Well, hello, and welcome back to this course how to nail the teacher interview. My name is Sam Ryan gal. And, again, thank you for taking this course I'm really excited about being able to help you on your journey. You know, being a teacher is amazing. Like I've always said greatest opportunities to really make a difference in the lives of our kids and in our future, right. So but to get there, we have to get past the interview.

And there's a lot of competition out there as you know, and it's important to be able to portray yourself and demonstrate your best self in the interview and being able to get a little bit of an insight of what school administrators are looking for is going to give you that that edge right that advantage. So I am so happy to be able to share that with you and share a little bit of my experience and advice with you so that you can be more successful in the interview in this assessment. We talked about another recommendation. And in this case, the recommendation for this session is have a strategy for parent communication. there will definitely be a question on parent communication in your interview, it's important that you create a strategy in which you will involve parents in the education of their children. You know, there's no way we can do this alone.

We need all the help we can get in order to provide the best education for our students. Most parents want to be part of their child's education. They want to help your child succeed still, you know, many teachers still see parents as kind of like in the way sometimes you can't have that philosophy, amazing teachers, amazing teachers that I know, consistently communicate with parents about students progress, you need to have them as your partner. How do you answer when you're asked about how you would include parents? Well, here's some ideas Number one, update your grades. Often, many schools, you know, they have this online grading program where parents can see their child's progress from their computer or smartphone, make sure that you are posting grades, at least at least every two weeks, very important that parents can see a progress of their child or if they're not progressing, at least they have an update.

It's terrible to you know, some teachers, they'll they'll put a grade up in month one, and then they won't put another grade up till the end of month one, which is a whole four weeks, that the parents don't know what's going on with a child and they're assuming the child's doing fine. And all of a sudden that that second grade report that comes a month later, show that the child had not been succeeding until the parents are asking, how come I didn't know how come you didn't tell me that, you know, my child was not succeeding, I could have been able to help you. motivate the child at home so it's very important to make sure your grades are updated frequently. Number two Check grades, often to identify students who are falling behind early. So make sure that when you check the grades that you're identifying kids who may not be doing so well, you want to identify those struggling students early.

And then that's when you want to get on the phone and call parents make the phone call, email is okay, but it's better if you make the phone call. Let the parents know that you are so concerned about their child that you're willing to take time and get on the phone. Note, when you call parents, and especially if you're sharing bad news, try and share it in the most positive way. You know, let parents know that you're concerned about their student and you're looking to find a partner to help their student be successful. You just don't want to dump a bucket of bad news on the parent, right? So here's an example of a conversation that you can have if you really got to talk to the parent regarding a struggling student.

Teacher. Hello Is this john Mom, Mom. Yes, teacher. Hello Mrs. Smith. My name is Sam Rangan. I'm Johnny's history teacher.

I'm calling because I'm concerned about Johnny's grade in my class. Right now he has a D in history. And it's mainly because he hasn't turned in his Civil War project. I was hoping you could help me with this. Mom. Sure.

How can I help? Teacher? Well, I want Johnny to be successful in history. He's a smart student. I'll still accept the project late, but I'll have to take some points off. Can you talk to him about it?

I've already had a conversation with him and he's prompt to turn it in. So if you could just remind him at home, I think together we can help him do well in my class, Mom. Yes, I'll talk to him about the project. Thank you for calling. So again, if you're going to call a parent, let the parent know that you are concerned parents want to know that the teacher is just as concerned about their child's progress as they are. So when you have to call home, let them know that let them understand that you are worried about their progress to number three.

Make positive phone calls Home. Most parents are used to getting phone calls from a teacher. But normally those phone calls are negative, right? Do your best to make as many positive phone calls as you can. I know there's not a lot of time left over after a teacher's day to make these calls, but they are a valuable communication tools and they'll get the parent on your site quickly. Number four, give parents your email address and then check your email often.

On your first day letter. You know the letter you sent home with the students on the first day. Make sure you include your email address so parents can contact you if they have a question. reply to all emails as soon as possible. Don't let the parents email go unanswered for more than a couple of hours. I know that might be extreme for some of us, but parents want to know that you are accessible.

Number five, get the parents email address. This is so important. Many email addresses that are in the school database are outdated or just incorrect. Create a form where you can get Parents to write down their correct email address so that you have that in your records in case the phone call doesn't work, or in case you go to voicemail, at least you can follow up with an email, have a better chance of getting the communication across. Number six, have a strategy for communicating with parents who don't speak English. This is big, this is big.

In fact, it's probably a good question to ask in the interview. This will impress them, ask them what resources does the school have to help teachers communicate to parents who speak another language? Wouldn't that be a great question to ask? I would love for a teacher candidate to ask that question in the interview. What does that tell me tells me that they are interested in communicating and making sure parents of all that our students are connected with their child's education. So you want to demonstrate with your answer that you are not afraid of contacting parents.

You want to make sure that the members of the interview panel know that you believe parent communication is an essential element of Success, and that partnering with parents is a priority in your educational strategy. You know, a possible question that might come up in the interview is how do you plan to partner with the parents of your students to ensure student success? It's a great question. How would you answer that? All right, guys. So that's the end of this session.

I look forward to meeting you in the next session. So until then, talk to you later.