Chemistry Teacher Interview Practice

I am passionate about science, I enjoy working with young people, and when it came time to consider re-entering the work force I thought back to the best job I have had and that was working as a chemist. At the same time, I was volunteering as a tutor and classroom aid for a chemistry teacher at my daughter's high school. I was good at it and I loved it. The teacher and the principal both encouraged me to put the two things together into a mid-life career change and then helped me during my application process to the MAT program at University of Portland. The past three years I have been a substitute teacher in chemistry, biology and freshman physics classrooms working daily and long term. LT subbing has made my desire to teach stronger than ever and I hope to find a teaching job for the coming school year.

I have made a career change to teaching after working 4 years as an organic chemist and 16 years in various business roles at research vendors. I decided to become a teacher after volunteering in an AP chemisstry classroom. For two years I subbed per Diem and long term. My most recent job was teaching 10th chemistry and 7th grade science at ISB in Beaverton SD. I admire [blah blah] about [school] and that is the reason I want to teach here. My real world experience equips me to help your science students thrive under the new next generation science standards and CC.

P: Things don't always go according to plan and it is wise to be able to quickly notice and adapt a lesson. A: For example, I designed a lesson plan around an apartment analogy to teach students how to populate electrons around the nucleus of an element. Even though I ran my idea for the poster project by my lesson planning team, when I actually did it with my students I saw too many not understanding the steps. R: I reflected on the gaps and revised the guided practice portion to give more opportunities together. The next class had more success creating and using their posters to write electron configurations.

S: I am very creative. I have a lot of ideas for activities and I am not always a linear thinker. T: Sometimes I spin my wheels trying to choose among them to plan a logical well paced lesson. A: I have addressed this issue by identifying a peer who has more teaching experience and a strength for planning. For example, at (school) I go to (name teacher) because he always asks questions that help me see which activity is best suited for the objective. Substitute teaching is another avenue that has increased my repertoire of tools since I get to teach a variety of lesson plans created by seasoned teachers. R: So, tapping into a peer's strength to tame my creative overload results in timely, engaging lesson plans for my students.

I have a lot of ideas for activities and I am not always a linear thinker. When I was student teaching, I expected my students to be able to move with me through lesson plans that often incorporated too many untried technologies and jumped around from one task to another. (like the time students' videotaped an assignment and then we couldn't upload and share them on EDMODO). To address this weakness, I started creating lists of my ideas and bringing them to our lesson planning team or my cooperating teacher where I would sort them and relate each one to a learning standard. This helped me prioritize and choose an anchoring activity or lab around which I was able to plan bursts of direct instruction followed by practice and formative assessment. My students noticed the change and the dynamics of the classroom moved from chaos to more orderly intentional activity. Substitute teaching has really helped me continue to strengthen my lesson organization. By teaching block lesson plans created by seasoned teachers I have been able to keep students engaged and learning in high priority activities tied to learning targets.

S: the best units and plans aligned to standards are for naught if I don't also assess student's progress toward mastery (task). A: In assessing students, I use both formative and summative assessment procedures. The types of formative assessments I use entail gathering immediate data to check for understanding. For example, I might insert a short verbal quiz into the lesson or use thumbs up/down or an exit ticket to assess class mastery of a concept. I can quickly get an idea of who needs more help and have some students work on completing a problem set in the packet while I call others together to reteach or explain differently. Summative methods include graded quizzes, tests, culminating projects, and lab reports. Throughout the term I also grade and assess participation in discussions, group projects, and timeliness turning work in. R: the goal of my assessment activities is to give students and myself data to measure their growth toward mastery of each learning objective. Students can take control of their learning and I can give a grade that accurately reflects what the student knows and is able to do.

