All of the schools my son is applying to for music education have some sort of interview with the ed faculty. For those who have been down this path, what sorts of questions should he be prepared to answer (other than the obvious, “why do you want to be a teacher?”).
@missjen I asked my S what his interviews were like last year. He said they were more conversational, a combination of the Music Ed faculty asking questions and my S asking questions about the program. He felt like they were designed to give the school a better sense of his personality, how he relates to other people, etc. In addition to the “why teaching” question, he should be prepared to describe what experience he has working with young people, if any (my S didn’t have much), and should be prepared to talk about his experiences with his own school music programs, any teachers that inspired him and why, that sort of thing. I hope that helps!
In our experience, interviews for music (my kid did not do music ed, though) were more relaxed than expected , in some cases, and a few were quite rigorous. The former involved little more than a chat. For that I would think a relaxed conversation about participation in music so far, what it meant for your son, how it led to him wanting to teach and so on would be sufficient and little preparation would be needed.
For composition, the more rigorous interviews involved some grilling on theory and history but that was a different field.
Thank you for the advice!
My son has had 2 interviews so far - one was very conversational, one more question/answer. Be prepared for why you want to teach, future goals (advanced degree, college teach, etc). One asked him to tell a joke and sing a song. They are pretty open about that so he knew before he went in, but they say teachers have to think on their feet and need to not be afraid of anything!
My son had one this weekend - he said it was a short conversation about his goals, and they put him through some pitch and rhythm matching exercises.