What Teachers Should Know Before Interviewing With Schools
As an academic marketing consultant, I’ve had the chance to help college enchancment efforts inside rural, suburban, and concrete communities. I can inform you that the colleges which might be profitable in guaranteeing scholar achievement and development usually are not decided by zip code however, reasonably, by using a no-excuses method to implementing finest college practices and programs in addition to by how they worth and help college students, employees, and learners’ households. Don’t have purchaser’s regret. Know if the college neighborhood that you’re fascinated by becoming a member of is dedicated to scholar success earlier than taking the plunge into that new educating job.
Information on colleges the place you’re interviewing, past the fundamentals of instructor compensation, might be plentiful if you realize the place to look and what to ask. If you do end up interviewing to your subsequent educating gig, listed here are six “look fors” it’s best to replicate upon earlier than saying sure to any supply. After all, an interview course of is simply as a lot about discovering the fitting college match for you as it’s for the college in choosing a brand new instructor.
Shine A Light On The Physical Space
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In my work, I’m instantly drawn into a college neighborhood once I see academics’ faculty pennants prominently displayed in addition to data posted on classroom doorways as to what the instructor could be studying on their very own time. Schools get bonus factors when hallway TVs loop pictures from neighborhood occasions and bulletin boards not solely show scholar work however point out why sure scholar work is posted, how this work exemplifies high quality and meets tutorial requirements, and what college students will do subsequent to proceed rising of their studying on that subject. You, too, ought to search for examples of faculty pleasure and studying tradition, or lack thereof, as you wait to be referred to as into your interview. As they are saying, an image is price a thousand phrases.
Know The School’s Data
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“Without big data, you are blind and deaf and in the middle of a freeway (Geoffrey Moore).” While it’s possible you’ll not have time to ask greater than two or three questions on the finish of your interview, college knowledge is usually obtainable on college and state DOE web sites. Do your analysis earlier than the interview as it will allow you to to focus on the questions you do get to ask in your interview.
- What is the typical tenure for administration? Teachers?
- If scholar general achievement is low, is scholar development excessive?
- Are suspensions low?
- What is the typical attendance charge?
- What is the faculty acceptance AND matriculation charge?
- What is the ratio of academics, counselors, and social staff to college students? How do these statistics differ by scholar sub-population—i.e. gender, race, ELL, SPED, in addition to for college students on free and/or lowered lunch?
Knowing this data can present a candidate with a way of whether or not the college has a tradition of excessive expectations for ALL college students.
Evaluate The School’s Commitment To Equity
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Chances are, if social-emotional and customized studying are college priorities, academics could have help with difficult scholar behaviors and college students with particular wants. Consider whether or not there’s a restorative justice apply within the college—versus a punitive self-discipline code of conduct—as analysis signifies that college students of coloration are sometimes disproportionally punished. Schools that construct in scholar morning assemblies and advisory applications are also better off in celebrating and selling scholar exemplars of management. Also, how does the college help households of learners together with households whose first language won’t be English?
Determine How Professionalism Is Demonstrated
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Teaching can really feel like a lonely occupation particularly when one is educating alone in self-contained school rooms all day. Ongoing collaborative skilled improvement can, in distinction, make all of the distinction in forging productive relationships, amongst educators, that develop capabilities in pedagogy (instructor strikes) that, in flip, present college students with the educational experience they deserve.
- Will there be coaching and mentorship for brand spanking new academics getting into the district?
- What is the general PD plan?
- Will academics have collaborative planning time to have interaction in collective classroom walkthroughs, efficient co-teaching, and lesson research?
- Are there skilled studying communities (PLCs) throughout the college?
- Are academics inspired and/or required to acquire extra credit score hours and might a few of these hours be used to earn micro-credentials and/or badges that enable classroom academics to each stay within the classroom and tackle instructor management roles?
- And, lastly, who’re the massive schooling thinkers—“the OGs”—whose work influences the educating, main, and studying practices within the college?
Consider The Amount Of Inclusivity Within Decision Making
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In a latest Work It Daily article I wrote, “3 Reasons For The ‘Big Quit’ In Teaching,” many educators commented in response that they don’t really feel valued, as professionals, by the college administration. Try to keep away from this taking place to you by sussing out how concerned all college stakeholders are, collectively, in defining a college’s imaginative and prescient and the means by means of which the college will obtain that imaginative and prescient, i.e. the mission. Further, decide if academics sit on the college management (SLT) group and if this group meets often all through the college 12 months.
Be Aware Of How You Will Be Evaluated
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When I started educating, many faculties used go/fail checklists to charge instructor efficiency in addition to supervisor “impressions.” This was too subjective for my style. Today, many states, like New Jersey the place I dwell, now require that colleges make the most of evidence-based efficiency analysis programs such because the Danielson Framework and/or the Marzano Focused Teacher Evaluation Model to make sure each readability of educating expectations and observer inter-rater reliability. If you realize what efficiency analysis system is utilized by the colleges the place you’re interviewing, you’re in an amazing place to debate how your educating apply, thus far, meets these standards. You get bonus factors if you can also reveal your previous affect on scholar achievement and development (STAR method in interviewing).
Choose Your Adventure
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You’ve obtained this. Go along with your intestine when accepting or not accepting that subsequent educating place. Whatever the kind of college wherein you hope to show, do be taught as a lot about that college as potential earlier than and in the course of the interview course of. Hopefully, these “look fors” will allow you to really feel extra assured about any choice you finally make on the subject of your subsequent educating project. Good luck!
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