Interview Questions

Values and Goals

1. Tell us about your background and why you are interested in this position.
2. Other then what is on your resume what would you like to share with us?
3. What are your goals in teaching?
4. How do you measure success as a teacher?
5. What motivates you to be successful?
6. What do you think will provide you the greatest satisfaction in teaching?
7. If you could require one characteristic, quality, or attribute that all teacher would have, what
would it be?
8. How do you keep yourself motivated when you have challenging days?
9. What qualities do will you bring to the job that will affect students in positive ways?
10. What specialty do you have as a teacher?
11. What would your critics say about you?
12. Define work ethic and how you would demonstrate yours on a daily basis.

Site-specific knowledge

13. Describe what makes ___________grade students unique.

14. What do you know about our school that you consider a strength?
15. Why would you choose to teach in this school rather than another?
16. What could you bring to our school that would really make a difference?

Relationships

17. What are the most important things a teacher must accomplish during the first few days of
school?
18. How important are student and parent relationships? How do you create those?
19. How do you get students to be excited about learning?
20. What type of students do you like to work with?
21. How do you promote a climate for open and effective communication?
22. Describe a time you advocated effectively for a student.
23. How would parents describe you and what do you do to support parents as a teacher?
24. What experience and specific training do you have with de-escalating students?
25. If you learned that a physical fight was going to occur in 20 minutes, what would you do?
26. Give us an example of a frustrating situation with a student and how you dealt with it.
27. How do you envision communicating your learning requirements, and student progress to
students and parents?

Pedagogy

28. What teaching approaches, techniques, or methods are most effective for you?
29. What do you do when students dont do well on a test?
Interview Questions

30. What do you do when a lesson doesnt appear to be working?

31. How have you used technology in the classroom in the past?
32. Describe what a differentiated lesson looks like in your classroom.
33. Describe how you plan for a unit and what a unit looks like in your classroom.
34. When I drop in your classroom for a walkthrough, what will I see?
35. How do you immerse students in your subject area?
36. What is your philosophy on grading?
37. What does the phrase assessment for learning mean within your classroom?
38. In your ideal classroom, if you could set it up as you wish, what would we see?
39. How would you describe your high school experience?
40. Describe how you handled a student who was disruptive to the class.
41. In what ways do you foster an atmosphere of collaboration, inquiry, and passion in your
classroom?
42. What is your method for selecting instructional strategies to meet the needs of students you
work with?
43. Give an example of how you have used student achievement data to differentiate instruction to
meet the needs of your learners.

Colleagues

44. How important is it to you that your coworkers be your friends?

45. Tell us about a time when you have experienced a conflict with a coworker. What strategies did
you use to resolve the situation?
46. How do you resolve a conflict with a colleague?
47. What are the characteristics of a successful team, and how will your personal strengths benefit
the team you will be a part of?
48. Describe a time where you have collaborated with a peer and how it impacted student learning.

Professional Growth
49. What kind of support do you need or expect from your principal?
50. How do you keep yourself organized? What tools do you need from the school to be successful?
51. What type of professional learning would you like to participate in?
52. What have you read lately that has changed the way you teach?
53. Provide an example of a time when you had to try something new. How did you work through
challenges?
54. In our district, we consider ongoing professional learning to be critically important. Tell us how
new learning has impacted your classroom and how you plan to continue your professional
growth.

Ending Questions

55. Is there anything you would like to add to help us know you better?
56. What questions did we not ask you that you think we should of?
Interview Questions

57. What questions do you have for us?

58. Why should we hire you?
59. If I called you tomorrow and said I wanted you, what barriers would stand in your way of saying
yes?

For SPED

60. How will you make sure your IEPs are in compliance? What resources would you turn to if you
were unsure?
61. How do you ensure your students are making progress on their IEP goals?
62. How do you plan curriculum for your students? What programing have you used in the past?
63. What type of interaction do you think should be between SPED students and the general ed
students?
64. What is the most effective way of working with associates?
65. What is your experience developing transition plans and why are they important?

Counselors

66. How do counselors advocate for students differently than other school staff?
67. How would you process attendance problems when multiple students are absent from school?
68. How do you use data in a school counseling program? What type of data demonstrate that your
counseling program has been effective?
69. What is your experience developing transition plans and why are they important?
70. How do you respond when a student or parent requests a teacher change?
71. What does your future comprehensive school counseling program look like? What is your plan
for establishing this?

Associates

72. You are being hired specifically to work with special education students. What do you think your
role is when interacting general Ed students?
73. Describe the relationship you would have with the general education teacher?
74. How would you redirect a student that is off task without interrupting the other student in the
classroom nor the teacher?
75. How do you bridge the communication gap between the General Ed classroom and the SPED
classroom teachers?