Writing Homework Help

• Background information on the teacher interviewed
• Summary/reflection of the information elicited during the interview process

Suggestions:When completing this activity, you may want to record your interview if the teacher allows it. This will help you to capture a complete response. If not, you should do your best to write down the entire response. Your final paper should begin with the teacher’s background, then include a summary of his/her responses, and conclude with your reflection of the teacher and the insights you have gained from the interview.

Possible Interview Questions:Curriculum/Subject Knowledge:

• Do you prefer homogeneous or heterogeneous grouping? Why?
• What does individualized teaching mean to you?
• How can you tell students are learning? Which evaluation techniques do you use?
• How do you individualize the learning process in your classroom?
• What are some ways that a student in a group can show you they have mastered a concept?
• In which curriculum area are you particularly strong?
• If you were asked to obtain in-service experience in one area of the curriculum, which area would you choose?
• What are some of the ways that you present materials to students, such as in social science?
• How do you integrate technology into your teaching and students’ learning?
• What do you think a teacher needs to know in order to begin lesson planning for a class?
• What four key components do you believe you must include in a lesson plan?

Instructional Techniques:

• Describe any school experience you have had, particularly in student teaching (or in another teaching position) that has prepared you for a full-time position at a school?
• Describe any innovative projects you have been involved in developing.
• Give an example of how you have used cooperative learning in your classroom.
• How you accommodate the different learning styles of the students in your classes?
• What do you consider to be your strengths and how will you use them in your teaching?
• What two core teaching strategies do you use to achieve your desired results?

Classroom Management:

• How do you set standards for acceptable performance in your class at the beginning of the year?
• How do you get students to do what you want them to do?
• Describe your system of classroom management.
• How do you help students develop self-discipline? Can you teach this skill?
• In your opinion, who should be responsible for the discipline in the school?
• If a student is disrupting your classroom, what steps would you take to solve this problem?
• What is your opinion about individual vs. total class punishment?
• Compare negative and positive reinforcement and describe the affects of each.
• Describe a typical student in your class with reference to his/her developmental stage, study habits, attitude towards learning, and his/her behavior characteristics.
• How do you assist a student who has been tardy to become punctual?
• Describe your classroom’s physical environment.

Parent Relations/Communication:

• Describe some ways you inform parents of what is going on in your classroom.
• How do you involve parents in your classroom?
• How do you update parents on the progress of their child?
• In your opinion, how effective are parent conferences in solving student problems?
• Describe how you become acquainted with parents and students.
• What would you tell a parent who complained about his/her child not having enough homework?
• What information do you include in your Open House presentation?

Personality, Personal Attitudes/Professionalism:

• Why did you want to teach?
• Describe an “ideal” teacher.
• Why would you want to teach in a certain School District?
• What is wrong with education today? What is right?
• What do you expect from the school principal, psychologist, and superintendent?
• What would your closest teaching associate say about your relationships with students?
• What are your greatest teaching strengths? What are your greatest weaknesses? How do you overcome these?
• How do you collaborate with other teachers/staff in your school?

Teacher Relationships with Students:

• What kind of students do you like to work with? What type of students could you teach most effectively?
• How would you deal with a student who ridicules a given assignment?
• How do you help students experience success?
• How would you differentiate instruction for students?
• What procedures do you use to evaluate student progress besides using tests?
• How do you challenge the varieties of learners, both slower and advanced, within the same class?
• How much do you need to know about your students in order to be most helpful to them?
• What three things do you most want to know about your students?
• In what major ways do you most want to influence the lives of your students?