In Charge Computer Science Department Interview Preparation Guide

Download PDF

Co-teaching is a new strategy adapted by teachers to teach a particular subject by sharing their responsibility. Co-teaching can be fun for the student learning one subject from two or more people who may have different ways of teaching or thinking.

You’d better if you want to do a good job teaching. Kids know if you don’t like them and they will not respect you if you don’t like them.

Are they going to fit in with your school? Are they ok with a noisy class? That’s my favorite. Or do they favor the sit and get method of teaching?

The classroom management structure the I would opt for –

☛ Listening students in one-to-one meeting
☛ Solving issues among the students
☛ Try to involve parents in the disciplinary process
☛ Having student sign a learning contract at the beginning of the year
☛ Agreeing on a set of classroom rules together as a class

Some of the problems faced by middle school is

☛ Insufficient teacher training
☛ Inappropriate learning environment
☛ Less involvement of parents
☛ Emotional stress and other issues

☛ Active involvement in studying
☛ Positive approach towards new ideas
☛ Ready to learn new things
☛ Clearly making progress in written and oral exams
☛ High level on involvement in other curriculum activities

☛ Teacher should not humiliate student, especially in front of others
☛ They should not judge a student on the basis of their academic records and marking
☛ Teacher should not give low grade to the student due to their personal strife
☛ Teacher should not ask the student to cover everything on their own, when they miss a class; their assistance is required
☛ Teacher should not look students grasping power as an equal to his/her, and expect them to learn everything real quick
☛ Teacher should not teach a lesson as if he/she teaching to himself. He must involve students by taking small breaks in between lessons and ask them if they needed any help
☛ Teacher should not try to dominant student, in fact; they should remain calm and be at receiving end
☛ Teacher should not be over-demanding and understand the potential of the fellow student before allotting any task

You use lots of positive reinforcement. You are firm, but you don't yell. You have appropriate consequences for inappropriate behavior. You have your classroom rules posted clearly on the walls. You set common routines that students follow. You adhere to the school's discipline guidelines. Also, emphasize that you suspect discipline problems will be minimal because your lessons are very interesting and engaging to students. Don't tell the interviewer that you “send kids to the principal's office” whenever there is a problem. You should be able to handle most discipline problems on your own. Only students who have committed very serious behavior problems should be sent to the office.

To reduce drop out in middle school various steps that should be considered are

☛ Link student interest with learning
☛ Provide them appropriate environment for studying like vary classroom format day to day
☛ Give students few options in topics to study or research, and make an attempt to link the material or topics to everyday life, for example, relate some outdoor activities with maths problem
☛ Use map, a pictorial diagram, power point presentation and visual image to make topic more comprehensive and less boring
☛ Teachers should bring belief in their students about how the project or some course can benefit them in their career prospectus
☛ One to one conversation with students about their liking towards any activities it could be sports, music, painting, etc.

Student will learn many things through extracurricular activities

☛ Learning time management and prioritizing
☛ Learning about long term commitments
☛ Motivates them for other careers
☛ Raise their self-confidence
☛ Team work and relationship skills
☛ Making a contribution

Effective classroom management styles include

☛ Don’t attend any parent’s- teacher conference, student meeting or discussion until you are clear about the goal
☛ Don’t promise student to do something which you can’t able to do
☛ Understand students all aspects and requirement for class-room
☛ Ensure that whatever you implement or say should be practically feasible and beneficial for the student

I am sure many of you have participated in team-teaching and realize the benefits of this strategy. The interviewer who asks this question wants to discover, if you are flexible, enjoy working in a team environment, have experience in this area, and what your viewpoints are on the subject.

It is always wise to speak about some of the positive aspects of team-teaching, such as:

It is an effective strategy for teaching large groups of students. Encourages teachers to collaborate and generate ideas ... two heads are always better than one! Talk about team-teaching experiences you have had, and the positive results that transpired.

If you haven't had any hands-on experience, you may explain that you enjoy working in a team setting and are excited about the possibility of participating in this approach. OR, maybe you have done some reading on the subject and can share some of the insights you gained with the interviewer ... this will definitely be impressive!

