Interview questions asked when applying for a preschool?

Question

I need to be prepared for an interview. If anyone knows any questions that could be asked and how to correctly answer these questions would be appreciated. I love children but im not good at interviews. For example: A parent comes to pick up their child and notices a bite received by another child, They become angry and demand to speak to the other child's parents. How will you handle the situation? And

A classroom is run on values. The values maybe designated by policy or influenced by the teachers and parents. What do you when a parent's different values interfere with classroom procedures?

Answer 1

To answer the question about the bite - that is confidential information to reveal who bit the child - you can only assure him that that child's parents have been spoken to and he will be watched extra closely to redirect and try to avoid the situation in the future.

Your policy is your policy - it is the parent's choice to choose your preschool or not.  If the values differ, you will still stick to your policy and it will be up to them to decide if they want to send their child to that program.

Good luck at your interview!

Answer 2

They will probably ask you some scenario questions like, "Tommy and Joe are playing in the block area. Tommy knocks over Joe's block structure and in return Joe hits Tommy. What will you do and why?" You will be asked to describe your other experiences working with young children. You will probably be asked to describe your strengths and weaknesses.  You will also be asked parent interaction questions.  If you feel that you can't come up with an answer for a parent question just say something about how you would need to follow whatever the center policy is that is in place. Also talk about why parent involvement is important to a child's success in school.  Parent's are their child's first teacher...

Be yourself! Don't worry about having the right or wrong answer, just answer honestly and to the best of your ability.

Answer 3

I worked in day care for a lot of years.  The others answered the biting quesion as if you knew the child was bitten.  You really can't tell the parent which child bit their child for confidentiality reasons.  (Make sure to put ice on the bite and if there is broken skin, call the parent immediately.)  However you should tell the biter not to bite and that biting hurts, remembering to let the biter's parents know that their child bit someone else.  (Again, don't tell them which child he/she bit.)  From your question it sounds as if you did not notice the child was bitten, because the child didn't cry or come to you.  In that case, you should promise to be more observant.  You really should be watching all children at all times, but it is difficult to do when some are at one end of the playground or classroom and others are at the other.  It's also doubly hard if you are working academically with individual children, potty training, changing diapers, etc.  If the children are under age 3, it is age-appropriate for them to bite, because they don't have the words to explain their feelings.  Mention this to the parent.  

The situational questions are very common interview questions.  What would you do if...?  Answer those how you would handle certain situations.  For example, if two 4 year olds are fighting over a toy, how would you handle it?  Encourage them to use their words and that doesn't work, take the toy away for a while...or better yet, have a duplicate available.  There should be duplicates of many toys anyway.  I am a children's librarian and we had a program where two kids wanted the same shopping cart...an indication we could use another one!

Answer 4

A lot of this depends on what type of job you are applying for.  If you are applying for a head teacher job, your response will be a lot different than if you are applying for an assistant teacher job.

The important thing to know is that schools have policies in place for things and the reasons why they are in place.  

For situation #1:

"We have a policy that we do not talk about other student's actions with parents other than that child's parent.  We have talked about this with the other parent, but we did not use your child's name as well.  The reason for that is it can become a situation where one parent starts to act differently towards another child.  I am sure if your son did something to someone else, you would not want that parent to feel judgemental towards your child, so we keep a strict policy to only talk to parents about their own child."  If that doesn't please the parents, you can appeal to the policy.  

"I have to follow this rule since it's the school rule.  If you want to, you can talk to (the head teacher/administrator) about the issue, but I am just not allowed to discuss anything about the other child's identity.  I could be the one in trouble over breaking that rule."

I remain polite, welcoming to the parent, but am also willing to fall back on the "I simply cannot break school policy" line (or heath department policy, depending on what the particular issue is).

Matt

Answer 5

Hello:

  Usually they ask question regarding your philosphy in education.  Also, they tend to ask what you would do in a situation like if two children were fighting over a toy or if a child was not listening to you...kind of what would you do scenarios...