Understanding the appropriate pedagogies for a particular level, while applying theories learned during post-secondary, trying to adjust to the rapid movements of advancing technology, and preparing lesson plans that meet state or national standards and objectives, to name a few, can induce a mind-blowing anxiety. But relax. It will be okay! And you will have a community full of help.

Expectations and Guidelines

An educator must understand the idea of expectations as a professional. You are a significant component in changing and enhancing students’ lives. And it is not an easy or quick fix. Teaching requires patience and an open mind. Read that last part again.

To walk in with a rigid expectation that everything will go your way, that everything you do in the classroom will change their world, must be tucked away or completely disregarded. You will learn that what you think is your best-designed lesson may fall flat; there is not just one way of getting answers; and just because you did something one way, you may still need to do it that particular way again.

Open-mindedness means you need to seek out answers and apply varying strategies to challenge your students. It requires patience and time. It even sometimes requires letting go of certain theoretical learning and reading your variable, your students, to meet their needs at their levels. This is just the beginning of understanding your role and expectations from your administration.

As a guideline for a new teacher, read your faculty handbook from start to finish. Read the Student Code of Conduct from start to finish. These will both provide a perspective of philosophy for your school district, such as mission statements, traditionalism versus progressivism, and appropriate discipline strategies.

Ask for help. The worst thing you can do as a new teacher is shut your door and try to survive. Veteran teachers, or even mid-career teachers, have most answers to your questions. As well, they may help adjust some of your lessons or provide materials or activities that have been successful for them. Take advantage of your peers and their resources. You may be surprised how much support they are willing to provide to help you transition into the best teacher possible.

Experiential Lessons

Build relationships; if you desire the most successful contributors to society. Quite a few students will attend knowing that school is the only stable place in their lives. Your role is to build that relationship so they can trust and learn from you. You may be the only provider of the appropriate way to behave and be successful in their chosen fields of work. Even the advanced and upper-level students, though they don’t always show it. Students will need every bit of your time to make it through their challenging lives.

Good principals will sacrifice any time they can find, which seems impossible at times, to help you succeed. Ask tough questions of them. Invite them into your classrooms for feedback and accept their suggestions. Most of them have taught at one point in their lives, and their involvement in being an evaluator means they have observed numerous lessons in completely different styles or formats. Principals can share a whole picture that sometimes eludes new teachers because they are hyper-focused on one area: survival.

Another experience is to understand that bell-to-bell is important for new teachers. But, more importantly, don’t sacrifice the instruction and assessment portion in order to “fill time.” Students need to be engaged and challenged, so while a worksheet following a reading might keep them doing something, don’t let it simply be a regurgitation of locating information. Focus on making it relevant to their lives, which will lead to actual learning.

Saying “no” may be one of the most important lessons for new teachers. Be friendly but not their friend (until after graduation). You are here to build relationships, but not to let students do everything they ask because you are the cool teacher. Children will often take advantage if they know they can get away with something with new teachers and substitutes. It’s difficult to return to a more disciplined classroom if they have been able to go to the bathroom whenever they desire or visit the nurse because of some ridiculous reason or two.

Finally, teachers are always expected to be on duty. Balance your professional life with your personal life. Exercise, hang out with friends and family, and find hobbies. You will need this stimulation to maintain your mental and physical health throughout your career.

Preparation for Growth and Professional Development

Principals are tasked with figuring out the best professional development for all teachers, while balancing out the state-mandated requirements, such as mandated reporting, safety, and security training, Handle with Care (appropriate behavior management techniques), and special education requirements or updates, for example.

So, share your thoughts with your principal because this will have an effect on you and your career. Have a group of new teachers? Suggest training or a topic that will allow you and your peers to collaborate. Principals will appreciate the direction you want to move toward, especially if it will help multiple educators’ growth.

If you would like to be an AP (Advanced Placement) teacher someday, search out and attend a training workshop. Need help with classroom discipline or considering advanced degrees? Besides using your school, look outside of those boundaries for presentations or workshops. Again, collaborate with department chairpersons and building administration.

Your experience in education will be different from everyone else’s. You need to find the most appropriate pathways for you to achieve success, understand your purpose for others’ lives, and be able to reflect to be an agent of change within students’ lives.

