Mock Interview

To fulfill this assignment I handled it just as we would handle any interview on campus. I
recruited a small committee of teachers and utilized questions with a rubric to score the candidate on
their interview questions. I purposefully chose a candidate that only teaches math and science for a 2nd
grade self-contained position. After a quick, let us know a few things about you ice-breaker question
we jumped right into content based questions. The first question was, if I walked into your classroom
during reading/language arts, what would I see? Knowing that this teacher had been recruited to our
campus for their expertise in math/science I was curious to find out how she would answer this. Her
response was basically I dont teach reading/language arts. This is when the situation took an
interesting turn. The other committee members didnt seem pleased with this response and began to
elaborate on the question. Through their elaboration the candidate was able to piece together enough
information to answer the question. Post interview I asked the committee how they scored her on that
question and they all said a 3 or 4 with 4 being the highest. I asked them, why? They continued to
explain what she had said based on information they had written on their rubric. I then asked the
committee, what was the original question, what was her response? They all teetered around the point
for a few minutes before they realized what had happened. Would the next candidate be offered the
same follow up questions when their response wasnt to the expected standards?
Interviews have to be fair and equitable, which means you cant veer from the script and you
cant bait the interviewee with follow-up questions if you assume they didnt understand the question.
Later in the interview a question on management was asked and a similar response was given. I had the
next question and quickly jumped in before anyone could offer a follow-up question. When asked how
they scored the candidate on that question they said 1s or 2s. This proved my point, you only get a
score for how you answer the actual question and not your response to the scaffold follow-up
questions. Interviewing is a science and you have to be willing to accept a candidates response and

assume they dont have a better response somewhere inside them. When teaching in the classroom
teachers are given the time to sit there and adjust with follow-up questions and coaching situations,
they have to be able to tackle each situation as it comes. Its real time in the classroom and should be at
the table during an interview.
Below are a few of the questions from my interview:
1.

If I walked into your room during reading/language arts, what would I see?

2. As a teacher, how do you assure what you are teaching is in line with State Standards?
3. How would you deal with a student that was not being successful in the classroom with the
schools discipline expectations?
4. What would you do if you and a team member consistently disagreed on things and the
working relationship became fractured at best?
5. Knowing youre crunched for time late in the week because of prior engagements, how would
you handle a situation in which two things were due to the principal no later than Thursday at
4:00?