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Teacher Interview

Planning Questions:
1. How do you write a typical lesson plan?
I start by figuring out what I want to be the final outcome and then work backwards
figuring out what lessons will help them achieve my end goal.
2. When do you plan with your team? Who plans what?
We have very little time to plan together with all of our different schedules. We do meet
every Tuesday for fifty minutes. In fourth grade we have two man teams. Ms. D and
myself are on a team and then the other two teachers are on a team. I am in charge of
reading, writing, and grammar. Ms. D is in charge of math & integrated units.
3. What types of materials do you need available when you plan lessons?
When planning a lesson I need my standards so that I can fit as many standards into a unit
as possible. I also need my laptop and the internet. We don't have any workbooks in
fourth grade for reading and writing.
4. In what ways do you plan to accommodate individual differences in the classroom?
With reading & writing they kind of differentiate themselves. Each scholar was given
their reading level at the beginning of the year and they are to be reading books on their
level. In writing I know what each scholar is capable of and when I have my conference
with them I can make sure they are doing their personal best.
Instructional Questions:
1. What are some of your instructional challenges as a teacher?
There are a lot of standards to be covered in a short amount of time. I wish I had more
time for reading and writing. Another challenge I've found is meeting each individual
scholars needs. Some scholars need more help and sometimes they get more time than
those who aren't struggling and that is not fair to the other scholar.
2. What have been some of your instructional successes as a teacher?
At the beginning of the year I had a young man who was not motivated and was not
doing homework and wasn't giving me 100% on his classwork. I decided to sit him next
to a young man who was the exact opposite of him to hopefully help motivate him. Now
as we end our third quarter I am happy to say he has grown two reading levels, he turns in
all homework on time, and he settles for nothing less than an A.
3. What do you consider essential characteristics for successful teaching?
There are quite a few things that have helped me survive my three years of teaching.
Patience, positive attitude, and forming relationships with my scholars. Teaching is not an
easy job and you have to be able to always see the positive in each situation. Patience is

just something you need when working with young students. The most important thing in
my opinion is to form relationships with your scholars. If they know you care about them
they are going to want to make you happy and always do their best to make you proud.
4. How often do your students receive social studies/ science instruction?
They flip flop between science and social studies.
5. Are you satisfied with the amount of time that you currently allot for social
studies/science instruction?
NA
Classroom Management Questions
1. What motivations tactics do you use to ensure a desire to learn?
In our classroom it is very important that everyone respects one another. Once again, I
form a relationship with my scholars letting them know I want them to be successful.
2. Tell me about the classroom community. What are the class rules? How is student
behavior monitored? In what ways is positive behavior reinforced? In what ways are
negative behaviors prevented? Tell me about the consequences for negative behavior.
In fourth grade we reward our scholars for good behavior with fake dollars. At the end of
the quarter scholars use their dollars to buy things from our classroom store. If a scholar
is displaying a less than desired behavior they will lose dollars from their bank account.
3. Tell me about the pacing of lessons and interaction in the classroom-use of time- and
other aspects of time.wait time, and time using teacher talk and student talk. What
works well with your students?
The pacing of a lesson depends on how well the scholars are mastering the material.

Reflection:
I thought it was interesting that Ms. M said she works backwards when she is planning a
lesson, figures out what she wants the end result to be first that makes since because it is like
deciding on the objective. I learned that they do not use workbooks for reading and writing in 4th
grade and they just have a reading notebook and a writing notebook. I think that is better so the
students are developing the work and not using a worksheet that is scheduled out.

I was glad to hear she conferences with her students although I only noticed it one time
while I was observing. Also it sounds terrible to only have 50 minutes to plan with one
other teacher! I was very shocked when she said this. However when I attended the
planning meeting myself I observed no planning at all. There were 5 teachers there, one
substitute and they gossiped the entire time and left early. I was pretty shocked that if that
was their only time to plan they used it up so flippantly.
Ms. M explained in the interview that one of the things that helped her in teaching was
forming relationships with her students. That reminded me of our class when we talk about heart
maps and forming a community in our classroom. I observed this in Ms. Ms classroom. On
several occasions I witnessed the students taking turns telling what they did that weekend and
Ms. M asked questions and showed she really knew the students. And example was when she
would ask about a specific sibling or their pet to show them she was listening and paid attention
last time they shared. I will use this idea in my classroom, it only took about ten minutes and I
think it made a big difference in the classroom community.
Overall the interview was successful but I could tell she wrote what sounded good
for a few answers. Because what I observed like in the planning meeting was did not
match up to the interview. However doing the interview helped me get a feel for the
teacher and the school before getting deep into observations and teaching.

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