Furthermore, it is vitally important to be honest when answering all questions during the interview. Organizing your thoughts in advance will serve to help you deliver truthful and concise responses, while highlighting the skills you possess that are most compatible with the needs of the school or district.

If they don’t know this is an issue and haven’t thought about strategies for it they may not be ready.

☛ Computers are inevitable in 21st century; a basic computer programming from high school onwards can help students to become a pro by the time they complete their colleges
☛ Data science engineering is another subject that could be helpful to the student in their near future
☛ Statistics is like catalyst for data analysis, with little knowledge with statistics they can handle and operate data library in any field

☛ Having a vision and a clear goal
☛ Planning and motivating
☛ Good communication at all levels
☛ Visibility, consistency and accountability
☛ Supportive

Pros
☛ You can examine the standard by yourself and see whether it gives the desired result
☛ It helps to know students and teachers consistency at each grade throughout all states
☛ It helps teachers to collaborate with any school nationwide
☛ It helps to improve professional development for teachers
☛ Easy for student to get a grip over the subject while moving to other states

Cons
☛ Lack of implementation
☛ Sometimes challenging for students to meet the CCSS standards

☛ Provide study material which is compelling and easy to understand
☛ Try create an ambience where students can help each other
☛ Allot homework smartly which is a burden less and more meaning full
☛ Model thinking and not solution or answer oriented
☛ Provide the feedback immediately and which is more relevant to the task
☛ Before state testing gets math tutor volunteers once a week for 2 months
☛ Use story telling method to teach maths to students

Any exploratory courses or class can be helpful for middle school student to develop their skills

☛ Arts: Student can express themselves by learning instruments and dance including band, chorus, etc.
☛ Business Courses: It teaches them typing and enhances their keyboard skills which can be further used in business marketing and computer design
☛ Foreign languages: Learning a foreign language always add a credit to your skills, and middle school can help the student to get a head start in this
☛ Physical education and health: Physical activities help students to become stronger and become competitive and also relieves them from stress and boredom

These can help the teacher to leave his impact and make out maximum of it

☛ Use a pleasant and normal tone while communicating with the student.
☛ Start delivering lecture only when student is ready to receive from you
☛ Try to use non-verbal communication or hand signals, this will help the student to take an interest in what you are saying. Sometimes non-verbal communication says more than your verbal thing
☛ Address immediately on any unpleasant or unsatisfactory situation with students, always approach student as they need help or have some doubt.
☛ Bored students are equally harassing as troubled students. Always have an interactive session and well-designed engaging lesson
☛ Organize the class outside the classroom sometimes like in open ground, it will change the ambience

An IEP is an "individualized education plan." Students with special needs will be given an IEP, or a list of things that you must do when teaching the child. An IEP might include anything from "additional time for testing" to "needs all test questions read aloud" to "needs to use braille textbook." How do you ensure you're meeting the needs of a student with an IEP? First, read the IEP carefully. If you have questions, consult a special education teacher, counselor, or other staff member who can help you. Then, you just make sure you follow the requirements on the IEP word for word. When necessary, you may be asked to attend a meeting in which you can make suggestions for updating the IEP. Your goal, and the goal of the IEP, is to make sure the student has whatever he or she needs to be successful in your class.

Do I need to say more?

