2014 Education Interview Days

ABOUT THE CANDIDATE

• Why do you want to teach?
• What are your professional goals?
• Tell me about yourself, and why I should hire you?
• What educational experiences was your most memorable and why?
• What 3 words best describe you?
• Describe an outside interest or hobby and how it relates to your educational goals.
• When you have an important decision to make, how do you make it?
• Describe a rigorous course you have taken, and what you learned about yourself.
• Identify a recent experience that you thought needed to be improved. How did you go about it? Were you successful? Why or why not?

TEACHING STYLE

• What model do you use in developing a lesson?
• What happens during the first five minutes and the last five minutes of a good lesson?
• Describe what I would see during one of your best lessons?
• How would you use technology to assist you in teaching students? How would your students use technology in your classroom?
• What is your strength as a teacher and give a specific example of how you have demonstrated it in the classroom.
• Give me an example of how you have used differentiated instruction in the classroom.
• What is your definition of character education and how would you incorporate it into your teaching?
• What are three strategies, other than traditional testing, that you would use to assess students’ learning?
• What strategies would you use to meet the needs of the many different learners you have in your class?
• What do you think teachers require to be more effective?

STUDENTS & CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT

• What is your classroom management philosophy?
• Describe some classroom management strategies you use to run a smooth classroom.
• How would you handle a student who frequently disrupts class?
• How do you get a feel for what students are thinking?
• Describe some ways you gain an understanding of what your students have learned, i.e. assessment strategies?
• What would you do for the (insert your discipline) student who has already mastered a particular unit of study in your class?

ELEMENTARY EDUCATION CANDIDATES

• Describe a typical reading lesson for grade X.
• Describe a typical writing lesson for grade X.
• How do you manage the behavior of 22+ elementary school children?
• Describe your philosophy and approach to reading/language arts instruction.
• What does an exemplary mathematics classroom look like?
• What is “inquiry-based” science?

OTHER QUESTIONS

• What would you say to your students on the first day of school?
• How do you think you could contribute to the school community?