188 | Preparing for a Music Teacher Interview - HD 1080p
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[00:00:00] Bryson Tarbet: Congratulations, you got the interview. Now what? You are listening to that music podcast with Bryson Tart, the curriculum designer and educational consultant behind that music teacher in the elementary music summit. Each week, Bryson and his guests will dive into the reality of being an elementary music teacher and how music can truly be transformative in the lives of the students you serve.
[00:00:27] Bryson Tarbet: Show notes and resources mentioned in this episode. Can be [email protected].
[00:00:39] Bryson Tarbet: Hello and welcome back to that music podcast. Today we're gonna talk about how you can prepare and hopefully do well at an elementary music teacher interview. I wanna start off by saying every district, every school. The way they do interviews is gonna be a little bit different. Um, some are gonna be really in depth, um, and some of them are gonna be kind of piecing it together as they [00:01:00] go.
[00:01:00] Bryson Tarbet: And I think, you know, I don't think there's necessarily a right or wrong way depending on this. You know, I think there's something to be said about the way a very small school district runs for, especially for, you know, human getting people and getting people into positions. Um, and then there's something to be said about really big districts.
[00:01:15] Bryson Tarbet: I think there's positives and negatives of both sides. Um, so I wanna give a little bit of background about my own. Experience on interviews. Um, and then we'll kind of talk a little bit about some things that I think you can do to help set yourself apart, um, and hopefully get the job. The summer that I spent interviewing for my first teaching position was a lot.
[00:01:34] Bryson Tarbet: I was all over the state of Ohio. I think there was one week where I was in Columbus one week, Cleveland or Cleveland the next day, Cincinnati the next day. And I was living in northwest Ohio at the time, so I was kind of all over the place. Um. And I did a lot of, I did a lot of interviewing and there were definitely some things where that I learned in that process, um, that really helped me understand like, oh, this district is not for me.
[00:01:57] Bryson Tarbet: Like there was one district that they, they [00:02:00] basically were like, yeah, you're replacing this person. They do X, Y, Z, and then they also the accompanist for the high school choir. And I'm like, that, that's not gonna be me. Like, sorry. Um, and I think that's okay. So I think, first of all, I want you to realize is sometimes.
[00:02:15] Bryson Tarbet: The interview is as much of you getting to know what the position is and what the, that vibe is as them getting to know you. So I know that, you know, getting a job is important. I, and I know that there are some times where you will take a job that's not perfect, um, but if you do have that luxury of, Hey, I have a job right now, you know, there are things that I don't like about it, but maybe we could get better.
[00:02:34] Bryson Tarbet: Or maybe you're just interviewing to, you know, to see around you can, you can be a little bit more. Kind of treat it as like a two-way thing. Now, if you need a job, I get it. You need a job and we can, we'll, you know, we can, we can do what we can do within those constraints as well. In addition to interviewing after undergrad, I also interviewed quite a few times after undergrad looking for a new position.
[00:02:53] Bryson Tarbet: Um, none of them ever turned out, but I had a lot of really good experience going through multiple different ranges, and I got to see different ways that different [00:03:00] school districts. Interviewed, and then at the end of my career when I resigned, I, I asked, I said, Hey, I would, I would love to be able to serve on this interview committee.
[00:03:09] Bryson Tarbet: I know the position very well. You know, I, I, and my administrators were really great and they, and they allowed me to serve on that. Um, so what it was, while it was very weird. Interviewing and being part of that team for my replacement. Um, it was cool to be able to see it from that side of things and to see what, you know, things that drew me to certain candidates, things that the other, the other people on the team were drawn to or put, you know, kind of repelled against.
[00:03:32] Bryson Tarbet: Um, so I think that is a unique thing that we can talk about as well, of how do we, how do we balance. All of these things, um, with what the committee is actually looking for. So the first thing that I want to recommend is try to figure out, or, you know, whether you can do it beforehand or, you know, if, if, if you're getting offered an interview on the phone, be like, Hey, you know.
