Teacher Interview

Teacher Interview 1. How long have you been teaching? a) 13 years 2. How long have you been at Huntersville Elementary School? a) 12 years 3. Where are you from? a) South Carolina 4. Where did you go to college? a) University of South Carolina 5. Why were you drawn to teaching? a) Ability to be creative (planning) and do something that has intrinsic meaning/value 6. Was teaching your first profession? a) No. I have a Retail Management (bachelor) degree. I worked in banking for 2 years before getting my MAT in Elementary Education. 7. Have you taught other grades besides 4th? a) 1st through 3rd. I taught 6 years in 3rd 8. Have you taught at other schools besides Huntersville Elementary School? a) Okatie Elementary in Beaufort County, South Carolina 9. How do you differentiate instruction for students in your classroom? a) I design leveled curriculum based on pre-assessments. My small group instruction is always the same skills but differentiated through leveled assignments or reading material. 10. How much experience do you have with working with students with diverse needs? a) I typically have at least 1 class each year that is either ELA inclusion or EC inclusion 11. Where do you get the data for differentiating students? a) EOG, MAP, Quarter Pre and Post assessments 12. Do you have any students with IEPs, 504 plans etc.? a) 1 EC, 4ESL, 1 Behavior IEP 13. What differentiation needs are provided for you in the curriculum that the school has? a) Most differentiation to curriculum is designed as a team during planning 14. Do you use the information provided for you in the curriculum? a) It has great question stems, graphic organizers, and general talking points. I typically use the curriculum for note taking and whole group instruction. 15. Diverse learners also cover students from multiple cultural and racial differences, how do you differentiate for these students? a) Using a wide range of literature. We are currently working on a multicultural biography project. 16. What other resources do you use to help you differentiate for students? a) Edgenuity (MAP based computer program) 17. What information could you give me to help support diverse students in my own classroom? a) All skills can be taught despite leveled abilities. Text can easily be differentiated 18. How do you use assessments to drive your instruction?

a) Assessments are used to determine each specific skill need. I look at results based on standard performance instead of general. I will group all kids on RI.4.1 based upon how they perform on their pre-assessments. Groups will look completely different for RI.4.2 because a student may perform differently on different skills. 19. How do you group diverse learners into instruction? Do you have homogeneous or heterogeneous groups? a) Skill based small group is based on kids with similar needs. Whole group interactive assignments are more heterogeneous groups. It depends on the purpose or outcome of the lesson. 20. What classroom procedures help create a classroom environment where students can learn? a) We have a daily Morning Meeting to build teamwork and character. This allows students to begin their day with a positive successful start. 21. How have you planned ahead to prevent inappropriate behavior? a) Always when creating groups for work, book clubs and small group instruction 22. How do you respond to minor problems (i.e. off-task behavior, talking out of turn)? a) Quick 1, 2, one, two, three, eyes on me 23. How do you respond to serious or persistent problems? a) Individual conference with student, parent contact, may include School Counselor 24. How does individual personality and style influence a teacher's approach to classroom management? a) I need to feel comfortable and confident in the structure of how my class is run. 25. What are your beliefs about how students' developmental level plays a role in selecting classroom management strategies? a) I generally would say each class and class dynamics are completely different. Always the goal is to produce more self-directed learners. A lot of factors including academic independence and confidence play a role in classroom management, as well as, expectations. 26. How do you collaborate with parents in creating a positive classroom climate and managing behavior? a) Weekly communication, email or phone conversations about specific student behaviors 27. What resources are available in this school to help with classroom management challenges? a) Grade level team, School Counselor, CMS District intervention support Reflection Describe: What did I learn about the teacher from this interview? From this teacher interview, I learned about my teacher as a person and how her personality fits into her teaching style. Ms. Miller has been teaching for 13 years, 12 of which have been at Huntersville Elementary School. Teacher was not her first career, she worked in banking for two years with a degree in Retail Management before deciding to go

back to school to become a teacher. In the classroom, when planning for small group instruction, she creates homogeneous groups for kids with similar needs. Students will be grouped by specific skill needs based on their pre-assessment scores for particular standards. These groups will change based on the standard because students can score differently on RI.4.1 than RI.4.2 for example. The small group instruction is always on the same skill but differentiated through leveled assignments or reading materials. The data my teacher uses for differentiating students comes from the students’ EOG scores, MAP scores, quarter assessments, as well as pre- and post-assessments. Group differentiation for the grade level is designed as a grade level team during the planning days. To create a positive classroom culture, there is a daily morning meeting that helps to build teamwork and character. This allows students to start the day in a positive environment. To collaborate with parents on creating a positive climate in the classroom, there is weekly communication as well as the Class Dojo notifications. My teacher also communications via email or phone calls to parents when there are specific students who have disruptive behavior in the classroom. There are a couple ways that my teacher uses to recapture the student’s attention when they are off task, but the one that she uses most often is one, two, three, eyes on me. Analyze: What do I think (opinions, thoughts, comments, questions) about what I’ve observed? The interview of my Cooperating Teacher is consistent with what I have observed during my time in the classroom. One of the ways that I feel I have learned from my teacher about classroom management is that there are many ways to recapture the students’ attention, and it is very important to make sure that I have all of the students’ attention before moving on in the lesson so that I can make sure that all students are on the same page. I feel that sometimes my Cooperating Teacher held the students’ attention very well and the students were engaged, however, sometimes the students were off task during the lesson, and the teacher would move forward without saying anything to the students. My cooperating teacher would use “one, two, three, eyes on me” when a majority of the class was talking out of turn which is one of the devices that I have heard of most frequently. I have also been with my Cooperating Teacher when she was creating leveled small groups for book clubs. The teacher took the information from the students MAP scores as well as reading levels to choose appropriate books for each group. Some of the books that the students are reading are Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, and The Indian in the Cupboard. The students then battle with each other over which group’s book was “better.” I believe this is a great idea, and I will definitely use book clubs in my own classroom. Overall, the students in my class are well behaved and eager to learn. My cooperating teacher works great with the students and gets them excited about what they are going to learn. Appraise: How did this interview influence me as a future teacher? From this interview, I learned about how to group students based on ability for small group instruction and leave whole group instruction in heterogenous groups so that students can learn from each other and everyone is accessing the same material. I will also

implement morning meetings in my own classroom so that I can be sure that I am creating a positive classroom environment where my students can be confident and successful. I also learned about how important assessment-based instruction is because it will help drive the homogenous small groups that I will create for units. From this interview, I can see that there are multiple resources for me as a beginning teacher to use when I am creating my lesson plans, finding ideas for classroom management, as well as creating differentiated instruction for my students. I will be able to use my grade level team as a resource, my curriculum instructor at the school, as well as Common Core resources that are found online. From my observation of the classroom as well as the interview, I learned that there is about 45 minutes a day set aside for social studies instruction and this is integrated into the language arts curriculum. There is also 45 minutes a day set aside for science instruction which is integrated in math instruction. The students genuinely enjoy social studies and science instruction, I wish there was more time dedicated to these subjects during the day. Interviewing experienced teachers is a great way for me to reflect on ways that I can better my own teaching.