Interviewing, Hiring & Orientation (oh my!)

1. Interviewing, Hiring & Orientation (oh my!)

2. How do you treat prospective employees before they arrive? • Job advertisements (Where and what do you post? What words do you use in your postings?) • Contacting prospective candidates (how do you contact?) • Information about your program before they arrive? (What do you value and honor and how do you convey this to the candidates?) IN GROUPS, SHARE YOUR JOB POSTINGS AND DEVELOP A NEW POSTING TOGETHER!

3. Interviewing Candidates ASK YOURSELF: • Who will be involved in the interview process? • Where will the interview happen? • When will it happen? • How do you inform candidates of this? • What format/questions do you ask? How do you ensure that you hire the people who have the qualities you desire? What do you desire? Check in with your vision and values! • What does the interview look like? (questions, observation, reflection, being in program) How much exposure do we provide to prospective teachers in our program to demonstrate to them what we value and honour?

4. Group Task • Share your interviewing questions • Work together to develop a series of interview questions for an Early Childhood Education position that you have available in your Toddler Program.

5. After the Interview • How do you offer the position to the successful candidate? • How do you treat someone who did not get the job?

6. First day…first week…first month! How do you welcome a new staff member on their first day? How do you support a new staff member to learn in their first week…first month?

7. Orientation • How do we align our vision and values with our orientation processes? • What mechanism for orientation is in place currently? • Do our practices reflect the assertion that a well-oriented teacher is what the program, children and new teacher deserve? • Do we have budgetary and personnel resources in place that recruit, welcome, and support the integration of a new teacher into our community?

8. Living our vision starts from the first day of a new hire! • When does your orientation happen? • What does it involve? SHARE IDEAS WITH YOUR TABLE! Business orientation from Pedagogical Orientation What is the difference? Group Task: Provide examples of items for your business orientation and items that would be included in a pedagogical orientation

9. Distinguish Business Orientation from Pedagogical Orientation Business Orientation • Information on how to be an employee with the program • Blend of expectations with personnel policies • Consider orientation to organizational culture (how will new employees contribute to the relationships with your program, how do we acknowledge life events for staff, what are meetings like?) Pedagogical Orientation • Variety of ways to explore your program’s vision, values and image of children (mentoring relationship)

10. Consider this…. “ For teachers to be reflective practitioners and not just technicians, they need and deserve ongoing support for their learning about teaching.” “ An orientation should not be limited to lengthy explanations: it should include a variety of ways to explore your program’s vision, values and image of children.” “We want to make sure that staff are given the time they deserve to become members of our learning community.”

11. What are the barriers?

12. Orientation Strategies • To begin developing a useful staff orientation, develop a strategy to assess staff views (ask questions such as: If you could tell a new hire the 3 most important things about working here, what would they be? What were you most nervous about your first few days? What role did the program and staff play in dealing with those worries? What role do you, as a co-teacher, play in orienting a new member to your teaching team?) • Consider how to plan an orientation process which helps a new teacher understand your organizational culture (what is important to you)

13. Pre-service orientation (business versus pedagogical orientation) What mechanisms do we have to ensure that the new team member feels a part of our community? Pair new teacher with other teacher (mentoring relationship) rather than merely offering a handbook to read Orientation workshops (reflective of your vision & values) New staff member observations and reflections in other program rooms Practice documentation Self-guided reading of articles/videos (collect materials that reflect your program’s approach with children and families) Mentoring sessions with Supervisor or mentor (self-evaluation and observation reflections – see examples – being available to support)