- PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCES
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- Discuss your student teaching experience. What you liked/disliked? Changes you would have made?
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- Please review for us your teaching experiences such as subjects, years, location, etc.
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- Please tell me about your most challenging experience while working with children and how you handled it.
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- Discuss your feelings/experience regarding your work in an urban setting.
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- When did you first become interested in teaching?
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- Tell us about your other school-related experiences such as extra-curricular activities, committees, curriculum development, etc.
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- What experience do you have teaching writing skills?
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- What experience do you have with in-class support?
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- What opportunities have you had to bring multicultural education into your classroom?
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- How well has your college/university prepared you for the field of teaching?
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- What experiences have you had with students from culturally diverse backgrounds?
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- What are some ways you establish an environment of respect and equity among students?
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- What are some ways you see yourself being involved in your school beyond the classroom?
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- How might you respond to an angry parent?
- INSTRUCTIONAL SKILLS
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- Describe the best lesson you have delivered. Why was it successful?
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- Tell us two ways you can grade and evaluate student work.
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- Describe your typical lesson. What does it include and who participates – how do they participate (what activities occur)?
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- How important is success in learning? How do you help pupils experience success?
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- Tell us how you assess your students to determine how well they are learning.
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- Do you feel that the teacher should be responsible for developing objectives or should they be provided in the curriculum?
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- It seems like there is never enough time to cover the curriculum or to get children to master content and skills. Would you comment on that?
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- How would you assess your effectiveness as a teacher?
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- TECHNICAL SKILLS
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- How would you apply technology to enhance daily instruction and increase student learning and achievement?
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- Explain your skills using a computer – address classroom management (ex: grade book), instructional, other?
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- Are you comfortable with the use of technology in the classroom?
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- What are some ways you and students will use technology in your classroom?
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- Describe your experience and skills in terms of applying technology.
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- What do you believe distinguishes a good teacher from a great teacher (values, skills, knowledge)?
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- Discuss the processes of assessment and documentation of student learning in your classroom (rubrics, portfolios, student-involved-assessment, standards-based assessment, assessment of and for learning, quantitative/qualitative).
- CLASSROOM DISCIPLINE
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- Describe your philosophy regarding discipline.
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- What was the most challenging discipline problem you've encountered and how did you handle it?
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- What techniques would you use to handle discipline problems that may arise in your classroom?
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- What kind of rules do you have in your classroom? How are they established?
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- What do you feel are the most important factors in classroom control?
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- What techniques do you use to increase the probability that pupils will behave appropriately?
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- How would you create and promote a safe atmosphere within your classroom?
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- How do you recognize and respond to individual differences and what behavior might you expect?
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- After school you come across a pupil whom you know who is crying. He's 16 years old. You ask him what is the matter, and he says he was caught cheating. What would you do?
- ART TEACHER
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- How would you handle special needs students in your art class?
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- What would you do if an art lesson didn't work well?
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- What five things do you want your elementary students to know when they leave the classroom? Middle school students? High school students?
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- What do you expect elementary students to know when they leave the classroom? Middle school students? High school students?
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- What projects do you introduce to develop your students skills in art?
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- What are your specific art curriculum goals for elementary students? Middle school students? High school students?
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- Please name for me three of the state standards for elementary art.
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- What are some of the knowledge and skills that an art teacher needs to be effective in the classroom?
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- What projects and art shows have you been involved with in teaching art?
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- CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT
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- What is your classroom management plan/style? What are your goals?
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- I walk into your classroom. What would it look, feel, and sound like?
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- Describe the first day of class.
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- Describe your organization, management strategies.
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- What role does classroom management play in the educational process?
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- What does "teamwork" mean to you? Give an example.
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- KNOWLEDGE OF CONTENT/MATERIALS
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- What special course work have you taken that you feel has made you especially suited for the position you are applying?
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- What kinds of materials and supplies would you need to do your best job?
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- What kinds of materials have you used to assess pupil strengths and/or weaknesses?
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- Are there any materials you have used that you find are especially effective for slow learners or bright students?
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- What kinds of tests do you like to give?
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- How do you organize you teaching supplies and/or materials?
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- Describe your educational background and teaching experience related to your subject area?
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- What curricular changes do you hope to see over the next few years?
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- How do you stay current in your field?
- PLANNING SKILLS
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- How well organized are you? Why is organization important for a teacher?
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- What do you include in your daily lesson plans?
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- Do you prefer to do long term or short term plans? How do you plan for instruction?
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- How closely do you follow your plans?
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- How do you feel when you don't meet a deadline? What do you do when pupils do not meet their deadlines?
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- Describe for me the organization that goes into your planning for a lesson. I'm sitting in the back of your classroom; in some detail tell me what I see as you implement the lesson just described.
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- What are some of the considerations you make when planning your lessons?
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- How do you go about planning a unit?
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- How much homework will you assign? How do you know how long it will take your student
- ADMINISTRATORS/STAFF
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- Please describe an outstanding teacher to me?
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- What kind of person do you like to work for?
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- If you could establish an ideal school, what would it be like?
