Tips for Interviewing your Prospective Employer: Questions for Choosing the Right District
This article coaches you on how to interview your prospective school district or campus.
While, most articles reveal how to excel at a job interview, this article shares strategies to ensure that you don't choose the wrong school district or campus to work at.
If you live in a rural area, and there is only one choice, then study Classroom Toolkit to find ways of saving time while being more effective.
However, if you have choices of where to work, you are in a position to interview your prospective employer to learn what working in each organization is really like.
One strategy is to talk to people in the district's technology and maintenance departments. Technical staff members tell the truth, and as Scott Adams of Dilbert fame points quips, engineers are like Vulcans, and cannot lie.
If you cannot obtain permission to visit the Technology or Maintenance Departments, be wary. And, redouble your efforts during the interview to discover how the organization treats staff members.
Here are some questions:
- How does a teacher communicate classroom needs, and what is the timeline for providing for these needs (in full)?
- What is the tutoring program for every student, and if there is ever a delay in providing needed help, what is the length of that delay?
- What process is in place to ensure a delay in providing needed help to every student does not happen again?
- What administrative support keeps teacher morale high?
- What tools does the workplace environment provide for staff and team collaboration?
- What awards, recognition and commendations has the campus or district received for delivering outstanding learning opportunities to all students?
- How does the school or district respond to changes in student demographics, federal law, and technical innovation?
- What distinguishes this district or campus in the delivery of exemplary learning opportunities for students and teachers?
- What specific professional develop initiatives of this district or campus target teacher creativity, collaboration and self-expression?
Accepting a job is cause for celebration, but, if you have a choice, pick the district or campus that matches the kind of answers that you want to hear when you ask questions similar to these.
