Stand Out in Your Teacher Interview | Kathleen Jasper

hi there i'm kathleen jasper with nava ed and i'm here to help you through your teacher interview many of you are inexperienced and you're going out and getting jobs in schools and you need help with the interview and i am here to do that i've got a few steps and a few strategies that will help you with the interview process let's get started [Music] okay there are a few things you can do in your teacher interview to make it go very very smoothly and to come off very well i have interviewed a ton of teachers both for the district i worked in and i've hired teachers for my company nava ed so i've been through a lot of different interviews and the principals at schools right now are going through lots of interviews they are working through tons of candidates all the time and there are a few things that i like to see in a candidate that if you do these in your interview it'll help the principal feel like you would be a good addition to the faculty so the first thing you're going to want to focus on in your interview is being positive have a positive attitude on the way to the interview think about all the good things the school has to offer remember this is an opportunity for you but this is also an opportunity for the school you know you have something to offer this organization you know so think about it in a way that you are having the opportunity to take your skills and talents and share them with an organization and with students to help the organization get better that's really the goal or the objective so get that in your brain early on you know when you're driving to the interviewer when you're preparing for the interview you know people tend to be nervous and they tend to think oh my god i'm being interviewed by this person and it can kind of make you know being positive difficult put that all out of your mind and think of this as an opportunity and a way for you to share your skills and talents to help people if you take off that you know kind of negative anxiety inducing scenario and you put this other scenario in its place it'll help you to relax it'll help you to feel better about you know going into the interview and you will come off as calm and happy and positive and that's definitely something we want to think about another thing you should be thinking about before you go into the interview is to look up the demographics and some of the data about the school be prepared to know the community the school serves and all of that principals are very proud of their schools and they're very proud of the communities their schools are in most of the time if you get talking to a principal about his or her school they can talk for hours and hours about what's going on and the different clubs and the different things that they do so find some things about the school that are really important you know maybe they have a really awesome band or maybe their cheerleading team has gone to the championship or maybe their football team is doing really well if their football team is not doing well don't bring up the football team nothing upsets a principal more than having to deal with comments in the community about a bad football team but perhaps you know the baseball team went to state something like that talk about good things that happen at the school and then another thing you want to look up are the demographics and maybe you know different i wouldn't say scores you know you could certainly look at the scores and things like that but look at the community that the school serves and figure out what the demographics are and then always spin that as an opportunity so let's say that the principal says to you well we have a diverse population here at tree line middle school and we you know serve a diverse community here you would then be able to say yes i know i looked up and i saw that you that 50 of your students are hispanic what an opportunity to work with that community and you know make the school an even better place you know just turn it into um information that you know so it shows you did your homework and you know what the school is about and what they have going on and the other thing that you see diversity as an asset not as a challenge so a lot of people might say something like this well i saw you serve a really diverse population wow you know that must be that must be tough no that's deficit talk just say no to deficit talk what instead you should say and think like don't just say this you should be thinking this as an educator wow you sir 50 you know 50 of your students are hispanic you serve you know this community and i am so excited to serve this community alongside you or i have i'm really excited about the opportunity to learn from these students and to interact with my students who are from different cultures that spins it positively and it's not just spin like you should be doing that and thinking about education in that way and that will you know reap dividends for sure in your interview process the other thing you should do and especially if you are not as experienced in teaching so one of the things that gets people you know freaked out about an interview is they they don't know anything about teaching well you can be perfectly honest about that up front you can say that i have never taught before you know but you're excited to learn all of the things that that you know about differentiated instruction and you're excited to learn about reading in the content area you remember all those videos that i do about reading in the content area differentiated instruction high expectations for all students standards the line curriculum i mean if you've been on this youtube channel you know that i have videos for like every single thing when it comes to classroom instruction they just happen to be applicable for the exam well guess what they're applicable here in this scenario so you're going to want to pull from all that good stuff that you learn from