Wednesday 15 February 2012

Locating A Home School Teacher


There are several things that you have to remember when you are ready to find a home school teacher. First of all, just because your child is schooled at home, this does not mean that they need to be schooled by you. Many children who are home schooled are done so by other parents, grandparents, or by others who want to be a home school teacher. Sometimes, it is like finding a private tutor. All that is important is that your child is able to learn in this home environment and that they are able to show that they have met all of the standards so that you can keep doing your home school teacher thing.

When you are choosing a teacher for your child, there are several things that you should be sure you are looking for. First of all, you want someone who has experience with children. This should be someone who is ready to work with kids and who has done so before. Preferably, it should be someone who has a bit of education when it comes to how to teach children. They should have had plenty of good experience teaching.

Next, you want to be sure that your home school teacher has experience with home schooling in general. Whether they were home schooled themselves, or if they have been teaching other home schooled students, this is important because it is very different than the world of regular school. Therefore, you want your teacher to have some knowledge of what it is like.

Remember that when you are choosing a teacher you are inviting someone into your home to teach your children. Therefore, they should be unique and interesting and should be someone that you really feel is going to be able to bring a lot of interesting ideas to your table. You always want to be sure that you are able to do this so that your home school teacher can do much more than simply teach your child. They should broaden their horizons

Friday 10 February 2012

10 A Young Teacher's Guide To School Sport


It is important that you become an enthusiastic coach and mentor to your team and that you enjoy your involvement.

1.Encourage the players to enjoy practice and the games.

2.Analyse each game and aim to correct problems at training and work on them in the next game.

3.Use praise during your team talks before, during and after the game.

4.Point out areas where the team needs to improve. Use your team runner to let players know during the game how to improve their performances. Acknowledge any success they have and continue to give advice as required.

5.Set team goals for each game and give the team an assessment of how well they accomplished those goals.

6.Always look for positives in all games especially in losses.

7.Record results; write a game report and record votes in your awards system, e.g. best and fairest, most improved and so on.

8.In games where a scoring system is more complicated, e.g. baseball, cricket, train your scorer to a high degree of efficiency for the score book can tell you much about the team performance and is necessary for use in deciding team awards.

9.Teams must practise at least once a week.

10.Have a team meeting early on the day of the game to check on sickness, injury and absentees. Announce your starting team for the day and any special duties, game time, transport arrangements and perhaps game tactics.

Be aware there may be slow developers in your team or students new to your game. Give them the same attention as you give the more experienced/talented. You'll be surprised in the long term of the contribution they will make to your team if you persevere with them. These are often players who love the game and will always give their best. When they leave school, these players will often become the organizational strength behind their local sporting club or association.

Wednesday 8 February 2012

Special Education Teaching Job Interview


Because a special education teacher's job requires far more than just teaching, administrators will seek candidates who are true specialists in the field. If you're hoping to be hired as a special ed teacher, you need to be an expert at the art of adapting lessons, an active advocate for student needs, a professional IEP writer, a wealth of information on student disabilities, and a dedicated individual who is 100% committed to doing whatever it takes to help all students reach their fullest potential.

As with any teaching interview, I recommend you familiarize yourself with possible questions beforehand. This will make the interview questions seem familiar so you'll be more comfortable answering them. You will be asked a series of general teaching questions as well as questions that specifically relate to special ed.

Below are a few thoughts on ways to be prepare for the special education questions that will be asked.

Be prepared to comprehend and respond to all of the jargon, acronyms, and special requirements of special education. You should know exactly how an IEP and/or CSE meeting is conducted. You need to speak and act as though you are very familiar with IEP meetings, CSE meetings, child study meetings and any other special education committees the school may have. Understand how least restrictive environment works. Know what services and support the school district does and does not offer.
Be sure you understand and are able to talk about a wide range of disabilities. Familiarize yourself with Asperger's/autism, ADHD, emotional disorders, processing delays, speech disorders, physical handicaps, and every other common disability children may be classified with in the district.
Emphasize your ability to work cooperatively with colleagues. Special education teachers are usually required to work closely with and/or team teach with regular education teachers. They'll also be communicating regularly with special education administration, social workers or counselors, PT/OT teachers, and resource teachers. There's a lot of specialized teamwork involved in educating children with special needs. You need to understand your role in acting as an advocate for each of your students and in meeting their social and academic needs.
Know how to utilize support staff. Oftentimes special education students will have teachers' aides or assistants. Be sure you know how to use the support staff in a professional way the benefits the student. You don't want the child to become dependent on a teacher's aide for doing simple tasks that he/she can perform himself. On the other hand, you want to be sure the student is receiving the full support he/she needs.
Be sure you're an expert in differentiation. While all teachers should differentiate their lessons based on their students' needs, special education teachers need to be especially confident in their ability to adapt lessons to meet the very unique needs of their students. You simply can't teach a concept and expect every child to be doing the same work, the same way. You need to individualize instruction so that it is presented in a way that all of your students can learn. You will not be able to look at the school's curriculum or instructional materials and use them as-is. You'll need to show that you can adapt your resources to meet the learning needs of your students.

Final thoughts: To succeed in a special education interview, you need to be able to talk-the-talk, understand how to be an advocate for special needs students, fully understand responsibilities associated with the job, and be willing to go above and beyond to meet the unique instructional needs of classified students.

Thursday 2 February 2012

5 Common Teacher Interview Questions and How to Answer Them


When you get a call from a school administrator inviting you to interview for a teaching job, how do you feel? Happy? Elated? Excited? Nervous? Scared stiff?

You don't need to worry about the interview if you're a well-prepared, qualified candidate. Preparing for a teaching interview is a lot like studying for a test. You can review commonly asked questions, think about what you'll say beforehand, and go in to do your best. If you prepare beforehand, the interview questions will seem routine and familiar. You'll have answers on the tip of your tongue, ready-to-go.

Below is a list of six commonly asked teacher interview questions from my eBook, Guide to Getting the Teaching Job of Your Dreams. How would you answer each question?

1. Tell us about yourself.

This will be the first question at almost every interview. Just give a brief background in about three sentences. Tell them what colleges you graduated from, what you're certified to teach, what your teaching & working experiences are, and why you'd love the job.

2. How do you teach to the state standards?

If you interview in the United States, school administrators love to talk about state, local, or national standards! Reassure your interviewer that everything you do ties into standards. Be sure the lesson plans in your portfolio have the state standards typed right on them. When they ask about them, pull out your lesson and show them the close ties between your teaching and the standards.

3. How will you prepare students for standardized assessments?

There are standardized assessments at almost every grade level. Be sure you know the names of the tests. Talk about your experiences preparing students. You'll get bonus points if you know and describe the format of the test because that will prove your familiarity.

4. Describe your discipline philosophy.

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.

5. How do you make sure you meet the needs of a student with an IEP?

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.