Successful Montessori schools know what the right teacher would look like, they know how to recruit them, and they know how to retain them over the years. An organization is no better than the people who work there. This is equally true for a school as it is for any other type of business.
The most successful schools tend to take the time to find and hire the right people and tend to make few mistakes. Other schools tend to hire in haste, but then find themselves reluctant to let someone go if they don’t fit in with their personality and objectives.
The secret is to understand that there is a correct fit for everyone, but not all prospective employees will do well at your school. A teacher can be well trained and very skilled but be a complete mismatch with one school, while having been very successful at another.
Remember, seeking the right staff members is a two-way process. The candidate is considering the same questions: is this school a good match for me? Don’t try to sell your school to a candidate, and don’t expect the candidate to sell him or herself to you. Just relax, be honest, and take your time if possible. Get to know each other.
“Marry in haste. Repent at leisure.”
To hire the right person for the job, we have to remember to consider that there are three elements of the job-match equation:
1. How well trained must a new staff member be to succeed in your school?
Are you willing and able to train them yourself, or do you need master teachers from the first day? The answer will often vary according to the position. You may be willing to train a new aide but expect each Montessori teacher
to be thoroughly grounded in philosophy, curriculum, child psychology, and classroom management.
2. How much on-the-job experience do we expect from new staff members?
No matter how well trained, people learn on the job and develop new skills and insights from years of field experience. While previous experience is no guarantee that an individual was paying attention and learned from her experience, it is often an important consideration. Once again, you may or may not be willing to accept an inexperienced staff member on your team, and your needs may vary according to the nature of the position. For example, if elementary Montessori teachers are difficult to find, you may be willing to accept a recent graduate with the understanding that they will need more support.
3. Will the new staff member fit into your team?
Your staff may be a close-knit family or a delicate balance of conflicting personalities. Will the new team member fit in well, and will he or she be happy at your school? This is often an important consideration in a Montessori school, but may not be a primary concern in some other businesses.
The candidate’s attitude toward your school’s expectations is equally important. It can be a disaster to have a superbly qualified faculty member who disagrees with your philosophy, policies, or practices. Each school has its own expectations. For example, you may expect your teachers to stay after school for staff meetings and come back for parent events. Some teachers would regard that as an inappropriate expectation.
The goal is to find people who want to be part of your team, understanding the job conditions and expectations that go along with a position at your school. It is far better to weed out candidates who will be disgruntled before you bring them on board than to be frustrated with them afterward.The key question is, after you have clarified your school’s needs and expectations, how will you objectively determine how a candidate stacks up?
Most of us hire on the basis of a brief review of someone’s resumé and letters of recommendation, followed by one or two interviews. We are all exceedingly busy, and it may seem impractical to spend even more time on the selection process, but I highly recommend that you explore new strategies to determine how well prospective candidates will really fit into your setting.
As an exercise, ask yourselves to define the characteristics of an ideal teacher at your school.
Some issues might include:
- Commitment to teaching in Montessori at this age level
- Personality
- Relationships with parents
- Relationships with fellow teachers
- Relationships with the administration
- Teaching style with the children
- Energy
- What do we expect to find in their classroom? Loyalty issues, Common sense.
- Loyalty issues
- Common sense.
Then ask yourselves, how can you know for sure whether a person has many of these characteristics? How can you determine that this candidate really has the skills and knowledge needed to succeed in your school? What questions will you ask?
Consider some of the things that other schools have found successful. Ask yourself, how can you confirm that the candidate has actual experience in successfully demonstrating the skills and knowledge needed to succeed in our school? Some of the same strategies may be useful in the overall process of considering a candidate.
We don’t suggest that any school can employ all of these methods to find the perfect match, but these ideas may get you started on defining your own strategies.
Montessori Leadership / June 2015 / p 9
