Moc Interview

Today in class we participated in a Moc interview. Myself and 3 other classmates had the pleasure of being principal or administrators at a school. The rest of the class were the teacher interviewees. My school is Dream Big Elementary School. 

Here is an example of my opening statement!

My name is Mrs. Julian. I am a principal at Dream Big Elementary School. At my school we believe in the phrase “develop together”. It is important to us that each student develops their unique potential to become responsible, educated citizens! I obtained my bachelor's degree from Mount Saint Mary College and continued my education at Fordham University and received my Masters degree. I have been working at this school for 10 years. I taught 3rd grade for 8 years and decided to apply for the principal position and here I am today! Since I have experience as a teacher at this school I would like to tell you how our school runs, we believe that students should be actively engaged during the entire school day. We all work together and we are looking for a teacher candidate who is willing to incorporate technology and creativity into their lessons. Before we get started, I would like to thank you all for your interest in our school. Best of luck to each of you!

Let’s begin.

Each interviewee was well prepared with their resume and philosophy of teaching. Everyone was dressed appropriately. Here are the questions that I asked,

5 Elements of teaching Social Studies/ Teaching SS with technology - Alisha

1. If you could be one color of the rainbow, which color would it be and why?
2. What technology would you use in your everyday lessons, especially when students are working in groups?
3. Out of the 5 elements of powerful teaching (Meaningful, Integrative, Value-Based, Challenging, Active) which 3 elements do you believe are most important to reach in a lesson?
4. Can you share an example of teaching a social studies lesson where you applied 5 elements of powerful SS teaching?

During the interview I noticed that not everyone was knowledgable on the 5 elements of powerful SS teaching. So answering question number 4 was a challenge.

I learned a lot from this moc interview process. A few things I learned on the administrators side was they way to use symbols for each interviewee's answers. They don't know what the symbols mean but this is how us administrators kept track of the interviewees who answered well. I also learned that this is a real process and not everyone gets hired. School districts and administrators are searching for the right candidate. It was tough to make a decision, but a total of 9 people were hired!!

I also learned some personal things that prepared me for the future. It is important to be well prepared, attentive to the questions that are being asked, and to include real life experiences in the answers. I also learned that it is effective to give examples of lessons that I have previously taught when answering some of the questions.

The Moc interview was a great experience and it gives us teacher candidates a little taste of what the real interview world is like because we have to start preparing for it now!