studying from the exams and bring it into the interview not in a way where it's fake and you're trying too hard but let's say that the principal asks you something that you don't know maybe it's something like how would you differentiate instruction for this student who has this you may say something like i have little experience in that area but i'm looking forward to learning about that process and differentiated instruction i know that all students can meet high expectations and i would work towards that and work with my team and other seasoned educators to help me serve that student to the best of my ability notice that i didn't try to you know insert some knowledge that i don't have instead i'm positive about not knowing it but knowing where to go my team my plc my administrator or you know my professional development i'm looking forward to to engaging in professional development to learn more about that it shows that you may not have the experience but you have the drive to learn about this very important piece so that's that's very good there the other thing you want to think about is and this is the hardest for me it's okay to stop and breathe and think about your answer so i'll use myself as a non-example i hate dead air so i will talk through dead air i'll i'll just talk talk talk talk talk and i always get myself in trouble i say too much i come off you know just spewing things i shouldn't be saying you know because i'm trying to fill the room with i guess the sound of my own voice i admire people when they can stop and take you know 10 seconds or even 20 seconds and think about a question i'll tell you something that had a profound impact on me i was interviewing a band director with my principal i was an administrator at the time and i was interviewing this band director and we asked him a pretty complicated question about fundraising for the band because that's a big part of the high school band you have to fundraise you have to get the get to the events and all of that stuff and so we asked him about that and it was a pretty complex question he took about 10 seconds and and and thought about the answer he breathed he you know really molded over in his brain and i was like wow you know that to me does not show weakness that shows that you are methodical and you're thinking about the best scenario i find that to be a very very good quality now you shouldn't sit there for a minute or two minutes you know it should be about 10 to 15 seconds that's a long time 10 to 15 seconds dead air is a long time but you can also say to the person um just give me one second to think about that or just give me a moment to mull that over and it just shows that you are methodical so definitely think about taking a couple of seconds if you're stumped on something um i certainly could use that advice myself all right the other thing you want to think about is having a scenario ready in your mind for a certain number of things now it doesn't mean i want you to be rehearsed and it doesn't mean that i want you to like memorize anything and just regurgitate it in the interview but i want you to start thinking about things that have helped you come to the realization that you want to be a teacher or even some things that you've learned in your internship or by being a substitute teacher and be able to apply those to different situations so my thing is i always try to think about you know three different main topics that i might be asked about so if i'm the principal i'm probably going to ask you a question about curriculum and instruction probably something about planning probably something about differentiating you know meeting the needs of all students something along those lines right well you know from all of our videos that we really need to be focused on data driven decision making we really need to be focused on aligning the lesson plans to the standards the state standards so all of those things that we talked about in the videos and the things that that we produce here at navaj i want you to implement that into your interview now you don't need to go over the top but if you're asked something about planning like how do you plan for instruction or how do you do x y and z in terms of planning well you can immediately just reference standards alignment and you're going to get a check next to that because that's what the principal wants to hear the principal wants to hear that you're aligning your instruction to the state standards which the district plan is aligned to which the scope and sequence is aligned to so everything works you may also want to talk a little bit about you know working in your team or working in plc's to collaborate on lessons and things like that so just remember those good scenarios that we talk about in the books and on the videos and in the digital courses that we have pull those over into your your interview in an authentic way not a rehearsed way but just kind of talk about those things you may also be asked about safety because of everything that's going on i mean every year we say that because of everything that's come going on every year is a crazy year for safety it seems like and schools you know the safety protocols are very very intense and so you may be asked something about keeping students safe and things like that a good default answer is just to say i will do everything i can to follow district and school protocols whatever the principal has in place for safety i'm going to follow and practice you know that practicing procedures instilling in students that procedures are important doing what you can in your classroom to support you know whatever procedures or vision or mission that's happening outside of the classroom school-wide so you want to pay attention that so safety will be an important thing there and then another thing you may be asked in an interview is how do you implement reading and math strategies in the curriculum so if you're interviewing with a principal who is very