Teacher Interview
How do you write a typical lesson plan?
We have an Encore system. Every week, once a week, we have a planning time where we bounce ideas off of each other. I take our ideas, my team’s feedback, and our Common Core Standards and plan lessons based on that to put in our Encore system.
What types of materials do you need available when you plan lessons?
We use the encore systems for our lessons, but we also have an expanded form of our standards that have samples for us to use. We’re given a lot of websites that we can go to and look for resources, but with the standards being so new, we have to search for things to use.
In what ways do you plan to accommodate individual differences in the classroom?
We do guided reading groups and we do MAP testing where every single skill and area is broken down to tell us what skills we need to hone in when teaching. We also pre and post test our students. So we use that in addition to MAP testing. We also use Lexile levels, and then of course your own teacher knowledge. Like, if a student doesn’t do well on the test, and you know they’re a strong reader, you’re not going to put him in the lowest group. He may just not have had the schema for that test.
What are some of your instructional challenges as a teacher?
Having 27 kids in my class. You’re going to notice in 4th grade that they’re growing up and their attitudes are changing. As the year progresses, they’re not rebelling, but they want to push and test their boundaries. You want to be kind and have a good relationship with your students, but then in the midst of you being kind, you can’t be their friend. Yes we can enjoy school and have fun, but they still have to listen and follow directions and respect me. And my big thing is letting them know they are responsible for their learning. They have to want to learn; I can’t make them do it. They have to have ownership of their learning, so they need to be responsible and tell me when they don’t get something.
What have been some of your instructional successes as a teacher?
Well, I looped with my students the year before last, and one of the good things you can see when you loop is how much they have grown. Several of my students that year were ESL students and it was their first year taking the EOGs, so I saw them grow by the end, but then at the end of 4th grade they had grown leaps and bounds. By then we all had a relationship, and I had a relationship with their parents, so if I told a parent that I had known for 2 years that their child was struggling, they knew it was because I cared and not because I was picking on their child.
What do you consider essential characteristics for successful teaching?
A lot of people say you need to be organized and have everything a certain way, but I come in every day and I’m not organized. I think the one thing you have to have to be a teacher is passion, because this is hard. This is the hardest job. You’re grading papers, writing comments, reading, writing, and trying to figure out what your kids are thinking and if you don’t have the passion, it’s not going to get done. And you have to enjoy what you’re teaching and make them want to learn. You can be the most organized person in the world, but if you don’t want to do it and you don’t genuinely care about these kids, it’s not going to work.
How often do your students receive Social Studies/Science instruction?
I rotate it around. Some weeks, it’s 2 days of science and 3 days of social studies and some weeks it’s the other way around. It depends on how much content I have to cover in each subject that week.
Are you satisfied with the amount of time that you currently allot for social studies/science instruction?
I’m really biased. I love social studies. My minor was in social studies, so I would teach it all day every day if I could. The thing is, it isn’t a set time to teach it. It’s so open here as to when we want to teach what, so a lot of times I will be teaching literacy and then tell my students to open their social studies journals because it is informational text. So I guess, I would say I am satisfied with it because it’s up to me whether and when I teach it.
What motivation tactics do you use to ensure a desire to learn?
Every 2 weeks on Fridays, we have ‘Fun Friday’ which is an extra 30 minutes of recess if they have done all of their homework for the week. Also we have the ROC (Record Our Consequences), so it’s recorded every time they get a warning. 3 warnings is a class pass, so they go to another class for a little while to get a change of scenery. 6 warnings is an office referral. Also we have ‘Wolf of the Day’ where we pick a student every day who displayed exceptional behavior throughout the day. If you get 5 Wolf of the Days, you get you handprint on the wall coming into the building. If you get 10, you get a star by your handprint. Also, I do a competition with them on their whole class behavior. If they’re not doing so hot, I get a point. If they’re doing really well, they get a point. If I get to 20 points first, then they get extra homework; if they get to 20 first, then they get extra recess. And then if they’re just not doing what they’re supposed to do they get laps at recess.
