Hiring Teachers: 5 Things to Consider When Hiring Top-Notch Faculty

To achieve a school's learning outcome goals and alignment with their district’s strategic plan, school administrators must ensure that all stakeholders involved in the teaching and learning process are a fit for their campus and district mission. Considering how learning environments have been changing rapidly, especially with the influx of technology over the last few decades, providing for students' needs through the hiring process is becoming even more challenging.

When hiring teachers, it's crucial to find top-notch talent that can represent the school's values, deliver quality instruction and manage a classroom conducive to learning.

Finding the best teaching talent is more challenging than it seems, especially with how little time administrators have to evaluate a prospective teacher’s abilities. Here are five vital factors to consider when hiring teachers. These can help principals and directors identify the most beneficial skills and qualifications when recruiting the best teachers for their education programs.

1. Genuine Love of Learning

There are few people who would consider teaching their first choice for career advancements. Yet, surprisingly, finding and hiring a teacher with a genuine love of learning is even rarer.

Teachers who love what they do and experience immense satisfaction in helping students learn often demonstrate superior performance. For top-notch teachers, teaching isn't just a job; it's personal fulfillment that builds character and transforms lives.

Finding applicants and hiring teachers with this passion for education can increase the potential to develop a sense of community in their classrooms. On top of that, teachers with this quality can encourage joy and intrinsically motivate the students during the learning process.

2. Excellent Presentation and Communication Skills

When hiring a new teacher, school administrators must ensure that the person is qualified to meet the students' needs. One of the most important aspects to consider is a teacher's presentation and communication skills. Teachers who are highly skilled in this area can provide an excellent and effective platform where students can understand the lessons in the classroom and apply them in more advanced classes later.

When hiring teachers, the first impression is everything during the teaching demonstration. A teacher whose work is impeccable and has outstanding presentation skills can design lessons and teaching materials that effectively communicate the subject's curriculum to the students.

3. Resourcefulness and Technological Savviness

In addition to being a good communicator and presenter, a teacher must also be able to navigate the21st-century learning environment. Whether in front of a class or in the virtual world, finding the right teacher who is well-versed with technology is critical.

Being technologically savvy will eventually allow the teacher to deliver results that matter most to students. Students today are generally more digitally proficient than ever, emphasizing the importance of providing a digitally-enabled classroom experience to engage the students. Of course, this means potential applicants must demonstrate their resourcefulness in this area, and the person hiring must be able to assess those skills. After all, a teacher cannot provide what they don't have.

4. Organizational and Leadership Skills

Finding a teacher who is ideal for what the school program needs will always be a challenge. One crucial factor to consider when hiring teachers is to find a professional who can demonstrate their ability to manage and lead a classroom full of students.

Many responsibilities are involved in managing a classroom, sometimes even too many to handle daily. But a prospective teacher must be able to meet these challenges. Which we know is difficult due to the demand placed on today’s teachers. We, as administrators, must look to hire teachers that are organized and prepared, thus, decreasing the chance of burn out within our teachers

5. Teacher Qualifications and Credentials

Another vital factor that school administrators must consider when hiring teachers is the applicant's qualifications and credentials. The qualifications show a teacher applicant's mastery of their particular field, whereas their credentials are the formal documents they have to support their capabilities.

Generally, a bachelor's degree can be more reliable than a master's degree. On top of that, a teacher must also be a certified or licensed teacher, meeting the state's licensure requirements. Teachers with master's degrees must also have their credentials approved by a recognized and licensed teacher certification agency. So, it's essential to carefully assess the authenticity of the applicants' documents during the hiring process. School administrators must also consider including a background check in their hiring process to add another layer of security for their student's safety.

Conclusion

No matter the age, educational experience, or grade of your students, there are specific qualifications that every teacher should have. The school administrator plays a vital role in providing students with the best teacher who can effectively facilitate the learning process. It may be challenging, but when you've found the right candidate using the school's criteria and hiring process, you'll be able to save time and resources by ensuring that your students learn with someone well qualified for the job.

If your school is interested in improving the quality of education by automating tasks and streamlining processes, Education Advanced offers a suite of tools that may be able to help:

• Cardonex, our master schedule software helps schools save time on building master schedules. Many schools used to spend weeks using whiteboards to organize the right students, teachers, and classrooms into the right order so that students could graduate on time and get their preferred classes. However, Cardonex can now be used to automate this task and within a couple of days deliver 90% of student's first choice classes.
• Testhound, our test accommodation software, helps schools coordinate thousands of students across all state and local K-12 school assessments while taking into account dozens of accommodations (reading disabilities, physical disabilities, translations, etc.) for students.
• Embarc, our curriculum mapping software, helps teachers quickly analyze whether or not their curriculum is aligned with state and national standards as well as share best practice curriculum plans with other teachers to reduce duplication and with parents to keep everyone up to date.

Request a demo of our software today or contact us here to see how we can help you streamline your school operations.