Teacher Interview Tips
Interviewing for a teacher’s position in education requires preparation and knowledge. Becoming a teacher requires you to go through a lot of challenging steps. If you are a newly qualified teacher, you may find that you are too keen to impress, and that interview panels do not react as you would hope to your enthusiasm. No matter what you do, how much preparation you put in, you will have some nerves.
Interview tips for teachers are an essential boost to any applicant?s teaching interview skills:
1. Your Teacher Portfolio is an essential part of your job interview that provides proof of your abilities as a teacher and supports your interview answers.
2. As a teacher you should be ready to talk about anything and everything that relates to you, your background, and your philosophies on education. The best candidates know how to teach, they know how to articulate their teaching beliefs.
3. Body language can show whether you?re a confident, qualified teacher or an unsure one. At the interview, be confident, but not cocky. Smile when you walk in. Greet the people interviewing you with a smile and a nod. Firmly shake the hand of the principal and other interviewers that are within easy reach. When you take your seat, sit up straight with your feet on the floor and your hands in a relaxed position on the desk.
4. When you are speaking, it is important to make eye contact to demonstrate that you are aware of your audience and that an interaction is taking place. Holding people?s attention is right up there in terms of instructional skills.
5. Have a mild sense of humor. Prepare to make some humorous small talk when you are greeted. Be sure your sense of humor is clean and appropriate for an interview.
6. One of the best interview tips for teachers is to try and act as though you are already working as a teacher ? be friendly. Use lots of examples when you answer questions. When they ask how you would do something, tell them how you have already done it. This will make you seem more experienced.
7. Prepare for teaching interview questions about your instructional skills and planning skills. Use the answer guidelines to formulate your own unique answers that set you apart from the other teaching job candidates.
8. Focus on details like the school demographics, student achievement, its philosophy, extracurricular activities, special programs, school initiatives, staff etc. The more research you have done the better equipped you will be to answer and ask the right questions. The more you know about the school, its students, and its curriculum, the better prepared you will be to prove that your skills and abilities match their needs.
10. Almost every teaching interview includes similar, common questions. In order to be a prepared candidate, all you have to do is practice answering the most common questions before you go to the interview.
11. Key to successful teaching is your ability to manage the classroom, introduce discipline and build good relationships with the students and parents.? When interviewing let the interviewer know what you have done with children that correlates with the teaching position. If you don’t have much experience dealing with children in a work-related environment draw from personal experiences as well.
12. Interviewers will likely ask you why you want to be a teacher. The question may seem easy to answer, but it may be more political than you think. Principals and school board members want to know that you have a true passion for teaching. Tell them that you truly care about children and want to better the educational system, to help more kids get to college.
13. Enthusiasm and self motivation are core competencies in teaching.
14. Since your interviewers will probably be meeting with lots of candidates, you should use the opportunity to ask a question and make yourself stand out.