How is the classroom community?
I think I have good classroom management skills, and it comes from my rapport with them. I don’t have to dwell on their behaviors because I stress to them that it is their responsibility to learn so if they’re misbehaving it’s on them, but they can’t let their behavior disrupt others’ learning. So if I have to say to them that they’re taking away someone else’s learning, they’re in big trouble.
What about the pacing of lessons and interactions in the classroom?
I do a lot of turn and talk, call and response. I do wait time when I’m teaching and when they’re doing assessments because if not, they’ll just rush through and turn something in. For lesson pacing, I’m not a stickler, but their attention spans are short, so I do a lot of mini lessons and then I’ll switch to Daily 5 and then switch back and forth so that I always have their attention. But if I have to teach a lesson that’s long then I’ll give them a lot of time to turn and talk and that way I’m not keeping their attention on one thing for too long.
We have an Encore system. Every week, once a week, we have a planning time where we bounce ideas off of each other. I take our ideas, my team’s feedback, and our Common Core Standards and plan lessons based on that to put in our Encore system.
What types of materials do you need available when you plan lessons?
We use the encore systems for our lessons, but we also have an expanded form of our standards that have samples for us to use. We’re given a lot of websites that we can go to and look for resources, but with the standards being so new, we have to search for things to use.
In what ways do you plan to accommodate individual differences in the classroom?
We do guided reading groups and we do MAP testing where every single skill and area is broken down to tell us what skills we need to hone in when teaching. We also pre and post test our students. So we use that in addition to MAP testing. We also use Lexile levels, and then of course your own teacher knowledge. Like, if a student doesn’t do well on the test, and you know they’re a strong reader, you’re not going to put him in the lowest group. He may just not have had the schema for that test.
What are some of your instructional challenges as a teacher?
Having 27 kids in my class. You’re going to notice in 4th grade that they’re growing up and their attitudes are changing. As the year progresses, they’re not rebelling, but they want to push and test their boundaries. You want to be kind and have a good relationship with your students, but then in the midst of you being kind, you can’t be their friend. Yes we can enjoy school and have fun, but they still have to listen and follow directions and respect me. And my big thing is letting them know they are responsible for their learning. They have to want to learn; I can’t make them do it. They have to have ownership of their learning, so they need to be responsible and tell me when they don’t get something.
What have been some of your instructional successes as a teacher?
Well, I looped with my students the year before last, and one of the good things you can see when you loop is how much they have grown. Several of my students that year were ESL students and it was their first year taking the EOGs, so I saw them grow by the end, but then at the end of 4th grade they had grown leaps and bounds. By then we all had a relationship, and I had a relationship with their parents, so if I told a parent that I had known for 2 years that their child was struggling, they knew it was because I cared and not because I was picking on their child.
What do you consider essential characteristics for successful teaching?
A lot of people say you need to be organized and have everything a certain way, but I come in every day and I’m not organized. I think the one thing you have to have to be a teacher is passion, because this is hard. This is the hardest job. You’re grading papers, writing comments, reading, writing, and trying to figure out what your kids are thinking and if you don’t have the passion, it’s not going to get done. And you have to enjoy what you’re teaching and make them want to learn. You can be the most organized person in the world, but if you don’t want to do it and you don’t genuinely care about these kids, it’s not going to work.
How often do your students receive Social Studies/Science instruction?
I rotate it around. Some weeks, it’s 2 days of science and 3 days of social studies and some weeks it’s the other way around. It depends on how much content I have to cover in each subject that week.
Are you satisfied with the amount of time that you currently allot for social studies/science instruction?
I’m really biased. I love social studies. My minor was in social studies, so I would teach it all day every day if I could. The thing is, it isn’t a set time to teach it. It’s so open here as to when we want to teach what, so a lot of times I will be teaching literacy and then tell my students to open their social studies journals because it is informational text. So I guess, I would say I am satisfied with it because it’s up to me whether and when I teach it.
