Teacher Interview Tips & Questions

Hi everyone! It's been a long school year that has almost come to an end. I had a tough group this year and a lot of change for my family. My husband just retired from the Marine Corps after 17 years of service. It's crazy to think we'll no longer be a military family.

This means our time in Hawaii is now coming to an end. Hawaii has been an amazing experience for us. We've had wonderful times here that my kids will always remember and for that I'm grateful. The last day of school for us is June 3rd, and we will fly out on June 8th.

We're returning to FL to finally settle down and stay in one spot for as long as we want. I am so excited to be settled down and have permanent ties to a community. But this upcoming move meant I was back on the job hunt. My old school district held a job fair, so I submitted an application and bought a plane ticket ASAP!

My sweet friend, Nicole from Teaching With Style, was also looking to change schools and gave me some great resume tips! You should check out her post {here}. 

Being that we're military, I've done a good bit of interviewing, and I've tried to compile all the interview questions into one document. Sometimes, interviewers really throw some interesting questions at you that make you think. It's always a good idea to try and think ahead of some things that you might be asked so you're not caught off guard. 

Here is a list of all the interview questions (that I could remember from previous interviews over the last few years) that I experienced. Click on the picture below to download your copy.

*Some of these questions do pertain to special ed (ESE) positions. Not all of them, but there are some.

Here are some tips from my interview process that might help you:

*Dress so you feel professional but confident! Be careful of your shoes though! I wore these awesome new shoes just for the job fair. I was so amped that I didn't realize they were killing my feet until it was over. When I got home, I had 5 blisters on my feet and they were a hot mess. I saw many ladies wearing extremely high heels. They had to be dying by the time they got home!

*When answering questions, speak from experience. This can be tricky when you're fresh out of college but try to think about your student teaching experiences. During these interviews, I really felt like I was just having a conversation about my teaching and classroom. That really helped me to feel less stressed since I talk about teaching stuff all the time with friends and colleagues.

*Remember you're trying to decide if this school is a good fit for you, too. It's not just about whether the school wants you but whether YOU want the school, also. Do you feel like the school is a good fit for you and your teaching style? Did you get an impression about the culture of the school? Not every school is good for every teacher.

*Research the schools online. My old school district has each school's School Accountability Report and School Wide Behavior Management Plan online. This was a great way to find out what's important to each individual school.

*Research the curriculum used by the school you are interested in. Many (not all) of the interviews I have experienced asked about specific curriculum that school uses. 

I'm happy to say that next year I will be returning to my old school in FL as a 1st grade teacher! I've  never taught gen ed before, but I am so excited about this new experience. I can't wait to have my own classroom of students that belong to me!

We still have a big summer ahead of us with this move, but I'm excited to share about my new classroom with you all.

More Teacher Interview Questions!

On Wednesday, I posted a blog with some Teacher Interview Questions I have experienced in the process of job hunting.  I was lucky enough on Friday to interview for a special ed position here in Hawaii. I don't know if a job offer will be coming, but at least it gives me more experience interviewing.

I added Friday's questions to my original blog post down at the bottom.  I also added a download to a printable PDF file containing all of the questions that I can remember.  I'll keep adding as long as I'm job hunting.  Hopefully that post doesn't become incredibly long!  ;)

Click on the picture to check out my original post and see my updated questions.

Teacher Interview Questions

Hi, everyone!  I had the first required interview with the Department of Education on Monday.  I was so nervous!  I'm glad that part is over and that I passed the interview.  Now I wait to see if any principals out there might want to interview me.

In the meantime, I thought I would share with you guys some of the questions I was asked during the interview.  It's so hard to put yourself out there and try to sale yourself.  I can't remember them all (there were over 20!) and these are paraphrased, but it might help some other people looking for teaching jobs.

Interview with Department of Education:

*What can you bring to a school besides teaching (i.e. coaching, drama, art, singing)?

*You see a student is cheating during a test.  What do you do?

*You are teaching a new class.  What do you need to know before you begin lesson planning?

*A bright student is refusing to do any work for you.  What do you do?

*A student asks why they have to learn this stuff anyway.  What do you do?

*A parent wants to talk to you about all the great things her student can do.  The student is only average academically.  How do you handle the parent?

*Do you think it's important to have a good relationship with parents?  How do you go about having one?

*How do you know what kind of relationship you have with your parents?

*You give your instruction and then assign your students to work independently on an assignment.  You notice a student is sitting by themselves and crying.  What do you do?

