How could I answer these teacher interview questions?

Question

1. What are your weaknesses as a teacher?
2. What is a difficult situation with a child and how did you handle it? (motivation or management)
3. What mistakes have you made with a child and how did you learn from it?

How honest do I be with these questions? I am not asking for answers to these questions...just advise for how to answer them.

Answer 1

The word “interview” itself makes a person tense and nervous who needs to appear in the interview. It is normal human behaviour to become confused or get tensed but such things can be overcome with practice, learning from seniors and elders, thru own experience. At my time internet was not available. These days Internet is a rich source of information. U can learn many things about the interview by visiting the websites the links of which are given below. On some websites u will find questions also along with answers which are frequently asked and questions pertaining to ur requirement can also be found there provided u surf on them thoroughly and consciously. It will improve ur performance remarkably. If will infuse a high level of confidence in u. It will make u more frank and it will develop diplomatic qualities in u too. Overall, I would say that it will give an impetus to ur personality development. Ur specific requirement can also be met on these sites provided these are surfed thoroughly and consciously.
http://www.aperfectcareer.co.uk/interview_coaching.html
http://experts.about.com/q/Interviewing-Tips-2314/Ask-Hiring-Manager-decision.htm
http://www.duediligence1.com/preparing_interview_questions.htm
http://www.bestnetguide.info/Interview/Interview-Tip/tip-to-preparing-for-interview.cfm
http://www.meadowsconsulting.com/yourcareer/interviewpreparation.htm
http://www.oldscollege.ab.ca/images/galleries/2004/WEBCAST/pages/Myron%20preparing%20for%20interview.html
http://www.netreviews.info/Interview/Interview-Tip/tip-to-preparing-for-interview.cfm
http://www.netizenguide.info/Interview/Interview-Tip/tip-to-preparing-for-interview.cfm
http://oerl.sri.com/module/mod6/m6_p1.html
http://www.job-interview.net/
http://www.techinterviews.com/?p=198
http://www.sap-img.com/abap/more-than-100-abap-interview-faqs.htm
http://www.onestopsap.com/interview-Question/edi/

Please visit the above pages. I hope, it helps u.

Answer 2

Honest, but not self damaging.
1. The weakness question is to see how aware you are of your self. If you are not aware of yourself and your needs how can you be aware of the children's needs? Find a weakness that you have that is realted to the job, if you just graduated you could say that you do not have as much experience as you wish you did. My weakness as a teacher was that I did not feel that I communicate as well as I could with parents on a daily bases, then I would follow that up with a statement like "with so many things that are going on at the end of the day it can be difficult to give the parents the attention that they need when I still have to give attention to the children."
2. I would counter this question askng for more specifics, do they mean beahvioral problems, an isolated incident, or...
3. Every teacher has made a mistake at some point. they want to know if you are aware of your mistakes and understand that everyone makes mistakes. Don't put yourself up a lonely petistle and say that you do not make mistakes or cannot think of one. Think of a mistake that you made with a child that had a positive outcome or even one that is humorous, don't say something that would be self damning like you pushed a child or stepped on one because you didn't see them.
If I knew what age group these questions were for I might be able to help you out a little more. Depending on the setting and age of the children you would like to teach the answers can vary greatly. You can send me a note if you would like more assistance.

Answer 3

1. Weakness questions are great. Everyone has both strengths and weaknesses. The key is to find a strength you can also call a weakness. For example, "My weakess is in how long it takes me to grade essay questions or written reports. I try really hard to get them back to students really quickly because I know how important it is that they get feedback on their efforts as timely as possible. But what happens is I start to think about what they have written and then I start to write questions to them on their papers. "What about this? Did you consider such and such? Tell me more about this idea .... How did it turn out?" I want to ask all the questions that would have lead them to write a better answer. Consequently, it takes me longer than I'd like to grade them. (Clearly there is much strength balancing out a potential weakness)

2. Pick a success story and tell them the story. Something that may have started out badly and you helped (at least a little bit). Everyone said Susie was a problem. She daydreamed when she should be working. Her papers were always scribbled and she got easy questions wrong. Well, I got to talking to her and ..... blah, blah, blah ..... So it turned out that she was unmotivated because the work was too easy. She could scrape by with Cs with zero effort and no one bothered to challenge her with any more. I changed that ...... blah, blah, blah .... and now she's doing great and much happier.

3) Start with something that appeared self-evident at first, but when the usual answer wasn't correct, you dug deeper. And the earlier in you experience it happened the better. That way you can start off with a little laugh. And shake your head a little at how much you've learned since. And this kid helped teach you an important lesson. Maybe it was Susie. Maybe the first thing you did with her was send her to the principal's office because instead of daydreaming she was humming to herself and disturbing the other kids. And although you asked her to stop, she wouldn't. But again, turns out the poor kid was bored silly....

Hopefully you get the idea. Every potential negative has to be one that clearly has a positive hidden inside. Don't belabor the positive, the interviewer should be able to see that himself/herself.

Good luck. Hope this helped at least a little.

Answer 4

1- I think that any teachers weaknesses could be not keeping up with the education, rules of handling children, and improving themselves as a better teaching.

2- Little Johnny had a problem and began being disruptive during class. I immediately sent him to the principles office without talking to him personally. Later I was told by his counselor that if I had asked little Johnny why he was being so disruptive he would of told me that he couldn't see the board from where he sat. He needed glasses. This taught me that I need to speak with the children and maybe I can resolve the problem, before I over react.
3- I learned from the above situation that not all things seem as they appear.

I know that you said that you were not asking for answers, but I am trying to give you examples. You should always be honest in all aspects of your life... This is no different.
Good Luck.

Answer 5

Remember there's no such thing as a dumb question, so if you're not sure what the teacher wants you to do ask/clarify. Children need some kind of "stop/look/listen" signal eg. ring a little bell. Practice this & praise/reward the quickest/first, make a game of it, tell them you're going to try & trick them...it'll work for you after only a couple of tries!

Answer 6

I1. f you are new, your weakness could be that you are inexperienced.

2. Make one up that sounds realistic, without specific details. I had a student that threw a big fit and started swearing and getting upset during class. I sent him to the office, while trying not to disrupt the rest of the class. I continued what I was doing with the class, and dealt with the student and his mother later.

3. Make one up.

Answer 7

you really should answer them the way you THINK you should.
otherwise the principal won't be hiring who they THINK you are.

i tell my students...if i wanted your neighbor's answers or ideas, i'd look at their paper. i want your answers and ideas, so put them on your paper.

Answer 8

1) I'm a teacher, I have no weaknesses!

2) Johny spit in my face. I threw him out the window. Johny stopped spitting in my face.

3) I once threw johny out the window. I used an overhand throw, but he was pretty heavy and I pulled a muscle. Next time I will use an underhanded throw.