DoDDs Interview

A few people now have asked me to post about my DoDDs interview that I had yesterday.

First of all, for anyone that doesn't know, DoDDS is Department of Defense Dependent Schools. Military bases overseas have schools on them that serve the children on the base as well as a few local kids. NAU is one of a few universities that sends student teachers over to the European bases to do their 16 week internship. I've had to go through this big screening and selection process which included a letter written by me stating why I should be considered for the DoDDs program, gathering recommendations from my professors, and an interview with the DoDDs committee.

So my interview was yesterday and it lasted for about half an hour. They started off by taking my picture infront of this giant map that shows where NAU currently has student teachers at. I was lucky enough to only have to interview infront of the two head guys. Normally there are about 5 people in there who make up the interview committee, but none of them were able to make it during my interview time. They asked me four basic interview-type questions.

1. Why do you want to student teach in the DoDDs program?
I said something along the line of how great an experience it would be and how it would really impact my teaching to have global experience. For example, when I'm teaching about Ancient Rome, I will have been to the Coliseum and I will have stories and pictures that will enrich the lesson.

2. What teaching experiences have you had?
Summer youth golf program; summer school with K-3 students doing PE, science, and reading; a semester in a fifth grade class where my teaching was focused on literacy and social studies.

3. What do you see as being your responsibilities if you were student teaching on a base overseas with DoDDs?
I will be a representative of the University and the country. I will also be a source of comfort, support, and stability for my students whose lives will be rather stressful since they will have one or both parents deployed in the Middle East.

4. A long situational-type question involving me going on a train to Amsterdam by myself only to discover when I got there that my passport, IDs, money, etc. had been stolen. What would I do?
First, I would get in contact with my cooperating teacher to let her know about the situation. She may be able to offer me some advice. Then I would go about obtaining a new passport, probably from the American Embassy. I told them that I did not as of yet know how to get a new passport in a foreign country, but if I was to travel abroad I would make sure I was well informed on how to do things like this.

Then we went over the lesson plan I had prepared. I walked them through it; objectives, standards, procedures, assessment, statement of Universal Design. They were impressed with how experiential and hands-on my lesson was. Woohoo! I was able to answer almost all the questions they asked me, and answer them well.

Overall, the interview went well. I showed that I have good communication skills, I can create a thorough and educational lesson plan, I can think calmly under pressure, and I am flexible. All good stuff! If they were deciding solely off the interview, I would be in. But I'm a little worried, not sure why, about the professor recommendations. I have to have a certain number of professors who return the forms saying they recommend me. It's not that I think they will say bad things about me, but I'm worried they may not know me well enough to recommend me.

There is still one more week of interviewing and I'll find out on Friday the 10th if I am selected or not.