Running header: TEACHER INTERVIEW PROJECT

Teacher Interview Project Amber Holsapple Ivy Tech Community College

TEACHER INTERVIEW PROJECT INTASC Standard, Description and Rationale Standard #10: Leadership and Collaboration

The teacher seeks appropriate leadership roles and opportunities to take responsibility for student learning, to collaborate with learners, families, colleagues, other school professionals, and community member to ensure learner growth, and to advance the profession.

Teacher Interview Project February 20, 2013 EDUC 101 Description For this assignment I chose to interview two separate teachers, both of whom taught seventh grade. They each taught a different subject from the other and were also opposed sexes. I felt that these differences could give me a broader understanding of what teaching can be like, good or bad, if I were in another persons circumstances. Rationale Standard #10, Leadership and Collaboration, applied to this interviewing process for a few major reasons. Firstly, the teachers interviewed did so in order to help me, a learner, have a better understanding of what kind of role different people can take while teaching. Establishing growth in their students learning is also important for both teachers interviewed and they each take responsibility for trying to teach each and every student successfully.

TEACHER INTERVIEW PROJECT Introduction I interviewed two teachers, separately, on the same day at East Middle School in

Martinsville, Indiana. At the start of the interview I asked both teachers questions to get to know them better as individual teachers. The first teacher I interviewed was C. Sturgeon, a seventh and eighth grade social studies teacher. Mr. Sturgeon was relatively new to teaching at a public school. He had been teaching at this school for the last couple of years, but before he became a public school teacher he spent his time as a park ranger. During those five years he taught people of all age groups, from kindergarten to college, about the local history and older ways of life in the Harpers Ferry and Maryland areas. Mr. Sturgeon had always been fascinated by history, but had also been disappointed with all of his social studies teachers throughout his student career. His decision to become a teacher was with the ambition to make history fun. He wanted kids to know that history was not all boring and monotonous like many students felt that it was. He knew the biggest contribution he could make with his knowledge and interest in history was to teach with a fun and successful approach for the sake of the kids he would teach. The second teacher I interviewed was A. Crismore, a seventh grade math teacher. Ms. Crismore was working on her eleventh year of teaching at East Middle School; she had even done her student teaching there. Ms. Crismore said that being a teacher was something that came naturally to her; that she always wanted to be a teacher and began pretending to be one when she was in the first grade. Effective Teaching Traits I asked my teachers what they thought the best traits were in order to be an effective teacher. Mr. Sturgeon said that a person who cares about the kids learning would be effective. Along with this, he said that a person has to be honest and observant so that the kids understand

TEACHER INTERVIEW PROJECT that they cannot get away with breaking the rules. His presence of authority meant a lot to him.

He explained that being a strong leader, and equally patient, made all of the difference of having success in the classroom. Ms. Crismore believed that the most important trait for a teacher to have is the knowledge needed to succeed in their subject. Classroom management is a big deal and students can understand what they are being taught if their teacher is able to communicate on their level. Ms. Crismore also said that a teacher should always keep in mind that all that they do is for the future success of their students. Values and Philosophies While both teachers had different ways of looking at things, they both also had a genuine care and concern for the students. Make respect central to your classroom culture. Make it clear that you care about your students and that your class will lead to real learning that will benefit them (Teach: Student Addition). Mr. Sturgeon was always doing things to make the kids more engaged in learning history. He tried to make them care because it was important to him that they learn. Ms. Crismore said that at the beginning of her career, she really wanted the students to like her. After a little more experience she began to concentrate on improving each individual student. Build students confidence in their own intelligence and creativity (Teach: Student Addition). She also said that if a student is praised individually it lets them know that their teacher is paying attention to them and that they notice their good work; that this approach could make all the difference in a students effort and success. Quality of Most Importance When looking at all of the answers given by the teachers I feel that they would agree that the most important quality in a teacher is that they care. This sets the foundation for all of the other qualities of importance. Most of the good qualities a teacher possesses must start with

