Interview Time

I thought I would post on my pre and post interview experience with the Alpine School District today (perhaps this will be a boring useless post, or perhaps will be of some service to…. I don’t know. At least it will help me get some of my thought out of my head and into writing – which is one part of the interview process, except for the fact that I actually will be “hand-writing” for the written portion!!! Can you believe that? The only things that write, are well, nothing. Typing is and has been the accepted medium of print and digital communication for sometime. Needless to say if I bomb the interview I will be blaming the ridiculous assignment to use handwriting for the written portion of the interview process.) Here’s the pre. (Note: I didn’t read back through this – because it’s time to go – so forgive the grammar, it really is just a smattering of thoughts.)

At any rate, as I have thought about this interview process I have tried to imagine the types of questions I might be asked. I have gone through interview processes before, interviewed people for positions, etc. Here’s how and what I have prepared.

Step 1, do your background research. Know the direction, mission, accomplishments of the company, etc. For example with the Alpine School district I know they are one of the biggest school districts in Utah, which has its pros and cons. They do have significant challenges facing them regarding issues of size, demographics, funding, etc. Pedagogically speaking the Alpine district has introduced several programs they feel will have a positive impact on teaching and student performance. The first being the Monday Teacher Collaboration experience, where teachers and administrators get together to discuss important issues, do teacher training, develop common assessments, etc. The second has to do with working with At Risk Students, GATE students, and using data driven instruction to improve achievement (obviously I am more into student learning than student achievement), but I have to admit common assessments are a great tool to bring teachers together, where they can collaborate, analyze data, find common themes and in essence improve their efforts because they have a better understanding of who teaches what most effectively – inducing peer mentoring, etc.

Step 2, prepare an umbrella statement. I define an umbrella statement as a rapid intro. to who you are, what you are about, strengths, weaknesses (how you turned those into strengths), and what your future plans are (make these aligned with your audience’s direction.) And then as you present this statement and summary through in key words, ask questions to the interviewing committee, and be as eloquent as possible. For example, I will discuss how educational administration is an integral part to successful schools. Principles today face more demanding, stressful issues than ever before. Recently principals are more often in court, involved in political issues, etc. Because of these demands I believe the schools need individuals who understand contemporary issues, are problem solvers, hard workers, organized, have an ability to lead, and critically think. Also I will be including in my umbrella statement an understanding of, and want to help others more effectively adhere to and integrate, the moral dimensions of teaching .The funny thing about bring this up in my umbrella statement is that I really do believe the moral dimensions clearly define what we should be about as teachers: 1.) We should be about enculturating our students in a social and political democracy – since we are in the business in creating honest, hard working, intelligent citizens. 2.) We should be about providing equal access of knowledge to all students – ensuring that both the high, low, and middle range students all receive their fair chance to learn and push their skill sets. (This is not easy to do, most teachers either focus on high end or low end students and forget about the largest group of students – those in the middle.) 3.) We should be about understanding and being active stewards of our schools. Often teachers are 7:30 – 3:30 individuals and won’t take an active role in other school responsibilities. 4.) And finally we should be about practicing a nurturing pedagogy. Teachers should not be vesicles that distribute information, rather they should be facilitators helping students acquire information, critically think about the info, and turn the info into knowledge. Remember: students are not blank slates – we need to empower them; teachers need to use affective, psychomotor, and cognitive means to push students. In addition teachers should be interested in evaluating and assessing their own performance as it relates to the student performance. If teachers use various sources of qualitative and quantitative data they will be able to triangulate where they could improve their efforts and consequently student learning. I believe one of the final things I will include in my umbrella statement is an understanding, belief in, and support of the INTASC standards, and Utah Professional Teaching Standards. Teachers don’t come into the classroom totally refined and able to perfectly teach, they need continual growth – further developing their classroom performance. Because of this I believe an administrator’s role is one first and foremost as instructional leader. In the past they have been more managers (which is important) but really they should be about improving teaching (this can be done by working with teachers and by working with students.) The INTASC standards and Utah Professional Teaching Standards are wonderful frameworks that guide how administrators can work with teachers. The standards suggest several things: how teachers nee to make content meaningful, understand diverse instructional practices, understanding educational theory and learning psychology, how teachers need to use all sorts of instructional practices, incorporating media, verbal and non verbal practices, how teachers need to understand and use formal and informal evaluations and assessment to guide their instructional and practices, how they need to be involved in professional organizations and continual professional development, how they need to work with parents and the community to ensure students are receiving a practical educational experience, how they need to plan and develop effective instruction based on state and local standards, how to encourage critical and dynamic thinking among the students, pushing them to be something more than they had envisioned, and finally how to use common assessments, standardized test scores and other anecdotal findings to ensure the students are actually learning not simply achieving.

Step 3, dress appropriately. Common sense.

Step 4, be on-time.

Step 5, be honest. Be yourself. Let them know you care about the position, and that you have passion for the tasks required by the position..

Step 6, prepare yourself to ask some interesting questions, like “tell me about an important accomplishment in your life”, (whatever this accomplishment is tie it to the position.) Or better yet, “Describe a problem situation and how you solved it.” (Again with this one focus on the process of critical thinking not on the actual event – however, I would make the event relate to the position for which you are interviewing.) For example today I will, if asked a similar question, talk about working with “at risk” students and the program I helped set up and run at MRJH (Student Led Peer Mentoring Program.)

Step 7, don’t be pushy, overbearing, or something that you’re not. People see through fakes.

Step 8, look the interviewers in the eye; always try and answer in a positive manner, use your smile, and really let your best personality be shown – but again not overbearing.

Step 9, it’s not wrong – in fact it is a great practice to ask the people interviewing questions – as long as they are intelligent and demonstrate that you respect their position and are simply trying to better understand the company, etc.

Step 10, be sincere, thank them, show courtesy for their time (don’t ramble on – answer the questions, give thanks and praise, then get out of there – one a good note.)

Finally, ask them when you could follow up, and send them a thank you note after the interview.

I know this was lengthy – if you read it – congrats. Mostly I did it to ensure that I have thought through the process for my interview today – wish me good luck.