Mock Job Interview

In my Social Studies Methods class, I participated in a Mock Job Interview where I was interviewed by my peers. It was actually very stressful to be interviewed by some of my fellow classmates because they are people that I know. It really made me want to give a great answer to their questions and blow them away with my answers! I was also interviewed with my partner that I worked with throughout fieldwork; it was very interesting because we worked together the whole semester and now we were competing with each other for the same job. It was also difficult to be interviewed with someone else because their answer may be similar to yours, and you don't want to sound like you are copying their answer. I think it is very interesting that this is the new ways that interviews are being conducted. This was great practice for the future when I go to interview for a teaching job and I will be interviewed in a group of people who all want the same job as me.

The questions that I found the easiest to answer were the abstract questions that did not have a correct answer. Questions like:

"What color comes to mind when you think of Cooperative Learning?"

For this question I answered orange. The reason I see orange when I think of Cooperative Learning is because the color orange is a mixture of yellow and red. Yellow makes me think of sunshine and happiness. The process of Cooperative Learning should be a positive one. Students should feel happy when working in groups. Red reminds me of the color of passion and fire. Students should be passionate about learning. I want their to be a spark when students learn new things.

"If you were a bicycle, which part would you be?"

I originally wanted to say the handle bars but my partner that I was being interviewed with said that first and I did not want to say the same thing. I said the wheels because a teacher must bring the students to the information, which is like the wheels bringing the bike where it needs to go. I also said that the wheels spinning are like a child's brain. I want to put the brain in motion and make it think!

The questions that I found most difficult to answer were ones where I needed to put myself into the school and classroom that I had never been in before.

One question that I remember was, "If I came into your classroom at 11:15 in the morning, what would you be doing?"

This was really hard for me to answer because each classroom is different and a classroom schedule must be established with the class. I said independent reading time because it was the first thing that came to mind. Independent reading time will be included in my classroom daily but I have no idea at what time it will be.

Another question was, "How will you deal with a class that has children of mixed intelligence?"

I answered that I would have students help each other. I would place students who are struggling with students who have grasped the information in order to have them teach each other. I also explained that I would scaffold instruction.

I also struggle with question to ask the interviewer. I never really know what are good questions to ask. I usually say that I don't have any questions but I know that I should be asking important questions to what could be my future employer.

Here are 7 questions that will knock the socks off your interviewer! 

Don't forget to smile!