experience or education first. For most people like you (right out of college with little teaching experience) the choice will be to list your educational background. In Chapter 3 of the Insider’s Guide to the Teacher Interview – Cover Letter and Resume Advice, (a publication of The EDU Edge) the authors recommend that that you should almost always list your GPA if you are right out of school. The reasoning is simple and straightforward, if you do not list it, employers assume it was disastrous. With very few exceptions, the missing GPA is a door closer. This is just the way it is!

Mark, the good news is that even with a poor GPA, sometimes you can show strength in your area of study by listing the GPA specific to your major alongside your overall GPA. You stated that you are in the end of your junior year. Most of the time you are taking a high concentration of electives specific to your major during this time. Soooo hit the books and get that GPA within your major up!

Remember, if you are searching for a position during your senior year, you are going to have to contend with the GPA you have earned to this point. However, senior year provides you with two entire semesters to raise your GPA. It will help you out even if you do not land a teaching job right out of your undergraduate program. It will also improve your chances of getting into the graduate program of your choice. Do not give up the ship! Keep battling for the highest possible GPA right until graduation. It may mean you have to make some sacrifices you were not making previously amidst you friends letting loose during senior year, but this self-discipline will likely help to avoid years of unemployment or jobs you do not like.

The second reason your low GPA will affect you has to do with the initial screening process that occurs when your resume is being viewed by a district employee assigned to rank and rate resumes and application materials. A low GPA will stick in the reviewer’s mind or disqualify you altogether. For this reason we recommend that if you are still in school, please, please do anything you can to keep your GPA up. It may seem like there is no connection between your GPA and the ability to inspire young minds, but employers use this as a telltale sign of your intellectual ability and work ethic. Whether it is fair or not, in education circles, there is an unspoken assumption that in order to lead students, you need to have been a relatively successful student yourself. Do not underestimate the power of the GPA when it comes to applying for teaching positions.

Good luck to you Mark! Get as focused as possible on your classes and program. Get those grades up before your college career is over and you move on to student teaching. And, good luck to all of you following The EDU Edge. Please come back and let us know how it went so we can all learn together.

Yours in a Partnership in Learning,
The EDU Edge

Teacher Vitae and Resume Suggestions

Resume Question from @deyoungb – Brian D asks, “As far as resumes go, do you have any recommendations on length, content, etc?”

Brian – Thanks for contacting The EDU edge. Do we have advice on Resumes? We sure do! Chapter 4 – of The Insider’s Guide to the Teacher Interview is entitled Cover Letter and Resume Advice. This publication by The EDU Edge is designed to help teacher candidates like you understand the exact mindset of schools before they get in the “interview hot seat,” to explain the teacher interview process and to make sure you maximize each and every interview you are able to secure.

It would be tough to put a whole chapter here in this blog but let’s see if we can help you with your specific question “resume content, length, etc.” First, you have to decide if you are going to produce a Curriculum Vitae or a Traditional Resume. Resumes are characterized by brevity. They are a one to two page summary of your education, skills and work experience. CV’s are longer and more detailed. They are a minimum of two pages and contain detailed explanations of previous academic and professional work. The CV includes educational and academic background about you as well as teaching, research experience, publications, presentations, awards, honors, affiliations and other details.

Our consortium of administrators at The EDU Edge sees thousands of resumes each year. We find that most K-12 educators (especially ones your age – I’m assuming you are soon to be or have just graduated from college) are using a hybrid of a resume and a CV, which includes most of the structure of the CV listed above, but does not go beyond two pages. It includes an increased level of description, but does not read as a narrative such as collegiate level CV’s. This allows potential employers to quickly make their way through the CV while at the same time understanding the nature of the work or accomplishment in each area. We think using this hybrid approach is advisable. Even if you are newer to the field, a two-page document with a high level of detail on your academic, related professional experiences, presentations, awards and affiliations is a good idea.

Additionally, we recommend that you:
· Start your CV with three to four bullet points that provide the highlights of your qualifications to catch the eye of the reviewer.
· Use a chronological approach as opposed to a functional approach.
· Write simple and specific sentences.
· Be specific about your past work and accomplishments.
· Avoid language that generalizes.
· Do not write in the first or third person.
· And finally, do not write in paragraphs. Reviewers have very limited time to scan these documents and they will skip your CV if it is not efficient to read.

Good luck to you Brian! Consider getting The Insider’s Guide to the Teacher Interview. If you like the advice here, there are many more insider tips in this book. And, good luck to all of you following The EDU Edge. Please come back and let us know how it went so we can all learn together.

Yours in a Partnership in Learning,

The EDU Edge

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