Educators never stop learning; check out our available graduate degree programs  to hone your skills and promote lifelong learning and academic excellence.

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You have so much to show them, and you can’t wait for the right questions so you can strut your stuff…but what are the administrators looking for on the other side?

The Right Fit

This is a hard one to swallow, even for this seven-year high school principal in my twelfth year of administrative experience. You need to know that even if you had the best, rock ‘em, sock ‘em, nailed the landing interview, it still has to be the right fit for the school and for you. The administrators are looking for whether this hire will add value to their school. Thus, one of your goals during the interview is to show what you can bring to the school. What skills, what experience, what can you add to the school?

For example, we interviewed a certified physical education candidate who could coach football and track this spring. On his resume, he taught a math class last year without a certification. It was an outstanding young man who brought some diversity to our campus and who had a good story about how he persevered to where he was today. However, we had recently interviewed a physical education teacher who would also fill a head coach position. It was a better fit to hire the head coach for our campus. We did not have another place to put another physical education certification, it was about fit.

Do Your Research

It is always impressive in interviews when candidates can tell you something about your school. We all have a friend who likes to take the opportunity to name drop, in this case, research drop. Taking the opportunity to add in how you looked through the school’s data, or perused their campus improvement plan, or talked to some people who are familiar with the school shows initiative and a desire to work at that school.

Take that research and then turn it into some experience you have or some program you have been associated with. This will show how you bring something to the school and can address a need the school may have. This will be a common theme in this article, how do you contribute to the school?

Demonstrate a Team-First Approach

Every principal or person in charge of hiring will want to make sure you will maintain the campus culture. In the case of principals who know they need a culture change; they are looking for candidates who will add to their culture.

The goal here is to show how you are a team player, and the school or organization comes first. Give examples of how you and the team worked toward a common goal or better yet, a time when you helped lead a team through a difficult situation.

On a personal note, I am a culture-first principal. I will gladly hire someone who cares for students, works well with others and is coachable with little content experience over a twenty-year successful veteran who will be a curmudgeon and bring my school down.

Patrick Lencioni in his book The Ideal Team Player talks about hiring hungry people (desire to learn), humble (team first), and smart (smart with people). This is a blueprint I discuss with each team I hire with.

Content/Classroom Management

Why has it taken this long into the article to talk about instructional strategies, content, and classroom management? These are all things that can for the most part, be taught.

Most of the successful principals I admire are looking for people who care for kids and are team players. The state of Texas and other places have developed curriculums that can be followed and allow the teacher to just teach.

At some point in the interview, you will either be asked or given the chance to show your experience in the classroom. Maybe talk about your student teaching experience, why a lesson worked so well, how you adjusted the lesson, how you know students are learning, or even a favorite instructional strategy. You need to show the committee some competence in the instructional arena to stay in the running for the job.

A similar approach applies for classroom management. Administrators want you to demonstrate how you handle students. Talk about some procedures you have, how you have handled challenging students, how you are willing to call parents about situations, and how procedures and structure are important.

To put the icing on that cake, remember that relationships with students and good instruction will diffuse 90% or more of any classroom management problems you might have. Relationships and instruction prevent classroom disruptions.

Extra Curriculars

One of the best things an educator candidate can show a school is their willingness to get involved. It shows a desire to help students if you can talk about the different clubs, organizations, athletics, etc., that you were involved in. Then take it to the next level and be willing to start something on that campus or get involved with an existing program already on campus.

This desire or experience you bring to a campus can often be a tiebreaker in deciding to hire. This is a great example of how adding value to a campus could earn you that job.

Ask Questions

Another thing you have to remember is that this is your interview also. You need this to fit as much as they need this to fit. You are each looking for a situation that will make you successful and the school successful.

Thus, ask questions. New teachers, ask about the support you will receive from the school and district. Veteran teachers, ask about the longevity of the teachers at the school. Anyone should ask what the school sees as their biggest challenges and how they are handling them. Turn to the teachers in the room and ask them why they like teaching at that school.

Asking questions is your chance to turn the tables so to speak and put the interview committee on the hot seat. Don’t be aggressive but be curious and ask the questions you want answers to.

