Here's how you can showcase your enthusiasm for education in an interview.

Paint a picture of a time you observed a need and educated yourself to help solve the problem. For example, I noticed school principals spend inordinate amounts of time disciplining problem behaviors 1:1 and were often unable to complete their other admin tasks. How might we use staff education to address problem behaviors before they reach this level? I found a program from Dr. Ross Greene called Collaborative & Proactive Solutions that uses education and empathy to define realistic ways to address challenging behavior. As we piloted this approach, agency went up for staff and students; discipline referrals went down for admin. Education frequently delivers solutions where everyone wins in the long term.

Have you looked into ways that new AI tools for educators can reduce the time you spend on classroom management items? You do need to build a new comprehensive unit plan but do not need to spend all those hours creating all the necessary components from scratch. AI tools are a game changer for innovative educators with impressive ideas but not enough time to create new docs, better worksheets, rubrics, and reading materials or other ways we ‘reinvent the learning experiences in our classrooms.

In the book, “Supercommunjcators”, Charles Duhigg describes a way to make emotion support connection within a client, coaching or education context. The idea is to mirror the emotion of the other person with authentic interest and examples. This creates quick trust and connection to better meet each other’s targets. It’s empathy at its best.

I’d counter this idea by sharing something about which you’re curious and describing ways education led you down wonderful rabbit holes of possibility. Passion often refers to something that is dreams turned internal (“I love this thing!”). Curiosity creates an opportunity (“I wonder what would happen if…”) to take a deep interest and create tangible solutions for others.

The most effective way to display your enthusiasm for teaching is to give examples of how students inspired you, not examples of how you inspired students. What did the children do or say to inspire you to be a better teacher? If you’re going to talk about yourself, I would suggest talking about students that came back to visit you after they moved on from your school. Give specific examples of what these students said to you when they came back to visit you years later.