SUCCESS 1. Prepared to learn. 2. On task bell to bell. 3. Respect the speaker. 4. Ask and answer questions. 5. Follow class procedures. I strive to use minor interventions and small consequences that I can administer consistently and fairly without hesitation before things escalate or get emotional. I assume the best and narrate the behavior I desire. I am a heavy user of positive corrections when my expectations are not met--"Class, I need your eyes on me and pencils down." I correct individually and privately to get 100% compliance. I praise behavior that meets my expectations often, openly, and as specifically as possible. I explain the logic behind our class rules and expectations so that my students know why and how our rules will help them get into college, or an apprenticeship or meet other personal goals outside of the classroom.

S/T: A lesson that goes well is one aligned to a critical learning target and which engages students in full participation to mastery of lesson objective. A: I taught a lesson on Mendelian principles of independent assortment and creating Punnett squares. The culminating project for the lesson was working in their learning teams to apply their knew knowledge to the Aussie Shepherd case study and create a poster to state their conclusion supported with evidence. During the gallery walk students assessed each other's posters and gave positive feedback. R: Students were fully engaged at all times and I could tell by the posters and the comments and questions that they had successfully applied the concepts to solve a real world problem.

S/T: There is a diversity of student abilities and ways of learning that makes it necessary to differentiate instruction. [A] Some of the ways I differentiate instruction include varied reading materials, stretching it questions, case studies and problem-based learning activities. I favor projects because I have found that the open-ended nature of PBL activities allows students to start where they are and stretch for the next learning level given appropriate encouragement and guidance. [Example is Flame Test Lab with optional calibration of spectroscope] [R] As a result of differentiating instruction through content, materials, and pace students are able to meet lesson objectives.

T: Were I hiring a teacher for this job, I would look for the traits of passion and knowledge of the subject taught, creativity, persistence and collaborative abilities. A: Passion and knowledge lead to engaging lessons that keep students connected and interested in learning. Creativity in finding and using activities that engage students is also something I would seek out. Persistence is important because students need to know their teacher is willing to keep on looking for ways to help them learn and be able to apply their knowledge in school, Lastly, collaborative abilities are important because in this day and age of large class sizes and diverse student abilities sometimes I need to rely on another teacher with different strengths to offset areas where I may be struggling to meet a student need.

It is a classroom where teachers and students have a clear understanding of the expectations (standards). They know what they are teaching/learning each day (standards), why the day's learning is an important thing to know or know how to do (relevance), and how to do it (process). For parents, a SBC is more transparent than a traditional grading system in that their report cards and online grade portals will give a specific level of mastery on learning goals instead of just a single letter grade for the course. An observer visiting a SBC is going to see a clearly posted learning goal for the lesson and would observe all aspects of the lesson leading directly to achievement of that learning goal. There would be plenty of opportunities for students to practice and the lesson would end with a formative assessment, sometimes an exit ticket, or a self-assessment or a muddiest point card.

S/T: A well planned lesson is tied to the relevant standards and includes three main components: Objective, Activity, and Assessment Strategies to check student understanding. A: Having created a curriculum map aligned for the school year, I pull from that my unit plan that has the key unit questions. For each objective I use a 3 step approach: Objective. Assessment. Activity. This disciplines my planning. A well framed objective defines my lesson goal. Then I determine how I will assess effectiveness in reaching the goal. This includes ways to connect to prior knowledge as well as thinking through all the questions students might have and common misperceptions so I am prepared to intercede. Lastly I decide on an activity students will use to apply and practice the concept. My lessons close with a formative assessment of some kind and I use that data to guide subsequent planning. R: Good unit plans and component lessons are a road map of what students need to learn and how it will be done effectively during the class time.

Yes. Bloom's is a framework for acquiring knowledge and putting it into practice. The foundation level is knowledge where students recall facts or concepts, list steps, or define vocabulary words. Subsequent levels move up in complexity and critical reasoning skills. I have used Bloom's in my lesson planning and my in-class questioning activities. For example, a student might be asked to name a periodic table trend and then I might ask a stretch question asking another student to explain why that trend exists. Other ways I use the approach include talking to the text, and grouping problems in the lesson set from lower to higher order thinking. It is important for my students to not only know and be able to recall facts about a chemistry concept (such as the periodic table and the elements), but also be able to apply, analyze, and evaluate.

