Running head: AN INTERVIEW WITH TEACHER KEVIN CARTER

An Interview with Teacher Kevin Carter

Cameron E. Smock
Ivy Tech

Running head: AN INTERVIEW WITH TEACHER KEVIN CARTER

The teacher I chose to interview was Kevin Carter who has taught at Henderson County
Senior Highschool for nineteen years. He decided to begin his career in teaching after being
inspired by his grandfather, who has a teacher and in the Air Force during World War Two, and
with the knowledge that there wasnt much to do but teach with his favorite subject, history. He
has largely taught Sophomores government but used to teach U.S History to Juniors, focusing on
the time between the reconstruction period, post-civil war, to modern day, ending in the mid
1990s. While this isnt my favorite time period it is very important to the development of the
nation as we know it. As for essential qualifications, he holds flexibility in dealing with, among
other things, the parents and an administration which may not always be behind you or who may
not know what to do. As a swim teacher I know the importance of being flexible and how hard it
is to deal with parents, but I have always had my bosss full backing so I cant say what it feels
like to not be supported by the higher ups. In addition, developing of classroom systems to make
work easier is an important skill. Another one of the problems that may be faced is a system
which makes it incredibly hard for a student to fail, resulting in a student who may not be up to
even half the level of everyone else landing in the classroom, as is the case in his school. To
overcome this he has set up systems to break questions and passages down into smaller, easier to
handle passages to allow the slower learners to catch on to what is being taught. He also
develops reading as a skill primarily alongside teaching Government, and uses graphic
organizers to help out those who may be better visual learners. At the high school level there
isnt a whole lot of parent partnership, from what he has seen. Only around ten or so parents
request weekly contact and out of a grand total of over 200 students only twelve parents came to
parent teacher conferences. However, this hasnt had a huge impact on his teaching or the
students learning and only really comes into play when a student who normally does good starts

Running head: AN INTERVIEW WITH TEACHER KEVIN CARTER

to fail. At this point many parents begin to, rightfully, get worried about what else may be going
on outside of class. This is another thing I have not had a whole lot of experience with, as swim
lesson parents tend to be very involved in their childs development and progress, sometimes to
an overbearing level but it makes me much more upset when they do not care and just use it as a
glorified babysitting service.
The process of breaking down a complex passage or question into smaller bits for easier
comprehension was referred to as scaffold, and I accept it in its current form without a second
thought. The scaffold process is easy to implement and breaks complex things down until they
are at their simplest level, helping the student learn not only what the passage meant, but helps
develop reading comprehension, which, to me, is an all-around benefit. Any process that can help
improve more than one category is generally viewed as a good thing, and I am no exception.
While I understand that a parent-teacher relationship requires both parties to be equally invested,
I reject the idea that it does not have a huge impact on teaching simply from my own
experiences. Any student I have ever taught whos parents were involved in the process has
generally done better than their non-involved counterparts. I also accept the use of graphic
organizers to help in reading comprehension. Sometimes some students learn better looking at
pictures, graphs, and charts than simply reading a wall of text. As an Attention Deficit Disorder,
also known as ADD, child I could sit through a passage in a book a lot easier if it had pictures to
go along with the main point. Despite my love of reading and writing today, it is still a lot easier
with pictures. This also goes back to the multi-skills development point, alongside teaching
history, the students will also get a reading comprehension lesson, helpful to both avid readers
and those struggling to keep up, pushed through by a system focused more on passing students
than the students actually learning anything. The only thing I would refine is the usage of read

Running head: AN INTERVIEW WITH TEACHER KEVIN CARTER

pair share, the reading of a passage in pairs before answering a question at the end. I am not
against the usage of it, but in its current form its fairly exploitable. Before assigning groups, I
would find out who the really strong readers, and really weak readers were and pair them
accordingly. I would only put those who will actually help the weaker readers learn, rather than
just doing the work for them, with the weaker readers, meaning the weaker ones can not just let
the stronger readers do all the work for them.
After having time in the classroom, and a formal interview with this teacher, I certainly
have a lot to reflect on. This teacher is actually a huge reason for me wanting to teach, him and
his wife. Kevin and Carrie Carter are my aunt and uncle, and as a kid I spent a lot of time at their
house over the summers and over winter breaks. While I was at their house they instilled in me a
love of constant learning, and indirectly showed me the joys of teaching. Their love of the job
and guidance has inspired me greatly over the years to become an educator. The real tipping
point that finally solidified my career choice was becoming a swim lesson teacher. The
interactions and relationships I have developed with my students and their parents, both the good
and the bad, have been the most rewarding experiences of my life. Figuring out each individual
kid, strengths and weaknesses, and adapting the lesson to them has been both a challenge and a
joy. At times these lessons and kids was the only things keeping me going through some
particularly hard times in my life. Seeing how happy they were, and honestly what really did it
was being requested as a teacher, knowing that a child enjoyed me as a teacher so much that the
parents went out of their way to request me again. Time in the classroom has been a bit of a
challenge, moving from a maximum of five kids to a minimum of twenty-five was a bit of a
challenge but one that was easy for me to adapt to. I wouldnt trade my, honestly rather limited,
experiences in a teacher role for anything in the world, and this class and the teaching experience

Running head: AN INTERVIEW WITH TEACHER KEVIN CARTER

I have gathered through it has done nothing but solidify my desire to become a teacher. I chose to
enter this profession to try to pass on knowledge to the next generations, and to try to keep alive
the love for learning. Gently nudged by my family and mentors to deepen my own understanding
of the world, the best thing I can do to repay them for their years of patience with me is to pass it
on to as many as I can, I owe who I am today to my mentors and teachers.

Running head: AN INTERVIEW WITH TEACHER KEVIN CARTER

Transcript of interview.
Me: Thank you for your time, why did you decide to become a teacher?
K: My grandfather was a teacher and while I liked history I knew that there wasnt a lot to do
with it career wise other than teach.
M: Your grandfather was a teacher?
K: Yep, he taught fifth grade, he was also in the Air Force in world war two
M: Thats pretty crazy, couldnt imagine what that would be like. How many years have you
been teaching?
K: This is my 19th year, all at Henderson County High. Mainly taught sophomore government, I
did used to teach junior U.S. History though.
M: General or a specific time?
K: Reconstruction to present.
M: What do you believe the essential qualifications of being a teacher are?
K: You have to be flexible. You will be dealing with administration, parents, and kids. A lot of
what you will need to know will come with experience, like developing systems to make tasks
easier. Right now I would say administration is hardest to deal with. We use the expression
Building a plane as we are flying to describe our leadership right now. When they dont know
what to do they try everything and that creates a lot of work.
M: That sounds like a hassle, anything specifically?

Running head: AN INTERVIEW WITH TEACHER KEVIN CARTER

K: Federal mandates for accountability: RTI is a big one right now. Its almost impossible for a
kid to fail a class. They can miss any number of days and still get a credit. It creates a huge
problem with reading comprehension. They struggle to understand basic passages from primary
sources and textbooks.
M: How do you work through tough situations like that?
K: I use a lot of techniques such as scaffolding, graphic organizers, read pair share, and
constantly working on reading as a skill.
M: How have you developed the parent teacher relationship?
K: This question is tough. To be honest, at the high school level there is not a lot of parent
partnership. I keep in weekly contact with about ten parents at their request but I have 200
students. I only have about 12 come to parent teacher conferences.
M: Does this have an effect on teaching at all?
K: Not really, the big thing at this age is when a student who typically does good starts to fail.
Parents want to know why and there may be out of school issues developing.

Running head: AN INTERVIEW WITH TEACHER KEVIN CARTER