An Administrator's Perspective

  Today was our mock interview in Social Studies Methods. I was one of four people chosen to become an administrator in this role play interview. I was excited to have been chosen as an administrator, but also nervous. The idea of having to stand up in front of the class and act as such an important figure of a school, was a very nerve racking idea. I was nervous that I wouldn't come off as professional and would mess up somehow. However, the interview process went great despite my nerves. I pretended to be a principal at the School of Discovery. I had graduated from Mount Saint Mary College with my Bachelor's Degree in Mathematics, and a certification in childhood and special education, as well as a Hispanic Studies minor. I then proceeded to further my education and received my PhD from Harvard University. It was really fun to take on such an important goal, and to see myself with the title of "Doctor." Committing to this role really allowed me to see the potential I have to continue with my education. The limits are endless! My school was centered around inquiry based learning. As an inquiry based learning school, we strive for students to build understanding from information, and encourage them to be intellectually active participants. We focus on inquiry skills development of creative and critical thinking, finding patterns and relationships, focus, and contextualization. Our learning goals consist of engagement, understanding of content, and skills of independent learning. The questions I asked the interviewee's were "what is your philosophy of education?," If you could describe information processing model in one word, what word would you choose and why?," "The 5 E's are essential elements to incorporate into an inquiry model lesson plan. If I entered your classroom during your inquiry lesson on "economics" what would I observe?," "How does the inquiry method help you to encourage class engagement/participation?," and "How would you turn a traditional assignment of "write a paragraph/essay describing the animal you have researched," into an inquiry based/authentic assignment?" 

I was honestly very impressed by a number of the responses from my colleagues. It is very hard to think on the spot, let alone to think of a good answer on the spot. I felt that there were some great answers, and that many of the answers were ones I had not thought to include. On the other side, there were some colleagues that had obviously not come prepared, and cracked under pressure. I also experienced the hot seat, and became the interviewee. I was able to feel the pressure of thinking of responses to questions on the spot, but was able to use all my experience and knowledge from this course as well as others, to come up with thoughtful responses. At the end of the interviews, the administrators came together to decide to "hire" one person per group. This was very hard for me as well as my fellow administrators to have to really reveal the "rights and wrongs" that were performed during the interview process, as well as to choose the best person amongst our close colleagues. This experience allowed me to earn a sense of what a real interview for a teaching position is like. I am really glad to have had this experience, because it is very relevant right now especially just having had student teaching interviews not too long ago. I'm glad to have had such a positive mock interview experience!