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- If you were to tailor-make an in-service program for you, what should be included?
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- Describe how you could be an effective communicator as part of the school community. (parents , staff)
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- What kind of people do you find it difficult to work with and why? – Applicable to all three categories. (faculty, parents, students)
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- What do you do when a supervisor or principal criticizes a teaching technique that you are using?
- PARENTS
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- Describe your approach with a parent who is upset with you – and you know you are right.
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- What are some methods of communicating student progress to parents other than report cards?
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- How do you feel about parent contact?
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- Write a letter to a parent explaining why you will not recommend moving the child to a higher math grouping (or more advanced math class).
- STUDENTS
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- Are you willing to sponsor any extra-curricular activities?
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- How would your students describe you as a teacher?
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- How do you want students to view you?
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- Do you want pupils to like you? Why?
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- As a teacher, should you intentionally try to build rapport with your students? How?
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- How can you get students to be excited about learning?
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- What do you value most in a child?
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- Should a teacher intentionally use humor in the classroom? How do you use humor in the classroom?
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- Have you developed any new ideas about teaching in the past few months? Describe one or two of them for us.
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- If I were a child why would I want to be in your classroom?
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- Do you have a specific grade level/age that you prefer to teach? Why?
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- What do you feel is important for you to know about the students with whom you work? How do you go about gathering this information?
- PERSONAL QUALITIES
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- Why have you selected teaching as a profession?
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- Tell us about yourself and why are you interested in this school district and/or position?
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- What do you consider to be your major strength you bring to the classroom?
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- What do you believe is the one area you want to work on improving?
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- What distinguishes you from other candidate?
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- Who influenced your choice to become a teacher? How?
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- MISCELLANEOUS QUESTIONS
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- How has the American Education been successful over the past twenty years?
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- Tell us what you know about the Pennsylvania standards and the PSSA.
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- What educational research do you find most compelling and how have you incorporated it into your classroom?
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- What current educational trends do you consider the have the most impact and how do you implement them?
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- Please respond to the following statement:
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- How would you define development as it relates to the children in your classroom?
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- Important human characteristics are believed to be innate endowments, fixed at birth, distributed unequally among the population and among different population groups.
- MUSIC TEACHER
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- Why should music be a part of the school curriculum?
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- Do you have any background with Orff-Kodaly?
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- Would you be open to interdisciplinary projects with the classroom teachers? Can you give an example for a project?
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- How would you go about recruiting students of band and orchestra?
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- PHYSICAL EDUCATION TEACHER
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- What are the components of a quality physical education program? How would you prioritize these components, along with giving justification for your choices?
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- As always, there is talk of cutbacks, and it seems we always have to justify a few of our positions, PE being one of them. What would you do to convince those in decision making positions that PE in our school is important and children are learning valuable things in PE?
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- Our school is focusing on integration throughout the curriculum. How do you see physical education fitting into this?
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- How do you feel about the inclusion of individuals with disabilities in your classes? Are you open to this and do you have experience with this?
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- What is your best quality as a PE teacher right now? What do you need to work on the most?
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- What task do you find the most difficult as a teacher? Please sure with us why?
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- We have head about the "New PE" (i.e. Sports Illustrated and other popular press articles). What is this and do you plan on bringing this kind of PE to our district?
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- How would you describe a developmentally appropriate curriculum?
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- School Counseling
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- Describe your professional experiences in education and counseling.
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- What experience have you had working with other agencies, such as UST, Adult, and Family Services, etc?
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- What is your personal theory on student confidentiality?
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- How would you work with a student who is failing most classes, not attending school and parents aren’t very supportive?
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- Describe your methods of monitoring your students academically.
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- Describe your experiences working as a member of a Pre-Referral Team.
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- QUESTIONS TO ASK THE SCHOOL DISTRICT ADMINISTRATOR
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- What is your method of training new employees?
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- Is there a new teacher mentoring program?
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- What are some of the common denominators among the districts successful employees?
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- How does the organization define a successful individual?
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- How does the administration work with teachers to improve instruction?
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- How is performance evaluated and how often? What measures of success are used?
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- In what area does the school district excel, or in what area does it have limitations?
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- What is it about the organization that attracted you in the first place and kept you there?
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- What technology resources will be available to me in the classroom?
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- Based on what you have seen of me so far, where do you think I could contribute most effectively?
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- Are the employees encourages to take courses of graduate study? Is tuition reimbursed?
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- Reading Specialist
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- What is your philosophy on reading?
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- How would you integrate your philosophy on reading into your remediation practices?
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- What specific reading programs would you like to see implemented for struggling readers?
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- How do you see yourself partnering with teachers? With administrators?
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- What models of co-teaching will you follow and adopt?
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- How would you assess the reading levels of students?
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- What strategies would you use when working with an older student with poor reading ability?
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- What do you see as your role in the educational, social, emotional, and psychological development of students?
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- Discuss your student teaching/practicum experiences. What you liked/disliked? Changes you would have made?
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- Please tell me about your most challenging experience while working with children and how you handled it.
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