[00:03:53] Bryson Tarbet: Can you, can you tell me a little bit about who I'll be interviewing with? You know, is it a committee? Will there be great, you know, will be the rb o the, the big one is [00:04:00] will there be other music teachers or arts teachers on this committee? Um, because this could be really helpful of just understanding who you're talking to.
[00:04:08] Bryson Tarbet: Um, and kind of going off of that, you know, where, when you're, when you're interviewing. Be aware that you're gonna have musicy answers, quote unquote, um, which is, it is just totally fine. Just be aware. You might have to explain them a little bit or get, you know, kind of use different things. So for instance, if I was gonna be talking about code I a lot, which would naturally come up in an app, you know, for me, because I'm a code I train teacher, um, I, I would.
[00:04:32] Bryson Tarbet: You know, don't just say Codi Kodi in my Kodi training. Um, give, try to give a little bit more context. So you never want anyone to feel stupid, right? You don't want them to say, what, what's this codi thing? Um, you, you want, you wanna give them the information through context whenever possible. You know, so you could say, you know, when I did my, my pedagogy training for my CODI certification, like, okay, that even if they don't know what code I is, they understand, oh, it's pedagogy.
[00:04:54] Bryson Tarbet: Cool. Got it. Uh, it, it gives a little bit more context without them having to ask. The question because sometimes you'll [00:05:00] have a great per like person that says, Hey, I don't know any musicy things. Can you tell me what this means? Um, but sometimes you'll just have people that they're just not gonna ask. So whenever you can, especially without doing it in a way that's kind of like demeaning or anything like that, whenever you can give more context for these musical terms, is really helpful.
[00:05:15] Bryson Tarbet: So once you get into the room, um, there are a few things you might, they might have you teach, and if they do have you teach, please for the love of everything, focus on the way you actually teach. You know, there's nothing worse than trying to see someone do like a, a, a demo lesson, which by the way, first of all, demo lessons are weird.
[00:05:34] Bryson Tarbet: They're so awkward. Everyone knows it. Just try your best. Um, but they're trying to do something that's trendy or. They, they're trying to teach in a way that they think the committee's gonna wanna teach. No show, tell, like do what you would actually do. That authenticity will show through completely. And whenever possible.
[00:05:49] Bryson Tarbet: Focus on active music making, getting the kids moving, getting the kids connecting to other content areas, you know, bringing in different dances, bringing in different history. Don't still make it about [00:06:00] music because it is a music job. But whenever you can make these connections, whenever you can get them moving, whenever you can focus on the holistic education, I think these are all things that are gonna be really helpful, um, in kind of helping you set yourself apart from the others that might be interviewing.
[00:06:13] Bryson Tarbet: So I have a bonus tip for those of you who, who are interviewing for your first jobs. Um, one thing that I, that I noticed when I, we were interviewing, um, was, you know, in my student teaching or you know, in my cooperating teacher's classroom, no, that is your classroom. Make it yours, you know, don't, you know, instead of saying, you know, my cooperating teacher had this classroom management, so no, say, you know, we used a classroom management technique that allowed us to do X, y, z, like, own it.
[00:06:37] Bryson Tarbet: You did the thing, own it. Like, don't say you created if you didn't create it, um, but you implemented it, right? So that's, that kind of flip and language can be really helpful in, in, in this type of interview, especially if you don't have any experience on your own without a cooperating teacher present.
[00:06:52] Bryson Tarbet: You've likely heard this tip, but. Chances are they're gonna ask you if you have any questions. Don't say no, always have [00:07:00] questions. And try to focus them on things like, what is the reality of the program looking like? What are the expectations? That is a good one, especially if you're like, you know, what are some typical community expectations of this role?
