Whether you are looking to host your first student teacher, or have hosted many, you may feel anxious about starting on the right foot! After all, you will spend the majority of your time with them – it is important that expectations are clear and at the very least, a strong working relationship is formed!
Most colleges ask potential cooperating teachers to interview their student teachers, which may feel uncomfortable to some host teachers. Many think, “I’m assigned this teacher, what point is there in interviewing them?” However, while it may feel like just one more thing on your already very full plate, you can actually use the interview to prepare for your time together. When I interview my student teachers, I want to make sure we are a good fit and lay the foundation for clear expectations.
To decide which questions to ask, consider what is important to you in a working relationship. You don’t need to have the same hobbies or favorite TV shows, but you do want to know about a few professional interests and skills. For example, communication is extremely important to me, so I ask about communication styles. In special education, you need to be proactive and a creative problem solver, so I add questions about that!
While interviewing my perspective student teachers, I also share my own answers to these questions. I think it sets us up for a good conversation around our expectations, strengths, and weaknesses, and sets the stage for future professional conversations.
I also send these questions to my student teachers via email ahead of time. I want to give them time to think about these questions and prepare their answers since I want to make sure I get their best answers, not just whatever they can think of on the fly. Most of teaching is preparation, and I want to see what they can prepare! Some other teachers may feel strongly about not sending the questions ahead of time, so it is really up to you!
Here are my go-to questions for student teachers:
- Tell me about a time that you have been proactive.
In my opinion, being proactive is a huge part of being a successful teacher. I don’t want to constantly be putting out fires or hounding my student teachers about their assignments, lesson plans, etc. Throughout our conversation, I emphasize how important it is to be proactive, and how I expect that if my student teacher needs something from me, they are proactive about what they need.
- Describe your communication style in 3 words.
I expect clear, proactive, and thorough communication from my student teachers. If they need something, they need to be communicating that to me ahead of time. I describe my own communication style as positive, proactive, and thorough, especially with parent communication!
- Tell me about a time when you have used outside-of-the-box thinking to solve a problem in the classroom.
I’ve had student teachers who just continue all of my classroom routines, which is great, because they are effective routines, but I encourage my student teachers to try new things! I want to know their definition of creative thinking and if this is an area in which they may need additional coaching.
- What subject areas are you the most passionate about teaching?
This question is helpful because it gives me an idea of where my student teacher can start participating more fully from the start. For example, my most recent student teacher loved teaching ELA, so that was her first class to take over. She gained confidence from teaching that class that bubbled over to classes she was more anxious about teaching, like math! If you only teach one subject area, you have limited options, but it’s still good information to know, since they can pull different strategies into your classroom that you may not have thought of, like strategies for reading lengthy test questions!
- What subject areas are you the least experienced in teaching?
Let’s be honest – we all have content areas that we aren’t especially excited about teaching! Student teachers are no exception. However, it’s important to get experience in subject areas that we aren’t as thrilled about, and student teaching is a great time to dip a toe into classes that intimidate us. After all, you never know what job your student teacher may end up with in the future, and we want to make sure they are prepared for anything!
- Is there anything specific that you would like me to know or do to best support you this semester?
This gives student teachers a chance to fill me in on anything they may need. Most of the time, they don’t share anything specific in this question, but it’s great just in case they feel the need to! One student teacher shared with me that they were a recovering perfectionist, so they struggled with creativity and taking risks – both great things for me to know and we were able to practice both!
Overall, I use the answers to these questions to help as we plan how my student teacher will start to take on more responsibility in the classroom, and what aspects of teaching I can model to help them get the most out of their experience in my classroom!
What would you add to this list? Let me know in the comments below!
