Your Biggest Challenge

Every once in a while you will be thrown a "zinger" - a question out of the blue that you don't expect and is designed to see how well you can think on your feet.  These questions appear more often than you think and are used to determine your flexibility and thinking skills.  If you are asked one of these questions, pat yourself on the back - it means you're a solid contender for a job.  But, be ready for them at any time - how you answer them can make all the difference in the world.  Here's a classic one:

     What do you think is the biggest challenge teachers face today?

     A:   Teachers are challenged from all sides – the media, parents, government officials, elected leaders, and communities.  We are in the proverbial spotlight – constantly.  That’s why I think that one of the greatest challenges we face is that of assessment.  That is, are students learning to the best of their potential and are teachers providing their students with the best quality education possible.  Educational initiatives such as “No Child Left Behind” and “Race to the Top” have put educational assessment on the front burner, so to speak, of educational reform.  Are we teaching what we should be teaching and are students achieving as they should be achieving?  During my student teaching experience I was able to fully integrate assessment throughout all my lesson plans – from beginning to end.  For that, I can thank Dr. Cranshaw, who showed me how to effectively integrate assessment throughout any lesson, any unit.  I certainly don’t have all the answers regarding assessment, but I’ve received some excellent training and excellent experiences I can use throughout my career.

Rule #1:  Be sure you are up to date on the latest educational theories, initiatives, “hot topics,” and issues.  You will, sometime during the interview, be asked about your opinion or your experience in dealing with one of these concerns.  Be sure to demonstrate how you have addressed an element of that issue sometime in your pre-service training.  If you don’t you will be sending a very powerful message to the interviewer that you don’t stay up to date and that you are unaware of what is happening outside the classroom.  This is a mistake you can’t afford to make.

 

ANNOUNCEMENT:  Ace Your Teacher Interview (http://amzn.to/2nh39Nh) has just been selected as a finalist in the Foreword Review Indie Awards in the Career category. The winner will be announced at the American Library Association Annual Conference in Chicago on June 24, 2017