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Since its’ launch last summer, Road to Teaching has grown considerably. Over 11,000 aspiring, student, and beginning teachers visited this website, learning about teaching strategies and topics, discovering resources, and finding support.
This growth couldn’t be possible without the voice of our contributors, teachers collaborating, and people around the world emailing in their insights, stories, and teacher interview questions.
We recently won “Best of the Web” by TeAchnology. Also, we parterned with TheApple.com to futher support student teachers.
What’s New
Road to Teaching continually focuses on three areas: talking about student teacher topics, providing additional teacher interview questions and answers, and expanding our list of effective vocabulary strategies.
Student Teacher Topics
Our number of posts addressing student teacher topics continually expands. To make it easier for our visitors, we have started to categorize the various topics: parent/family communication, stress management, and much more.
Teacher Interview Questions
Recently, we launched possible answers to teacher interview questions. These are excerpts from the book Road to Teaching: A Guide to Teacher Training, Student Teaching, and Finding a Job.
- How do your curb student misbehavior?
- What is your approach to or philosophy on teaching?
- Describe a motivating teacher.
- Describe an extraordinary teacher.
- Describe how you plan your lessons.
- What is your approach to classroom management?
- and more..
Effective Vocabulary Strategies
Check out our new page dedicated to gathering effective vocabulary strategies. Please send your strategies to eric@road2teaching.com
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Award-winning director Davis Guggenheim ‘s documentary TEACH is now available online for free at www.teachnow.org.
“TEACH chronicles the determination and commitment of four young teachers as they fight the real fight: educating our children.
Davis Guggenheim’s award-winning documentary reveals the human side of the story: showing what it takes to survive the first year teaching in America’s toughest schools. (35 min.)”
In an effort to keep the website’s design simple, and yet manage the growing content, I created a page dedicated to student teacher topics. The topics, so far, include: parent / family communication, first weeks of student teaching, stress management, teacher certification, teacher interview questions, and more.
I welcome you to please email (eric@road2teaching.com) or comment on additional resources, links, books, etc. that would be helpful to other teachers.
Resource Link
It’s not surprising that the most popular posts on my blog deal with teacher interviews. It’s that time of the season where aspiring teachers are working diligently to find job openings, land interviews, prepare for the interviews, and, most importantly, perform well. Hundreds of visitors have been visiting the teacher interview page and many teachers are posting or emailing me additional questions to add. Just another example how well the teachers community supports each other!
In the spirit of the hiring season, I am going to devote my blog this week to providing helpful advice (some from my book) regarding teacher interviews.
Slow Down and Take Control of the Teacher Interview
I have been on several interviews that I felt just flew-by and I ask myself, “What just happened?” What I realized was I wasn’t present in the interviews, feeling almost passive in the whole experience. I learned some tricks to regain control. The first step in taking back control, and not “just passing through” the interview process, is to slow down. Pay attention to your breathing, take deep, controlled breaths before going into the room where the interview will take place. Breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth. This technique will relax you, steady your heart rate, and put you in a better state of mind for your interview.
Bring your research notes with your skill sets and how they match with the needs of the school and review them just before you go in to the interview. This will serve as a quick reminder of some points that you should address.
When you go into the interview, and after you greet everyone, ask if you can take some notes during the interview. Quickly jot down the names and positions of the interviewers. This will be critical information for writing thank-you notes after the interview. During the interview, write down any important points made. Likewise, make notes when something you said may have caused confusion or was construed differently than your original intent. You can clarify these points later in your thank-you notes. By applying these simple acts, you become a more active participant in the process and less of a bystander.
Resource Links
Road to Teaching: A Guide to Teacher Training, Student Teaching, and Finding a Job
The back-to-school buzz is getting louder and louder. Back-to-school advertisements are everywhere, school meetings are being scheduled, school emails are flowing, and teacher talk is now centering on what needs to be accomplished from now to the start of the year.
I am not ready for this. This was my first summer I didn’t spend my entire summer on school-related activities, i.e. summer school, summer projects, conferences, etc. I thoroughly enjoyed it; I was able to visit family, travel, create and update this website, write updates to my book, and simply slow-down and enjoy the beautiful Seattle weather. It allowed me to recharge, develop fresh ideas for the classroom, and explore other passions. Because I have been teaching for sometime, I know that in a week or two I will be ready to start teaching, but, in the meantime, I am going to continue enjoying my summer vacation!
I cleaned up the website today. I added some additional teacher interview questions. I added a new welcome page that is static. These were are necessary to ensure the website / blog continues to grow. So far, the unique visitors to the website is growing each day. However, I am still concerned that very few visitors post, comment, or email any resources that could help other teachers. My hope is as this website begins to gain momentum that more and more teachers will contribute. Please submit (blog, post comment, email) your recommendations on books, website links, stories, and interview questions that you believe would benefit other teachers.
I have been thinking about how to design Road to Teaching, so that it makes the most sense for student teachers. One change you will see over the next week is I am going to add a contributor page. These are education professions with a diverse background (education professors, teachers, administrators, etc.). As a person in an education program you will be able to blog or email these contributors directly any question you may have? For example, a student teacher may email the elementary teacher asking what numeric games works well with younger children. Or a preservice teacher may email an administrator asking how long should he/she wait to follow-up after an interview. These contributors have expressed a sincere desire to support individuals in teacher education programs, so please don’t hold back.
Road to Teaching: Blog, Resources, and Interview Questions for Teachers 