EQ Interviews... From Someone Who Knows...

Back in the olden days when I did my EQ interview there was a very different system in place. We had our Prac Teacher there, and we usually had our Principal (or Deputy) doing the interview. As much as I'd love to give your useful, timely advice on your interviews- I can't... because so much has changed since I did mine.

So what does a Supply Teacher do when she doesn't know something? She asks nextdoor. Well I could ask my actual neighbor- and even though she is a Teacher (I know!) she did her interview in the olden days too. So I did the next best thing... I asked a friend. I was lucky enough to meet Shell at a workshop and she's currently working very hard at establishing herself as a Supply Teacher. She was kind enough to volunteer to answer any questions about her own interview experience. When I was cheeky enough to ask her to put pen to paper (gawd I'm old, fingers to keyboard perhaps?) she came up with this almost overnight... A big thanks to Shell, and if you have any questions I intend to bug her with them so email me :)

EQ Interview

I found the process of trying to get an interview very stressful. My poor three year old son occupied himself practically all day while I kept an eye on the website for schools having interviews. Without fail, I would watch the computer on and off in the morning while I got my two other boys ready for school. There would be nothing. Within the time I took the boys to school and got back (not even 30 minutes), schools had gone up and no spots were left. Same thing happened in the afternoons, after watching the site on and off all day, I would go and pick the boys up, come back, and schools came up, no spots left. Another time, there was a school, but I had never heard of it before so I thought I would quickly Google it. Not even 5 minutes had passed. I clicked back to the website, no spots left. That’s how quick they do go. I had my sister looking while she was at work, my friend at Caboolture looking for me. I finally got one, when I stopped trying so hard. The website is below.

http://www.learningplace.com.au/deliver/content.asp?pid=50884

I read in the FAQ section that you can arrange to have an interview while you are in your last year of prac, but you are required to at least receive your DET Professional Experience/Internship Overview. However I also read a question ‘Why do I need to do a 20-day contract or 40 aggregated days before I can do the interview?” This is new and I only did mine at the end of last year. The answer to this makes sense. I found by doing days of relief in the first term, I have a more knowledge of the questions they were asking me in the interview. Prac was great, but I always had the prac teacher there to guide if needed to.

Some points for the interview:

     Try and link examples to your teaching. What you did in the classroom

     Know the jargon that teachers use or at least some

     Know about assessment 

     Know what you would do to set up a room on the first day

     Behaviour management strategies

     Differentiation in the classroom