Interview advice?

I have a couple of interviews next week.

If anyone here is an administrator or perhaps has sat on an interview committee, do you have any advice?

I know what the standard questions are - classroom management, differentiated instruction, strengths and weaknesses, etc.

I just wondered if anyone could offer any advice about what admins were looking for besides the obvious lol.

For differentiated instruction, I mention the multiple intelligences and then give examples from lessons. Should I be doing more with that?

TIA!

Re: Interview advice?

I've been on an interview committee. We were looking for someone who:
1. Could explain themselves well; and
2. Had lots of enthusiasm

Through the interview, we tried to gauge what the person would be like as a teacher. Someone who had all the "right" answers but didn't smile enough wasn't interesting to us - we figured she'd bore the kids in a classroom.

And you wouldn't BELIEVE how many teachers could not explain a lesson from Point A - Point Z. We always asked the teacher to describe a specific lesson; for example, "How would you introduce a Spanish 2 class to the preterite tense?" We were looking for a straightforward answer - First I would do this, then this, then this activity, then I'd check it this way... etc. So many candidates couldn't even walk us through a typical 40-minute lesson without backtracking or going off-topic. And if they couldn't walk us through a lesson, how could they explain a concept to the kids?

The person we ended up hiring was straight out of student teaching, with no experience. She seemed like the most "fun" and was very well-spoken and prepared. I know from speaking to her later on that she did a lot of practice interviews with friends, so she'd sound prepared and have stories and lesson plans prepared to talk about. That was a great idea! It's why she stood out.

Good luck on your interviews!!!!

Re: Interview advice?

I agree with the PP. We were looking for these two things as well:
1. Could explain themselves well; and
2. Had lots of enthusiasm

In all honesty, we did not care too much about educational jargon. When you ask about this stuff, people just tell you what they think you want to hear and not what they truly believe.

We were looking for someone who would fit with our department and who our students would respond to.

DavaDay - Were you on the same interview committee as me? We had the same problem with questions like the one described below:

Re: Interview advice?

Just wanted to add one more thing about differentiated instruction. You should mention that you can also tier assignments based on your students needs. I would typically tier for 3 groups in the class: high, middle, and low. By developing a lesson this way all the students can reach the same objective but the process might be a bit different. In other words, you have to adjust the lesson in three different ways according to the three groups.

Re: Interview advice?

Re: Interview advice?

Thank you all so much for this advice.

It's very much appreciated, and I'm sure others feel the same.

I just had an interview and I tried to take what you all said to heart.

I was stunned that they asked nothing about differentiated instruction. Figures, I had a great response down pat.

I have another one tomorrow. I am just praying one of these works out, particularly tomorrow, as that's tenure track.

Thanks again!