S/T: Substitute teaching and my stint at ISB teaching chemistry, have exposed to me to an incredible variety of content, student populations, and classroom management styles. What I am looking for next is a longer term opportunity or ideally, a permenent position. Once in such a position, I see my first year or maybe two years, as a time of getting my feet under my desk as a high school chemistry teacher. I want to have a positive influence in the lives of high school students; sharing my passion for science; both the joys and the frustrations! Longer term, I want to involve local scientists in my classroom as speakers or perhaps even mentors to students interested in a science career. I have also considered mentoring students in science competitions such as science bowl, the chemistry Olympiad, or science fair projects. R: I am a lifelong learner, and whatever I do in the future I will do to both further my own growth as a teacher as well as set an example for my students.

One of my favorites was using the model of a 7-floor apartment building to help students understand how electrons in atoms of elements populate energy shells. It was hands on; it used something familiar to help explain an abstract concept; working in diverse teams, students designed their posters and presented them to me for feedback; after each team had an accurate model the students competed to see which teams could correctly populate energy levels for a given element using their posters. I have additional examples if you desire an example of something more involved.

S: During a 3-month placement teaching biology, T/A: I created and taught the unit on Genetics and Heredity. My favorite assignment was the Aussie Coat Color Case Study to give students a chance to apply their knowledge to a real life problem. I have a friend who breeds mini Aussies and we used her breeding pair phenotype and birth litter outcomes combined with the canine coat color genetics data to decide whether or not to keep breeding the same dogs or to add a new sire/dam to the kennel. Students worked in their learning teams to read about canine coat color and then to analyze data, decide how to display the data and develop a solution to the problem supported by evidence. During a gallery walk, students used post it notes affixed to posters to provide specific positive feedback to other groups. R: I could tell by the poster outcomes, the questions asked and the discussion that students had devised several evidence supported decisions about the breeding decisions.

Neither. I would like to be respected. I wouldn't want my students to fear me; fear is not going to motivate students nor does it promote self-management skills or love of learning. Similarly, I would not want students to view me as a friend. I am not their peer and being too friendly with students would not only be inappropriate but would also make it more difficult for me to make decisions in the best interest of students and the class. When you are respected, then it is possible to get the job done without resorting to either extreme.

Scaffolding is when I do some of the work for the students when they are just learning a new concept or skill; it is also used with individual students who are not quite ready to do the work on their own. One of the ways I scaffold chemistry lessons is through subdividing a complex task into manageable steps and then "thinking aloud" while solving a problem during direct instruction. Graphic organizers are another tool I use for example when teaching mole conversions I use the mole road map or the train tracks method of solving stoichiometry problems by using dimensional analysis. Lastly, practice practice practice while I circulate the room. My goal is always focused on pushing the students to do more of the cognitive work as they are ready until each has mastered the concept or skill.

Checking for understanding is something I do during every lesson. Chemistry, like math, builds on itself and therefore it is crucial for me to get frequent data on what students are learning, how much they are learning and how well they are learning it. I use the data to make decisions within the lesson--do I need to explain or model again or differently. I also use this data to help me plan for subsequent class periods according to how well the class as a whole is growing in their understanding of a foundation skill or concept. I usually start class with a Do Now testing recall or understanding of the main topic from the prior class period. During the lesson itself I check for understanding by, cold call questioning, circulating the room while students practice, and I also favor cold calling a mixed ability sample of students to answer a key question and a twist on this is having a different mixed ability sample of students work problems on the board. At the end of class I may use a check-up (graded quizzes that don't count toward their class grade) an exit ticket or a murky point card to assess mastery of the lesson objective.