curriculum-minded you're going to get some curriculum questions because it's going to be important to that principle that you understand certain things and so we already talked about standards alignment and things like that but you are also going to want to be prepared for how do you infuse reading and math into the content area so if you're going to be a social studies teacher you know i as a principal would definitely ask you how to you how do you implement content area reading in your classroom and you wouldn't believe how many people go i teach social studies and if i hear that i'm like well that person's not going to be at the top of my list what i want to hear is a way for you to bring in informational text you know that has to do with your content and have reading strategies ready to go for that now it doesn't mean you need to know every single reading strategy but you could say something like and do when i say say this you should also do this in your classroom okay this is not just for the interview purposes this is for like in life right i will implement you know informational text because right social studies you're reading newspapers and textbooks and brochures and primary documents and things like that you know i will implement content area reading you know social science is an opportunity to teach reading there's that positive language again opportunity to teach reading and you know i will support reading instruction in the classroom that is music to a principal's ears and music to a curriculum-minded principal's ears because it means that you're supporting reading in the building now if you're the reading teacher you're really going to have to uh know your reading and you're probably going to have more experience than someone just coming in the first time to teach um without having taught before but supporting reading no matter what content area you are in is always really important that's going to win you some major points and don't forget to do that in real life because the reading teachers need your support reading you know like science i taught science i was a reading teacher in science it's such an opportunity to read that complex academic text that students struggle with so that's where you can come in to do that the other thing you might be asked if you're if you're applying for a high school position is you may be asked about coaching and sports and things like that so definitely check take a look at the high school and see what they have to offer you know if they have a yearbook which they of course they do if they're a high school but maybe they have key club or you know what kind of organizations do they have within the school and maybe be prepared to offer something because i know the principal i worked for who ran my high school um i was the assistant principal he was the principal he would always ask what do you coach what do you teach do you teach music can you be the cheerleading coach can you be the girls basketball coach can you be the key club sponsor can you be the junior class sponsor so be prepared if you're going to a secondary school to be asked to do extra stuff and in the elementary you know you'll be asked there's so many duties to be had and uh the principal will definitely ask you what you're open to doing and i always say be open to doing a lot of things but be honest with your limitations too like for me i could never be the cheerleading coach i don't think maybe i could be the cheerleading coach but probably not right but i could coach cross-country or i could do a yearbook or something like that so um do that cheerleading is like its own animal it's crazy it's intense and it's a lot of work my hat is off to cheerleading coaches because being at a high school administrator you guys you guys put up with a lot it is a crazy sport really intense so anyways just that's why i could not teach um cheerleading now another thing i want you to be aware of is that you are interviewing them too now i know that people say that remember you are interviewing your interviewer right you are in a way but in this case you really are because you are a teacher and you want to become a better teacher and you want to be at a school that develops you as an educator you know if you have hopes and dreams of becoming a curriculum specialist and then an assistant principal and a principal and a superintendent someday you're going to want to be paired up with the right school and the right principle and the right team so you're going to want to ask some good questions yourself now you don't want to come off like a snob like oh do you have this oh do you have that that's not what i'm talking about i would say ask the principal about the induction program right the new teacher induction program so if i were interviewing a teacher and he or she said you know i'm new to teaching and i really want to learn all you know i really want to become better or i really want to hone my craft what kind of teacher induction program do you have here do you have support for new teachers you know is there professional development and that is an amazing question and it's something that you should be looking for because you don't want to be in a situation where you're kind of dropped off in your room and given the keys in the textbook and said okay see you later you're going to need support now most schools have support and it's going to be there but you want to ask that question because it's certainly very insightful to do that and it helps the principal to understand that you're here to learn too and being a lifelong learner is part of being a teacher so you're going to want to ask about the induction program and maybe about you know plcs or professional development you don't want to ask a ton of questions you know you're certainly not going to ask about the pay because that is already set in stone that's at the district level so it doesn't matter um but you do want to ask certain questions you know and again with the questions