The interview was between Ms. Smith and me. I asked the questions and she responded.

1) What is your current teaching assignment? 3rd grade Social Studies and English Language Arts

2) How long have you worked at this school, and has this been your only teaching assignment? If not, tell me about your other teaching experiences. What schools? How many years? What grade level and what subjects? Brookdale has been the only school I have worked at. I have worked here for 11 years. For 1 year I worked with 4th grade in Reading only and for 10 years I have worked with 3rd grade Social Studies and ELA.

3) Why did you choose teaching as a profession? I believe that it is my calling and I really enjoy teaching children. Also the profession runs in my family.

4) What is your philosophy of education? All children can learn but they learn at different rates and ways. The environment and direct instruction are great for students. Lastly children benefit through authentic experience.

5) How do you teach to meet the diverse needs of your students? I use individual reading assessments which allow me to see the students strengths and weaknesses. I also use whole group, small group, and one on one instruction. I try to introduce and review skills in a variety of ways.

6) What are some of the teaching strategies that you use in your classroom, and which do you consider to be the most effective? I use cooperative learning which allows kids to learn from each other and questioning techniques. The techniques are used to guide the students to the right answer and increases critical thinking.

7) What advice would you give me, as a beginning teacher, that would help me to adjust to having my own classroom and students that would help me to be an effective teacher? You should pursue your Masters degree before coming to classroom because it can be very difficult to balance. Also, be aware of your belief of what an effective teacher looks like and have theories to support your teaching strategies. Lastly, stay away from being too emotional when it comes to dealing with administrators.

8) Which do you find to be more successful with assessing your students? Teacher-made or commercially made assessments. Please explain. I prefer to use teacher made assessments because students vary from year to year. By producing my own assessments, I can cover a certain skill and order that will be able to cater to the skills of students.

9) Explain how you use your students assessments to inform your instruction. The assessments tell me whether students have gotten the skill. If they havent, then why not. The skills inform her of the what. Individual reading assessments allow for me to see why some strategies were more effective than others.

10) What has been your biggest challenge this year with meeting the needs of your students? 29 of the students are reading below grade level and this is the most I have ever had. It is difficult to have to teach on the same grade level. It can be emotionally draining and intellectually challenging because I want children to be successful.

11) If you had to do it over again, would you choose teaching as a profession? Why or why not? Absolutely because I believe that this is my calling and I couldnt see myself doing anything else.