ESL job interview question: Discuss a time when you used poor judgement or made a poor decision in the classroom? How would you or how did you resolve the issue?

Recommended answer 1:

Children always argue about friends not sharing supplies. Then I made a decision to not allow supply sharing (their own school supplies twistables, colored pencils etc.). Later I discovered that this sent the wrong message (and kids started not sharing other things as well). So rather than banning school supply sharing, I decided to allow them to share but began stressing kindness and sharing in the form of character education. I then saw that the kids shared better and were learning important life skills at the same time.

Or: 

Recommended answer 2:

During my 1-st grade student teaching, I gave a girl several chances to correct her behaviour during a group activity. When she didn't "shape up" I had her leave the group activity and put her head down on her desk. She just bawled with her head down. I realized that wasn't the best way to handle her misbehaviour. When time permitted, I pulled her aside and apologized to her and explained why I was frustrated.  She gave me a hug and we discussed ideas of how to help her stay on track the next time we had a group activity. It was a good learning experience for both of us. When the event was over I reflected on my actions and what steps I would take with future similar situations to prevent the situation and behaviour [your aim is to convey that you know you are human and make mistakes, you admit your mistakes, reflect on them, and try to improve your teaching from the experience].



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