keep it positive you're asking questions about opportunities not about things like well how many after hours um you know work are we required to do and you know that kind of thing while you have every right to ask those questions and for sure you need to know what your contract is um and all of that but this that interview with the principal is not the time to do that because that's all set and sewn at the district so you should already have an understanding of what is required for you in the contract so just ask questions about the induction program about plcs about opportunities you know that you would be able to contribute to to make the organization better remember the principal is concerned with the school as a whole so what teachers fail to understand sometimes because you're in your classroom with your kids and you're focusing on your curriculum there can be 80 to 100 to 200 teachers in the building that the principal is supporting and the assistant principal team is supporting so what you want to do is bring an opportunity for the organization to get better and for you to be part of the team to make things run smoothly so you want to be a team player don't say the word team player so much you know you want to talk about how you like to learn from a team just saying things like i'm a team player is not necessarily going to you know mean anything but if you're talking about you know i really like to work in plcs i really look forward to working with my with a third grade team or a fifth grade team on this and that or i can't wait to learn from my mentor things like that come off positively and help you to seem like part of the solution and part of making the organization better okay and the last and final thing and probably one of the most important things because i cannot tell you how many times i've interviewed people and this happens never ever ever say anything negative about a former employer now i know for some of you that's a no-brainer and you're like of course i'm not going to bad mouth my other principal or my other boss but it happens almost every time i interview like in a day one or two people will do this and it's almost like they don't even mean to they get rambling and they get going and then something comes out negative about the former principal or the former boss you i don't care if your former boss was a tyrant who is being investigated for bad conduct okay and it's all over the news you do not want to come off negative you don't have to praise anybody you don't have to even talk about it but if you're asked about a former school or a former principal or how did you get along with your former principal or anything like that you want to keep it positive i learned so much from that experience i'm so grateful for the opportunity to have worked for for this person or for dr so and so because if you say one inci tiny bitty itty bitty tiny teeny thing that sounds negative it is going to set off an alarm bell in the principal or the assistant principal it's a media we all hear it so i have interviewed teachers where they say well you know the principal and i didn't really get along or you know they thought this but it's totally you know that's not what we should have done we should have done this and as soon as i hear that i'm like boop i'm totally turned off and i know that you know even if that's true even if they were wrong or the principle is wrong it's just so off-putting in an interview so even if you learned from the principal what not to do or even if you learn from your your peer teacher what not to do then just say you're grateful for the opportunity and you learned so much because even if you learned what not to do you still learned a lot never ever ever ever ever indicate anything negative about a former boss or a former principal and always be positive about you know that situation because it can come off very poorly in an interview all right so hopefully that helps you as you go out onto your interviews to become a teacher remember always be positive this is an opportunity for you to share your strengths and talents with an organization go in there feeling good about what you have to offer you want to have those scenarios ready in mind things about differentiated instruction you know critical thinking some safety safety protocols things like that alignment to the standards reading in the content area you know just those things that you're going to do as a teacher you want to remember those scenarios when you're given you know those more difficult questions about curriculum and stuff like that you also want to be open to the possibilities of other things that come with the job coaching clubs things like that and then you want to ask good questions about induction programs and maybe professional development just so that you can show you want to learn more if you do these things i guarantee you'll leave the interview feeling really good doesn't mean you'll necessarily get the job but you'll certainly leave feeling amazing so thank you so much for tuning in i hope your interview goes well let us know in the comments how you're doing and how your interviewing is going have a great day thank you so much for watching today don't forget to like subscribe and share and follow us on facebook and instagram at navaedfl have a great day you

Channel: Kathleen Jasper

Views: 20,691

Rating: 4.9616613 out of 5

Keywords: Teacher Certification, Professional Education, how to pass teacher interview, how to give teacher interview, teacher interview questions, teacher interview tips, how to stand out in teacher interview, how to clear teacher interview, pass teacher interview, online teacher certification, tips for teacher interview, tips for teacher interview job, teacher interview in school, navaed, kathleen jasper, kathleen jasper navaed, teacher interview process, teachers, interview, teacher

Id: FyXYXXhesJ4

Length: 23min 26sec (1406 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 09 2020