What motivation tactics do you use to ensure a desire to learn?
Every 2 weeks on Fridays, we have ‘Fun Friday’ which is an extra 30 minutes of recess if they have done all of their homework for the week. Also we have the ROC (Record Our Consequences), so it’s recorded every time they get a warning. 3 warnings is a class pass, so they go to another class for a little while to get a change of scenery. 6 warnings is an office referral. Also we have ‘Wolf of the Day’ where we pick a student every day who displayed exceptional behavior throughout the day. If you get 5 Wolf of the Days, you get you handprint on the wall coming into the building. If you get 10, you get a star by your handprint. Also, I do a competition with them on their whole class behavior. If they’re not doing so hot, I get a point. If they’re doing really well, they get a point. If I get to 20 points first, then they get extra homework; if they get to 20 first, then they get extra recess. And then if they’re just not doing what they’re supposed to do they get laps at recess.
How is the classroom community?
I think I have good classroom management skills, and it comes from my rapport with them. I don’t have to dwell on their behaviors because I stress to them that it is their responsibility to learn so if they’re misbehaving it’s on them, but they can’t let their behavior disrupt others’ learning. So if I have to say to them that they’re taking away someone else’s learning, they’re in big trouble.
What about the pacing of lessons and interactions in the classroom?
I do a lot of turn and talk, call and response. I do wait time when I’m teaching and when they’re doing assessments because if not, they’ll just rush through and turn something in. For lesson pacing, I’m not a stickler, but their attention spans are short, so I do a lot of mini lessons and then I’ll switch to Daily 5 and then switch back and forth so that I always have their attention. But if I have to teach a lesson that’s long then I’ll give them a lot of time to turn and talk and that way I’m not keeping their attention on one thing for too long.
Reflection
After interviewing my IMB clinical teacher, I was really looking forward to meeting my students. I could see in her responses to my questions that she cared about the students, and she was teaching for them, not just as a means to an end. She has such a strong desire for her students to succeed, and that was evident in her answers in my interview. The interview took about an hour, and she wasn’t trying to rush me out or rush through the questions. I was a little nervous interviewing her, but she reassured me several times that there was no need for that. My clinical teacher has two children of her own that were in the room as I interviewed her, and even that didn’t distract her from helping me complete my assignments.
As I interviewed her, I couldn’t help but notice that she was very knowledgeable on the Common Core, the different testing methods, how the testing results are used. Basically, she knew a lot of information about the diagnostic things as well as academics and policies. She was very well rounded in her knowledge of the school and the system. There wasn’t a question she couldn’t answer. That was really refreshing, because in the past I have been placed with teachers who didn’t know everything I needed to know about the school I was placed in. Furthermore, she knew what was required of me in my clinical work. She had already looked over the IMB Handbook, so she was able to prepare herself before I even met her. It was so nice not having to explain every little thing I needed to her.
Overall, I had an excellent teacher in my IMB clinical experience. I couldn’t have asked for more. She was friendly, gave excellent feedback, and she was always open to answering my numerous questions.
As I interviewed her, I couldn’t help but notice that she was very knowledgeable on the Common Core, the different testing methods, how the testing results are used. Basically, she knew a lot of information about the diagnostic things as well as academics and policies. She was very well rounded in her knowledge of the school and the system. There wasn’t a question she couldn’t answer. That was really refreshing, because in the past I have been placed with teachers who didn’t know everything I needed to know about the school I was placed in. Furthermore, she knew what was required of me in my clinical work. She had already looked over the IMB Handbook, so she was able to prepare herself before I even met her. It was so nice not having to explain every little thing I needed to her.
Overall, I had an excellent teacher in my IMB clinical experience. I couldn’t have asked for more. She was friendly, gave excellent feedback, and she was always open to answering my numerous questions.