I have integrated instructional technology into my classroom in these ways: 1. Take students to computer labs to conduct research. 2. Teach students to use the Internet for research projects. 3. Collect and monitor students' response through interactive tools like Edmodo. 4. I have a Weebly classroom website. 5. I use ppt 6. I assign at least one project in which the students create a PPT or Prezi presentations with video and audio integration optional. 7. When available I use Vernier science equipment for labs and data collection and analysis using LoggerPro.

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A well-designed project in the chemistry classroom engages students and the teacher in real-world applications of content and hands on learning. I steer toward project ideas that are directly tied to content students are required to learn and that are of high interest. Such projects foster a wide range of skills (such as time management, collaboration, and problem solving) that students will need at college, university, and in the workplace; and they can be tailored to suit students with a wide range of abilities and learning needs. An example of a project I might use early in the fall term is the Periodic Table Trends Project. There are several variations I have used depending upon the learning goal. At St Mary's the honors chemistry students worked in collaborative groups to research an assigned group of elements to create a PowerPoint or Prezi presentation to be given to the class. The students all created their projects according to a common rubric and a checklist while the choice of sources, presentation format, use of visuals and division of labor was left for students to decide. Students learned about the main group elements and their periodic trends for their own assigned elements as well as other groups of elements as they took notes on classmates' presentations.

Two of my professional development goals for the past year include adding at least 2 new differentiated instruction strategies to my tool box and integrating the NGSS eight science and engineering practices into my curriculum map and unit plans. To make the first improvement I read a book on differentiated instruction and I incorporated two new practices into my teaching; I differentiated process (watch a video, read the text, or find and summarize a science article on epigenetics) and differentiated student outputs for the Genetic Disorders Research project (Prezi/PPT or Report or completed guided worksheet). For the NGSS, I completed an 8-class webinar covering each of the practices and completed a written implementation plan submitted for one graduate credit.

Teach to rigorous standards as this conveys my faith that all students in the class can rise to the standard. I scaffold students as necessary in their efforts to reach the standard. I check for understanding throughout a lesson using various questioning techniques that ensure high quality in student outcomes. I recently began using a statistical sampling method that gives me class wide feedback on mastery and which allows me to set some students loose solving problems independently while others join me for extra guided practice, re-teaching or explaining something in a different way. I also maintain high expectations using questioning techniques: Right is right (I do not accept partially correct answers) No Opt Out questioning (I do not accept IDK/I offer option to call on a classmate and then circle back to the first student to repeat the correct answer.) Using these methods in my WHS placement I saw that by March mark period everyone in the class had a passing grade with the exception of several students that had been absent or failed to turn in enough assignments for me to provide a grade.

In my experience, students learn the most from their mistakes and therefore the precise feedback I give assessing their work is very important. The way I have successfully been able to manage the paper onslaught is to use rubrics, focus my feedback on one aspect at a time, and teach my students to use the rubric to evaluate and improve their own work. Early in the term, I invest time in providing and going over each element of the lab notebook rubric (or the ChemNotes rubric) so that students know what to do and how they will be assessed. During this time I will focus our attention on just one part--for example a strong background section, or setting up a data table or transforming raw data into a graph. Narrowing the focus shortens the amount of time I am grading and it really helps my students master the rubric step wise. I attach the completed rubric to the paper and return it. There is a student assessment and feedback portion that is completed by the student after processing my feedback on the rubric. This feedback loop means students are redoing and revising their work until excellence is achieved.

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Equity in education means that personal or social circumstances such as gender, ethnic origin or family background, are not obstacles to achieving educational potential and that all individuals reach proficiency in key course objectives. School data provides the starting point for removing barriers and creating a space where all students succeed no exceptions. (1) Enhanced cultural competencies (2) Comprehensive support systems for students such as tutoring centers, AVID or other academic skills courses, (3) Family outreach and family friendly schools such as having interpreters (5) Classrooms that support learning through building community and meeting students' varied needs through differentiated instruction etc. Students who feel known, find community and academic support, and acquire skills to advocate for themselves and assess their progress will achieve their academic goals.

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