Teacher Candidate Interviews

Dress for Success:

• Suits are expected.
• Think conservatively when choosing your suit, accessories, hairstyle, make-up/nails.
• Display confidence by maintaining eye contact, upright posture and greeting the interviewer with a firm handshake.

Tips:

• Arrive 15 minutes early to your interview.
• Be specific and direct when answering questions.
• Focus your responses on professional and academic information, rather than personal.
• Use examples of situations that demonstrate your strengths and reflect your teaching practices when responding to questions.
• If you have a portfolio, keep it neat, manageable and no larger than a notebook. Offer to show excerpts from it, and be prepared for interviewers to decline reviewing your entire portfolio.
• Prepare questions to ask your interviewers.

Questions to Expect:

1. Why do you want to teach?
2. Describe a personal experience that influenced your teaching.
3. What makes you the best candidate for this position?
4. How would your students, colleagues, principals, supervisors, professors, friends, etc. describe you?
5. Describe your teaching philosophy.
6. Discuss your strengths/weaknesses.
7. What are the qualities of an excellent teacher? Which of these qualities do you have?
8. Tell about your experiences working with diverse populations.
9. Is diversity important?
10. Describe what your classroom will look like.
11. What are the rules of your classroom and how are they established?
12. What are your beliefs about classroom management?
13. What are the most challenging types of disciplinary problems for you?
14. How would you respond to a student who asked for advice on a difficult personal issue?
15. How do you address a student who is consistently late to your class?
16. How would you handle a student who refused to work?
17. How would you address a student who continually misbehaved in your class?
18. How do you address students who consistently finish assignments early?
19. Tell about a time that you made a mistake in the classroom.
20. What type of student do you like/dislike teaching?
21. What do you believe are the easiest/hardest parts of teaching?
22. What do you enjoy most/least about teaching?
23. How do you individualize your teaching?
24. How do you evaluate student progress?
25. How do you know if a student understands what you are teaching during a lesson?
26. What techniques do you use to keep students actively involved and motivated during a lesson?
27. What instructional strategies have you found to be the most effective?
28. What does a balanced literacy program look like in your classroom?
29. Describe the types of quizzes and tests that you give.
30. How do you plan, both daily and long range, for instruction?
31. How do you incorporate technology into your lessons?
32. How do you engage a parent in the education of his or her child?
33. What was the biggest challenge you faced during your internship? How did you resolve it? What did you learn from it?
34. Give an example of a time you went above and beyond to accomplish a task.
35. What would you do if you disagreed with a decision made by the principal?
36. How do you handle conflict among coworkers?
37. Would you like to be involved in school (community) activities?
38. What do you expect from your supervisor?
39. What grade levels are you willing to teach?
40. Why do you want to work in our district?
41. What research have you done on our school?
42. What are your career goals (5 years, 10 years)?
43. Do you have any questions?