☛ Can they relate to age group of the students
☛ Can they communicate?
☛ Do they like to learn? Are they excited about learning? Are they still actively learning?
☛ Are they disciplined? With themselves and in the classroom. Can they mange their time?
☛ Not only can they teach but do they like to teach?
☛ Do they have high expectations?
☛ Do they know the tools (Windows, MacOS , IOS, Android)
☛ Can they program?
☛ Do they know the software?
☛ Can they handle large classes
☛ Is there 1-on-1 coaching
☛ Can they make a lecture interesting?
☛ Are they flexible in classroom environment
☛ Are there self-paced classes and can they work with that?
☛ What approaches will you bring to the classroom to make this subject matter worth learning?
☛ Why is Grace Hopper worth knowing about?
☛ What do you do when you've got a kid who, despite repeated attempts, just doesn't get it?
☛ What was your favorite part in the movie "The Imitation Game"?
☛ Are you ready / willing to share your "war stories" with the class, to help humanize the subject?
☛ In your opinion, how does CS apply to everyone's every day lives?
☛ What does "rigorous computer science curriculum" mean to you?
☛ How would you implement a rigorous computer science curriculum while ensuring that students who have no prior computing experience can have a class that is both rigorous and accessible?
☛ What are the most important topics to teach the beginning computer science student and why?

☛ Describe your current line of research and explain its clinical relevance. What aspects of your research are innovative?
☛ What do you believe is a researcher's obligation for dissemination of results?
☛ What experience and success have you had in acquiring research grant support?
☛ What research equipment, personnel, and supply requirements do you have?
☛ Describe the courses you have taught by summarizing the course content and assignments required.
☛ Explain how you grade students' written work. How have you handled conflicts with students over grades and assignments?
☛ How would you handle an episode of academic misconduct?
☛ Define "integrity" and explain at least two ways that you have demonstrated this trait in your research and teaching.
☛ How have your prior jobs contributed to your professional skills and attitude?
☛ Why are you interested in a position at this university?
☛ What strengths and expertise will you contribute to our department?
☛ In what ways do you feel you can lend support to your colleagues?
☛ List three areas of weakness that you wish to improve on.
☛ How will you be a role model for our students? In your opinion, what personal and professional traits are desirable for mentoring students?

☛ How will you ensure that outstanding teaching and learning practice is embedded across your department?
☛ What strategies would you use to help learners who are underachieving in a) your classes and b) classes taught by other teachers in your department?
☛ Describe your vision of the ideal weekly department meeting.
☛ How would you respond to a parent who contacts you to express concern about the teaching of a teacher in your department?
☛ What are the most important functions in a HOD role and how would you prioritise them?
☛ What strategies would you use to ensure that the most able students taking your subject excel and are stretched?
☛ What are your views on centralising all the department resources so that every teacher uses the same resources and sets the same homework / tests?
☛ If you were to write a "mission statement" for your department, what might it be?
☛ Here are some possible staff management scenarios:
☛ You have a teacher in your department approaching retirement who doesn't want to change the way that he/she teaches, but parents and students have complained. How do you respond to parents? How do you broach the subject with the teacher in question?
☛ You have an NQT in your department to whom you need to act as a mentor. They are struggling with classroom management and maintaining control. How might you support them?
☛ An internal candidate has also applied for this HOD post, but has not been appointed. How do you get off on the right footing at the start of the new school year?
☛ Where do you see yourself career-wise in 5 years time?

☛ What strategies would you use to attract and retain women and minorities in your program?
☛ Experience in CS
☛ what projects you have done in college
☛ why are you passionate about CS
☛ Teaching and tutoring experience at which levels.
☛ What's your vision for the CS program here, what part do you want to play
☛ what resources do you need,
☛ which classes should we teach.
☛ Why teaching instead of industry?
☛ How would you explain what a ZIP file is?
☛ What are the common misconceptions about nested for loops?
☛ What have you learned from a student?
☛ Pick a language and tell me why it's the best language for our students. Now tell me the challenges of using that specific language with these students, and how you would overcome them.
☛ Students at this school need some help with <concept/skill>. Tell me how you would use your CS class to help them.
☛ I walk into your class..describe to me what's going on and why.
☛ How have/would you balance individual, pair and group assignments?, How does this impact assessment of your students' progress?
☛ Explain the role of ethics within your CS program.
☛ What strategies would you use to help struggling students?
☛ How would you keep the students off Facebook and games during class?
☛ One area is attitude and skills
☛ Do they like kids?
☛ How would you connect your curriculum to real world problems and core curriculum ?
☛ In what ways can your program increase students overall problem solving and critical thinking skills?