Closing Thoughts

Follow your gut! If you leave the interview and don’t have a good feeling about the people you interviewed with, it might not be a good fit. Trust those questions or feelings you still have. Hopefully you walk out of every interview with the feeling that you want to come to work every day with those people, but, that does not always happen.

In the end, take the chance to show how your skills can help the school, show you know the school, demonstrate a team-first philosophy, demonstrate competency with content and classroom management, and how to get involved with students. Doing those as mentioned above will put you in a position to get hired. You can’t control the fit the school is looking for…but you can make sure you make it hard for the school not to hire you!

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The post What Do Administrators Look For in a Teacher Interview? appeared first on Graduate Programs for Educators.

 What is the school culture and community like here? 

The new teacher should enquire about the current school culture, and the community’s attitude toward the school and the school district. Often a new teacher is replacing a teacher that could have moved on for a variety of reasons.

The new teacher should ask these questions of their employer in order to gain insights as to what is expected. This information can go a long way in helping the new teacher in their approach in the classroom, in the school and within the community. A new teacher with an understanding of the school culture and community can prepare with a knowledge of how to approach their respective classroom.

 What support do teachers receive here? 

Understanding the support for the school and the teachers within the realm of school culture and community can go a long way in helping the new teacher in preparation for success in their respective classroom after the job interview. A new teacher with an understanding the current climate of support, can prepare for success much better when they understand going in what challenges they may face. Additionally, the new teacher with knowledge of support level can know up front what areas to avoid, or to handle in a certain way.

Teachers should also inquire frankly what support they can expect from immediate administrators and the central office staff. Knowing who “has your back” and who doesn’t can be very valuable in navigating through the different issues in education, especially those issues that might be sensitive. Going back to culture, knowing and buying into the school culture and community can greatly enhance the chance of success for the new teacher.

What should I know about school policies? 

Knowing and understanding the policies and procedures of the school is imperative for a new teacher to succeed. Requesting a teacher’s manual, and a student handbook should be one of the first things a new teacher requests. Additionally, making sure that the administrator is available to answer questions pursuant to policies and procedures is likewise important. Invariably, new teachers after reviewing said manuals will have some questions or need clarification. Knowing how the school operates, and how to relate to the students and community on certain issues is imperative for success of an incoming teacher.

What should I know about the curriculums used? 

The newly elected teacher should be given access to the curriculum that she will be using in her classroom. Additionally, questions as to what resources are currently available and what resources the teacher will be allowed to pursue is important to the teacher’s preparation for the upcoming school year.

Teachers should also ask how long they will be operating within the current curriculum:

• Will this be the last year of the current adoption?
• Who decides on the new curriculum in an adoption year?
• Will I be directly involved in the selection process of new curriculum when adoption comes up?

Teachers should also ask what latitude they will have in their teaching of the curriculum as it relates to going outside of the current curriculum for enhancement of the course.

What is the salary/experience steps in salary? What are the benefits/retirement information/additional retirement opportunities?

As a newly selected teacher, one should expect to be given each of the above-mentioned items either verbally, in writing or found within the teacher handbook. The new teacher should ask questions to ensure that they are taking advantage of all of the benefits due him. While the salary is important, the yearly increase, or performance-based increases, is very important to know in planning for your future.

A teacher’s benefit package is very important and actually an indirect part of the salary package of the new teacher. The new teacher should directly ask what the benefit package includes. Questions of salary, increases, health insurance, retirement benefits (both state-mandated and outside retirement opportunities) should be discussed. Many school districts offer deferred compensation, and also additional health plan opportunities for example, a cancer policy or disability packages.

Some districts contract with outside entities to offer these additional benefits and other benefits such as 401K opportunities. It is important for the new teacher to understand any and all opportunities as they relate to their finances and protection of those finances through health, disability, and 401K benefits.

Basically, the new teachers understand that the school district has done their due diligence in researching them prior to their selection. The new teacher should likewise do their due diligence into the school, district, and community to ensure that acceptance of the position is in their best interest. While a teacher is hired to give the very best to the students in the classroom, the teacher should make sure the employer is giving the same consideration to them as a valued employee. The old saying, “there are no stupid questions” applies to the incoming teacher. Always do your due diligence to ensure you are going into the best situation for you.

Teachers never stop learning; check out our available graduate degree programs  to hone your skills and promote lifelong learning and academic excellence.

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