[00:07:11] Bryson Tarbet: You know, are there typical performances that are done? Um, things like that. Or, you know, one great question that someone asked was basically, you know, if, if I were to, to get this role a year from now, how would you know? If I was successful or how would I, you know, a year from now, how would you describe me if I was meeting your expectations or some, something along, along those lines of basically saying, what are your expectations for the person in this role?
[00:07:36] Bryson Tarbet: What do you, what are some things that you would count as a success in a teacher in this role? This next one is one that I've honestly gotten fights with about, because I, I, I will, I will die on this hill, which is, is when you have. An interview, an in person interview, not the screener interview interview, but when you actually get in front of the comm, the committee or the administrator or something [00:08:00] like that, leave a teaching portfolio.
[00:08:04] Bryson Tarbet: And the, the fights that I've gotten about this is they'll be like, oh, no one's gonna read those. The answer is, you're right. If no, if they're not interested in you, they're not gonna read your portfolio. And that's okay. But those teacher, those administrators, if you, if you're between a couple different candidates and you give them the opportunity to say, Hey, here's, you know.
[00:08:22] Bryson Tarbet: It's a six page portfolio. It has a couple different things in there. And you get to leave it there with them. Yes. It's a what? A couple bucks to print. Even if you get a fancy, fancy little cover on it, maybe five, 10 bucks. I think that is a worthwhile investment because I've done that. You know, I, I did that for my, my own positions, but also we had people that would, would leave little portfolios with us after they left.
[00:08:41] Bryson Tarbet: And it was really helpful when we went back to discuss the candidate, because, especially if we're like, Hey, I was wondering about this, or, Hey, these two candidates are really, you know, they're both calling, you know, I both feel like they'd be good. We are able to dig a little bit deeper and see, oh, I didn't realize that they had experience working with English language learners.
[00:08:58] Bryson Tarbet: Like, that's, that's good. You know, [00:09:00] like having that there. While there will be districts and, and people that don't read it, I think the benefit of those that actually do is gonna really outweigh this completely. Um, you don't need to spend a crazy amount of time building this. I would put into something like, you know, a couple of sample lesson plans, if you have any work samples, things like that.
[00:09:19] Bryson Tarbet: Um, reference letters can be helpful, especially if they weren't in your original application. Um. But again, this is one of those hills that I'm willing to die on. It's not crazy expensive. It takes very little time of your part. And if they throw it away after they leave, after you leave, who cares? The reality is, is if that helps you get the job, it helps you get the job.
[00:09:36] Bryson Tarbet: And I, I think that's something that you, we, we, I, we would continue, we should continue doing, um, because of that benefit. If it's used. I wanna leave you with this whenever possible, if you're asked a question or anything like that. If you are able to back, bring it back to student experience, I think that is going to be a beneficial answer.
[00:09:56] Bryson Tarbet: Be genuine. Don't just make stuff up, but whenever you're able to bring it [00:10:00] back to. I want my, my music classroom to be X, Y, Z so that students, you know, A, B, C, whenever you're able to bring it back to that, that is a really good signal that you're, you're making, you're having these thoughts about how we can fit into the bigger educational system of our school.
[00:10:17] Bryson Tarbet: Um, I think. There's, there's nothing lost on me. The fact that music teachers are probably not the quote unquote most important hire on administrator's list. Um, but the reality is, is we can make, we can change that. We can make them go, oh, they, they're here for more than just doing soul me. They're not just doing recorders.
[00:10:34] Bryson Tarbet: They're, they really do wanna be a part of this team. They really wanna be able to this part of this holistic education. So whenever you can bring those questions back to that, please do so, um, because I think it's just gonna be really helpful. With that being said, I hope you got some ideas to help you ace this interview.
[00:10:48] Bryson Tarbet: If you are looking for your job, a new job or whatever, just I, I, I wish you nothing but the best. If there's ever anything I can do to help you, um, prepare for an interview or anything like that, please feel free to reach out to [00:11:00] me. But with that being said, thank you so much for listening and in case nobody has told you lately, thank you so much for making a difference in the lives of the students that you teach.
