Ready, Set, Let's Interview

Mock Interviews 

Whether your on the Administrative Panel that will be asking the potential teacher candidates about their credential as future teachers that will join your team or your the candidate that will be interviewed be prepared to not only ask questions, but answer them as well!

During a mock job interview I had the assigned role of being on the Administrative panel.

Here is a mock up of the back round I provided to the teacher candidates:

Good evening, my name is Dr. April Deyo. I am the principal at Sunshine Elementary School which is located in Goshen, New York.

I obtained my Master in Childhood and Special Education at Mount Saint Mary College. I began teaching second grade at Hillside Elementary School in New Windsor, NY.  After seven years of teaching I decided to transition into administration and obtained my Ph. D in Education Administration from Albany University.  Upon my completion for my Ph. D I joined the Sunshine Elementary School where I have been principal for four years now.

Our philosophy at Sunshine Elementary is simple: we believe that using Inquiry based methods from the Information Processing Model (IPM) is the most beneficial to our student’s learning and achievement. Our school philosophy is that Inquiry allows students to enhance their cognitive performance skills at an exceptional level.  We are ranked amongst the top three Elementary Schools across the tri-state area.  We have found over the years that students learn best when they are discovering the knowledge for themselves through inquiry.  The inquiry based learning model helps prepare our students to go on into the world as independent individuals because they have acquired the necessary skills to conduct inquiry and research at an independent level.  Our motto is “Enjoy learning and it will be sustained throughout your life.”  

The Sunshine school as a whole directs itself towards an inquiry style of learning.  With technology growing more and more every day, we have found that Information Processing Model has been the most useful method of learning for our students and hope to see it expand throughout the next decade or so.

During the interview process here are some essential questions that I had for the teacher candidates:

Let’s start the interview process with a warm up question:

1. If you could be one for just 24 hours, what cereal box cartoon character would you be? Why?

2. If you could describe information processing model in one word, what word would you chose and why?

3.  The 5 E's are essential to incorporate into an inquiry model lesson based on the constructivist approach to learning.  If I entered your classroom during your inquiry lesson on “Economics” what would I observe?

4.  Explain what your Social Studies lessons will include so that they become meaningful for students?

5.  How would you differentiate instruction in the lesson on immigration with a literature connection?

Here are some questions that the teacher candidate Carielle had for us:

1) What do you think about formative assessments?

2) Do you think students benefit from assessments?

3) What are your views on the NYS ELA and Math exams?

Here are some questions that the teacher candidate Lauren had for us:

1) Why is pedagogical knowledge important for classroom 

teachers? 

2) Do you think the Direct Instruction method of teaching is

 appropriate for teaching social studies? Why?

3) Do you feel you could intertwine inquiry and cooperative 

models? Would this be effective in the classroom?

To remain focused and ensure that the best candidate was selected the Administrative Panel deliberated and found that the teacher candidate that would best fit our needs was Lauren.

To guide us during this selection process we utilized rubrics:

To find a list of common interview questions visit the link provided.