From the Director’s Chair

Hiring a Kindergarten Teacher

The Hiring Process

Having to hire a kindergarten teacher is no easy task. The process is long. The list of qualified candidates who will work for $14.oo per hour is short. The interviews are grueling. The interview alone takes one to two hours. The questions are chosen carefully and encompass items about DAP and, “Reveal who the candidate is both professionally and personally” while explaining the school’s philosophy (Gordon 2006 p 6). Plus, the parents of the school feel as if they get to have the deciding vote. The hiring process is not for the weak of heart or the faint. It’s rather tedious and has to be squeezed in among the other duties a director does on a daily basis. Sometimes the worst of days fall on those scheduled interviews and you must smile, shake it off, and listen for full understanding of the candidate while your mind is elsewhere.

The Role of a Kindergarten Teacher

There are many daily pressures on a kindergarten teacher (Stipek & Byler 1997). From teaching the students the common core standards to making sure they bloom socially, the kindergarten teacher must learn to perform a balancing act to keep the room, students, and parents in harmony (Stipek & Byler 1997). The role that this person will play, in my center alone, is of vital importance. The kindergarten teacher is the last stop on a student's path at my school. Due to this, for its financial and long term success, the school must make sure that this teacher imparts a great foundational imprint on any child that leaves this program. We want the students to be lifetime lovers of learning and the parents to be happy with the program.

What does a kindergarten teacher look like?

In order for our students to have a successful learning journey at my center, the kindergarten teacher must embrace many qualities. He or she must be outstanding, warm and fuzzy, sociable, knowledgeable, have a sense of humor, trust his/her colleagues, and possess a passion for educating young minds. This teacher must be excellent as defined by Copple & Bredekamp (2009 p 33-50). The criteria of excellence is as follows:

● Teach Intentionally● Make a learning community that cares● Amplify the learning and development of children● Use many strategies to guide the students● Scaffold all learning● Purposefully use learning strategies● Plan lessons to attain important goals● Use assessments that are age appropriate ● Build a relationship with the families● Have passion for the joy of learning

What I look for during the working interview

The candidate starts the lesson with a group meeting that involves a greeting, group participation, and respectful interactions (Bickart, Jablon, and Dodge 1997).

The candidate started the lesson with a handshake greeting and introduced herself. She then asked the students what animals hatched. When students called out she gently reminded them to raise their hand and once they did she would call on them. The candidate then passed around a plastic egg. She asked the students to make guesses as to what could grow in an egg so small. The last child to examine the egg brought it back to the candidate and was allowed to open it to find the answer.

What I look for during the working interview

The candidate asks age appropriate questions (open-ended and closed) during a read aloud to attain comprehension skills and introduces new vocabulary to students to enhance learning (Bickart, Jablon, and Dodge 1997).

The candidate read a book about chickens. She would read each page and ask the students questions pertaining to the information posed. On this particular page she asked the students why they thought the baby chickens had different colored feathers when compare to their mom.

What I look for during the working interview

The candidate allows the students to help during the plan activity by giving them assigned jobs

After the read aloud, the candidate explained the next activity. She asked for volunteers to help set up the activity and pass out supplies.

What I look for during the working interview

The activity includes more than one academic domain- scientific thinking, art, language, math, etc. (Hart, Burts & Charlesworth 1997)

The candidate taught the students a song about the lifecycle of a chicken, she had the students organize pictures of the lifecycle and glue them to their own egg, as well as use picture props to discuss the features a chicken has as a way to review and expand the new vocabulary she introduced.

What I look for during the working interview

Candidate concludes the lesson with a closing meeting (Bickart, Jablon, and Dodge 1997).

The candidate closed the lesson with a meeting that was interactive and recapped the main goal of the lesson.

How will I know if they are the right fit?Theoretically, if a candidate displays all the aforementioned qualities then he/she must be the right person for the job. As I stated in the beginning, there is pressure on the kindergarten teacher, but there is also pressure on the director. Having a bad hire as a new director makes others have the wrong perception. In my short career as a new director I already had one bad hire. The candidate had a master’s degree in special education, had 30 hours of professional development since the start of the school year, and had many glowing recommendations from the schools where she had student taught. She also did fabulously in both the oral and working interview.

It was a blessing in disguise when she took another job earlier this year. She was only with us for a short while, but the damage was done and the parents were upset. Mind you this person was only in the school from 3:00-6:00pm every day. So, you can only imagine what she had said and done to cause such turmoil. I do not know if my career reputation can handle another. After all, I do not want this to happen when the hiring is said and done.

How I will ultimately decideThe person I hire will, “Influence the direction of my program for years to come” (Gordon 2006 p 6). This notion will help to define my answer. Do I want a person who has years of expertise but set in their ways? Do I want someone who is relatively new and can be molded into an outstanding teacher over time? Do I want someone who is very creative yet not organized? Is it worth training a person new to the field who might leave at the end of the year or worse the middle of the year to go to a job with higher pay? Is that person worth the effort it takes? In order to make my decision I must plan for the future of my center. I must decide the goals of my center and project how we will achieve those goals. I must also decide what success for those goals will look like. When I have all of that figured out then I can decide who I will hire.

ReferencesBickart, T., Jablon, J., and Trister Dodge, D. (1999). Building the primary curriculum: A complete guide to teaching and learning. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

BYUTelevision (Studio C) (2013, November 4). Worst teacher ever. (Video file). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K72dRv5ejIc

Copple,C. & Bredekamp, S. (Eds.). (2009). Developmentally appropriate practice in early childhood programs serving children from birth through age 8 (3rd ed.). Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children.

Gordon, J. (2006). Eight interview questions to help you know who you are hiring. Exchange May/June. 6-8. Retrieved from http://www.childcareexchange.com/resources/view_article.php?article_id=5016906

Hart, C. H., Burts, D. C., & Charlesworth, R. (1997). Integrated developmentally appropriate curriculum. Integrated curriculum and developmentally appropriate practice: Birth to age eight.

Stipek, D. J., & Byler, P. (1997). Early childhood education teachers: Do they practice what they preach?. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 12(3), 305-325.