*Some people say that it's easy for some teachers to keep their students engaged and not easy for others.  Do you agree with this?

*Some people say that kids today are less motivated to learn than kids from 10-15 years ago.  Do you agree with this?

*A coworker is very needy and needs a lot of time and reassurance from you.  How do you handle this?

*Do you think it's important to have a good relationship with colleagues?  How do you manage this?

*Do you think it's important to tie your instruction into real life situations? How do you this?

Those are the ones I can think of off the top of my head!  I was also lucky enough to be on the interview committee at my old school in FL and help interview the applicants who wanted to take over my position since I was leaving.  :(  Here are some of the questions we asked, but I can't remember all of them either.

Interview questions for ESE applicants replacing me:

*Please describe your experiences working with ESE (what FL calls special ed) students.

*What does your behavior management plan look like?

*What interventions would you use for a student struggling in reading?

*How would you monitor and track students' progress for IEP goals/progress reports?

*Have you ever been responsible for scheduling, writing, and coordinating IEPs?

*A gen ed teacher is having a difficult time keeping an ESE student on task.  What would you recommend?

*Describe the major parts of an IEP.

The job hunt is moving along.  I had the opportunity to interview for a special education teacher for grades K-1 on 12-21-12.  Here are some of the questions (again paraphrased) that I remember them asking.  Of course now I'm thinking of a ton of other things I could have said.  

Interview questions for a special ed elementary K-1 position:

*Describe your teaching experience.

*Explain your philosophy on teaching.

*Have you had any experience administering Fountas & Pinnell assessments?

*Have you ever used ______ math curriculum?

*Explain how you would handle behavior management and an unruly student.

*What hobbies do you have or interests that you can bring to our school?

*Have you ever been part of a data student team/study?

*Describe what professional development you have attended.

*Did you have opportunities to collaborate with the other teachers in your school?  How you do you feel about collaborating with others?

*How do you feel about standards based teaching?

*We sometimes have family activities after school.  Will you be able to attend those?

*What are your strengths and weaknesses as a teacher?

*The million dollar question - Why should we hire you for our school?

I've typed these up and put them in a printable document in case anyone would like to print them off.  Click on the picture to download yours.

Hopefully this will help others that are on the job hunt!  Keep your fingers crossed for me that I start getting some interviews at schools here in Hawaii.

And I'll leave you with this beautiful picture I took at a beach on base last week!

Interview Tips for Teachers

This week, I had the opportunity to participate on the interview committee for my school.  It was such a great experience and made me think about what I can do to make myself more marketable.  I've mentioned it before but my family is moving to Hawaii at the end of November.  It's very exciting BUT also nerve-wracking to think about having to start all over again and hunt for jobs.  

After we got done interviewing, I thought that many of readers in blog land are probably also looking for teaching jobs and are facing the stress of interview committees.  So here are things that might be helpful to think about and consider when interviewing/applying for teaching jobs. 

1.  Make sure your resume is up-to-date.  It can be easy to tell if you have an out-dated resume.  If you are tailoring your resume to specific schools, such as naming the school you are trying to get hired at in your resume, make sure you are sending the resume to the right school.  Don't say you will be a great fit at ABC Elem School and then send it to XYZ Elem School.

2.  Think carefully about who you ask to submit a reference letter for you.  Will this person write a good reference letter?  If you have teaching experience, did you list your last principal as a reference?  It can be a red flag if you do not have your principal listed or if all of your references are fellow teachers.

3.  Think about the questions you might be asked and possible answers before the interview.  Interviews can make people nervous and anxious.  It helps if you have thought about questions beforehand, so you're not caught off guard.  The next few points are some common questions you might be asked.

a.  What does your behavior management plan look like?

b.  How would you structure your literacy block?

c.  How would you motivate an unmotivated student?

d.  How do you communicate with parents?

e.  How do you incorporate technology in your teaching?

4.  Make eye contact with all the people on your interview committee.  Even if the questions are coming from one person, remember the other people on the committee will probably have input into the hiring decision.

5.  Talk about the standards and experiences you have had in the past teaching, interacting with students, and communicating with parents.  Even if you only have student teaching experience, you have things you can talk about that make it more personal.

This website has a forum for people looking for teaching jobs.  The first link at the top has different posts from all over the country that list the types of questions the poster was asked in their interview.  This can give you a good idea of the different kinds of questions asked and lets you think about how you would answer the questions.  Click here to check it out.

Good luck to all of those searching for jobs!