Wednesday, June 22, 2016

When Interviewing for an Art Teaching Job....

Interviewing

Just sat in on some interviews for a position at my elementary school and I wanted to share some things I learned from that experience for all you new teachers out there that are looking for art jobs. 

1. Introduce yourself when you come into the room and shake everyone's hand. Politely ask them their position at the school if they do not tell you.
2. Have a one page resume. One page people! Hit the most important highlights. Principals are to busy to read the story of your life and they do not care you were on the swim team in elementary school! My principal spent about 3 minutes looking over the stack of resumes...you have to make yourself jump off the page right away.
3. Have a visual portfolio to hand out or one to show along with a DVD or other storage drive to leave for the principal of you in action. If you have a blog or webpage let them know so they can see your work right there in the room.
4. Be yourself, it's okay to show humor, do not be nervous even though you will be.
5. Make sure you have a classroom management plan... They will ask that question.
6. Have a plan on how you will transition from kinder to 5th grade classes.
7. Understand the meaning of differentiated learning/teaching.
8. Be positive in your answers.
9. Have an answer for how you feel about teamwork.
10.Thank everyone at the table and shake their hand again.
11. Have some follow-up questions about something someone asked you. Even if you know the answer, having the question makes you look interested in the process and the school.
12. Know the school mascot and drop that info in somewhere.
13. Most of all do not complain about how your current principal hates art! Even if that is true, which is why most of us leave our current jobs do not say it at an interview!
Hope this helps... Good luck ! 
Oh and yeah make sure to..... take down those spring break photos of you passed out on the beach! WE did look at those!




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