How to Prepare for a Teaching Assistant Interview

Since you have already been called up for an interview you already know about the skills and Qualification that got you there. The interview is where you get the chance to justify your skills to your potential employers. On the other hand your employer also gets to verify your ability. 

Your main goal on an interview is to prove your competence for the job. So just being well-equipped with all the key skills won't help. You also need to get your claim through as confidently possible.   

Common proceedings of a TA interview

The best way to prepare for an interview is to be prepared from beforehand. To look confident try to get an idea of the interview settings and conditions from before. Normally the school committee sets up a selection panel to interview candidates for the job. They are in charge of sorting out the candidate best suited for the job. 

As TA’s are entrusted by school to work around children the interview process includes a verbal interview as well as test the practical demonstration.

You may ask ‘What’s a demonstration’? It’s where you will be allowed to be in a real classroom settings among the students doing any form of group activity with them. This is arranged to check whether you are good enough with the children to qualify for the job.    

Types of question in a TA  interview 

In a TA interview candidates are generally asked basic interview questions as well as some scenario based questions by the interview team to judge the candidate’s competency for the job. Learn in details about various type of interview questions along with insights on how to answer these questions the right way.

Tips to answer Basic interview question 

The basic questions are more often the same as any other job interview. The interview team asks questions to ease up the candidate so the interview team can go into details. You can make a list of a few common interview questions that mainly involves telling the interviewer about yourself and your life and career goals. 

These type of questions no matter how easy may feel hard and embarrassing to you in an interview setting. So its better note down some answers for yourself to use at interviews. That way you will look way more confident during the interview. This will also decrease the chance of you messing up the interview.

Tips to answer Scenario based questions

As the job of a TA involves working with the children practical skills carry a lot of importance. The scenario based question involves asking you questions about how you will face real life situations like a TA generally faces. 

Questions like this will emphasize on how you treat difficult situations and disruptive pupil. You need to impress the Interviewers with knowledge and ability to communicate with children. A proper understanding of child psychology and how to build relationships with children is important while answering these types of questions. 

TA interview activity

If you have got across the interview the school that is going to employ you may also take a look at your ability to work with children. At the end of the day it's your ability to work with and around children that counts. So the Interview panel also makes sure you are good at  working with the children. The panel also notices whether the children are comfortable being around you and communicate with you. 

The attributes that place you higher in an interview

The following attributes will place candidates higher in the pecking order: 

• Excellent reading, writing and numeracy skills.
• Ability to do great while working as a team with Children, other teaching assistant and the class teacher. That is to build a functional relationship with both pupil and adults.
• Good organizational skills to keep the classroom in order and distribute  
• Enjoy being around and working with children 
• Ability to manage groups of pupil as well as make them feel safe and comfortable

The skills mentioned above will help you become the winning candidate from an interview. For more training and information on becoming a TA click the anchored text.