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Section 6: Teacher Candidate Teacher Interview Video

Teacher Candidate Interview Video

The teacher candidate interview video is a short video reflection about the things I have

learned as a student with Medaille College and how they will inform me as I become a teacher. It

is where I also review my background and experience and how it related to me wanting to joint

the profession. It gives me a chance to produce a video that highlights some of my work, the

Weebly website I made for the technology class and gives the viewer a chance to see a little bit

of my personality. I was grateful for having the chance to discuss one of my lessons and

showcase the Weebly project. Hopefully, you will enjoy this section too.

Teacher Candidate Interview Questions & Responses

Briefly share a little about your background experiences that have led you to choose a

career in education?

Hi everyone! If you are watching this video you found your way to my Weebly website,

so good for you. Thank you for taking the time to visit my page and for wanting to find out more

about my story. Let me begin by saying that I am excited to get into the classroom and apply the

knowledge and practice I have gained at Medaille College. I want to share a little about myself to

give you an understanding as to how I decided on becoming a teacher.

I have worked in some form of education for over a decade. I began my career as a health

educator where I found myself working along side businesses, schools and other agencies to

promote health awareness and health education within the greater community. Often times I

would visit schools and classrooms to build relationships with students and get a dialogue started

about healthy lifestyles and the ways in which we can advocate for our communities. Later, I

moved to South Korea to pursue becoming an English teacher. I enjoyed this immensely, as it
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was my first experience taking on a class of beautiful, wonderful kindergarten age children. This

experience showed me how rewarding and impactful teaching can be.

Upon my return to the States, I began working as a curriculum coordinator for a higher ed

college readiness and assistance program. It was here, where I continued my work with public

schools and classrooms to provide guidance and assistance to help students realize their college

dreams could become a reality, and that there was help available. Since I worked closely with

college personnel and administrators, they witnessed the passion and joy I had working with

students, so they recruited me to join their team where I could meet with and guide students and

families on a daily basis. I was pleased with the position, but soon realized that I really wanted to

be in the classroom. Instead of putting it off any longer I decide to make my dream a reality.

What have you learned in your teacher training program that will make you an

excellent classroom teacher and colleague?

I have learned a tremendous amount from the experienced professors and excellent

curriculum at Medaille College. Material, related to theory, such as Howard Gardner’s Theory of

Multiple Intelligences will inform my efforts to build a culturally responsive, differentiated

pedagogy. In addition, the classroom we enter today is more diverse than ever before, which is

what makes our schools so beautiful. I learned ways in which we can create inclusive

environments where the students are able to share their stories and make their voices heard in

meaningful ways to contribute to the overall classroom dynamic and learning structure.

Furthermore, I had substantive opportunities to create lesson and segment plans that were fun,

interactive and met the standards and curriculum for which we are to adhere. I also learned about

and applied knowledge with numerous assessment tools, data collection and management

techniques and various technology to enhance the learning experience.

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Provide us with an example of a lesson you taught. How did you integrate it with other

curriculum areas, address the CCLS, technology, student engagement and motivation? What

were the results of the lesson?

I would now like to briefly discuss a social studies lesson I did as part of a five-part

learned segment regarding early European exploration and North American settlement

communities. In this particular lesson, I engaged students with an exercise where they would

decode the Runic alphabet and write their name with the characters. I also utilized numerous

multimedia tools, such as video, presentation technology and audio devices. To get the students

actively involved, I designed an activity where they would make the outline of a ship and

reinforced vocabulary by using the terminology throughout. To assess learning, I created an

anchor chart that they would work on after the lesson and provided exit tickets.

How will your knowledge of the current trends in education inform you as an educator

in our district/board/school?

There are a number of positive trends in education today. I would like to touch on a

couple of them and discuss how they will influence my teaching. Everything I do in my

classroom will be based on research and best practices. Research has shown that it’s important

for children to be able to move. It’s unreasonable to expect students to sit and listen to a lecture

for 30 minutes. I aim to create collaborative, flexible and active learning environments where the

students are engaged and participating in their learning. There is also a lot of research that

supports keeping the focus on the students.

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There is also a lot of research regarding student focused learning. When we get to know

our students and understand how they learn and what their interested in, we can differentiate our

instruction accordingly and create flexible pathways for students to demonstrate learning.

Why should we hire you instead of the other applicants we have interviewed?

Thank you for taking the time to view my video today. I hope that you take a look around

my website to see some of the work I have done and tools I am familiar with. I think you will be

encouraged by my passion for teaching children and see that I am focused on helping students

grow and achieve great things, both inside and outside the classroom. I would love to hear from

you, so don’t hesitate to send me a message by clicking the contact information tab at the top of

the screen. Thank you and have a great day!

Conclusion

In this section, I answered questions regarding my background experiences, as it pertains

to the education field. In addition, I talked about the things I learned at Medaille College and

how they will inform the things I do in the classroom. I also used the Weebly website I created to

talk about the portfolio project, and specifically section three regarding artifacts. Finally, I talked

about a few trends in the field of education that I found important and closed by thanking the

viewer for their time and consideration.

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