Interview Question:

Name of teacher, name of school, name of school district

o Erin Wurst
o Baker County Senior High
o Baker County Public Schools
Grade level and/or subject matter
th
th
o English/Language Arts (11 & 12 grades)
Years teaching experience
o 6 years
Typical day in the classroom
o A typical day in my classroom can be very long. I teach five classes of English 4
(seniors) followed by one class of English 3 (juniors) with no break between
except my 30 minutes for lunch. To break down each class period, though.
When they enter the room, there is generally a journal prompt posted on the
overhead for the students to begin writing. They write for about five minutes
after the tardy bell while I take attendance and get ready for class. After putting
journals away, there is generally a lesson or reading we will do as a class then
students are given an assignment to complete based on the lesson/reading.
Sometimes the assignment becomes homework if the lesson extends beyond 1015 minutes. Many times if the lesson is reading a passage, I will have groups
read the passage together then immediately complete the assignment and we
will discuss the passage at the end of class or the next day. The end of class
might have a wrap up activity such as an exit slip, but many times it is finishing
whatever assignment students were working on during class.
Technology used in the classroom
o I use a document camera and projector on a near-daily basis. When available, I
will also use laptops with my students for them to conduct research or typed
assignments.
Positive experiences using technology
o Students are often much more engaged when technology is used. It also makes
lesson planning a little easier when I can simply post a discussion question
Edmodo or the class website and have students respond.
Difficulties in using technology
o Students will often try to use the computers for inappropriate purposes or visit
inappropriate websites (especially high school students!). There are also often
issue with network servers going down, blocked websites necessary for student
research, or a lack of working computers.
Example of a lesson that integrates technology
o I have begun using a website called Titanpad.com for students to collaborate on
writing. This website allows them to read, edit, add to, and delete each others
writing. They have a chat window where they can communicate while they are
writing and establish different roles among group members. I have only used it

once so far as an experiment with my (VERY DIFFICULT) class of 11 th graders to

try to get them motivated to write, and it went quite well, so I will be using this
again in the future. The lesson required the class to be divided into three
separate groups. Each group was then given a specific prompt to begin writing
(in this instance, the prompts were geared around the holidays). It was a type of
circle story where one person would write then another would pick it up
where they left off, but in this instance, they could see what was being written
and communicate with each other as it was being written so changes could be
made immediately.