TEACHER INTERVIEW PROJECT caring. I myself feel the same about caring because if I did not care, I would not have the ability to teach in the first place. Being a teacher is very difficult; if one did not care about the people that they are teaching they simply would choose not to become a teacher at all. My Personal Qualities

It seems like a funny thing to consider a quality, but my best quality for teaching is love. I love and care about all people and want to be there for them in any way I can. Teaching gives a person the opportunity to show children that they are cared for and that a person truly wants to see them succeed. In loving my students, I will try to do all that is needed to be a good teacher for them. If I need to be stern I will be; but out of love, not hatred. I am also an extremely passionate person. Not about one particular thing, but about everything that includes helping and protecting. Being passionate about teaching students what they need to know will assure that I will not give up; that no matter how frustrating or impossible my situations are in the classroom or with the children, I will teach until I succeed with each and every student. Classroom Strategies Chapter nine of the textbook Teach is helpful when looking at strategies in a teachers classroom. There were a couple of tips from the book that I thought of when the teachers answered my question. While I did not have the chance to interview Ms. Crismore in her classroom, I did have the opportunity to sit with Mr. Sturgeon in his. I did not feel the need to even ask him how his classroom was arranged to optimize learning; I could look around and see that he had collected many pictures, figures, and dcor that involved everything that he taught. He claimed that his students loved his small decorative cannon collection and that it gave him the chance to talk about the Civil War with them. His seating arrangements for the kids was a free one; he allowed them the choice of where they would sit as a privilege and in their appreciation

TEACHER INTERVIEW PROJECT they would behave in a manner that allowed him to effectively teach them without distraction.

Ms. Crismore had a different approach. She found that if she assigned seats she would be able to control the classroom in a more effective manner; she considered routine to be important when she taught math. With routine the students would not have to guess what to do; they would always know what to expect and this would help with their readiness for learning. Using time more effectively depended largely on her ability to give each class a standard routine. Working Out of the Classroom Mr. Sturgeon, being in his third year of teaching at the school, found that he used so much of his personal time on work that is was having an effect on his life. He had to choose which things he could get done with the time available to him during school hours. He could get all of his grading done at school, but doing the lesson planning on the weekends was part of his routine. The computer program he used for his work had to be done on his personal computer because the ones at the school were not suitable, forcing him to take this work home. Ms. Crismore explained that when she first started teaching she used way too much time outside of school on her work. As time went by she became able to use her time at school more effectively; she was able to get her work done by using just around an hour per day after school. Part of working outside of the classroom involves a teachers license. While the law for this changes often there is still work to be done in order to maintain this license. Mr. Sturgeon, being a more recent student, had to work to keep his license on a point system. There were a number of points he had to earn in order to maintain his license every two years. Points can be earned by attending seminars, taking college courses, having college observers, and a very large point-maker is having a student teacher. Ms. Crismore had a different situation altogether. When she acquired her teaching license the law was different and therefore she only had to worry about

TEACHER INTERVIEW PROJECT earning six credit hours every five years. She did not have any obligation with the point system. She used to take seminars as part of her learning, but no longer did because the school did not

have the funding to pay for the teachers to attend. Overall, teachers spend quite a bit of their own time and money in order to keep their licenses. Not only is that a problem for teachers, but they are currently paid according to how well their students do on ISTEP. Mr. Sturgeon felt like this was unfair for many reasons. He said that it is unrealistic to put so much importance on this one test, mostly because of all of the outside factors that determine how well a student does. Ms. Crismore seemed to agree that the cons of ISTEP outweigh the pros. She explained that the test caused a tremendous amount of stress on the teachers. Society and the government judge how good a teacher is based solely on this test. The test does not consider how hard a teacher tries or how much they care; it does not acknowledge the lack of sleep or food or discipline the children have. There are only so many things that a teacher can do to see a student get better and this was a great concern for Ms. Crismore as well as Mr. Sturgeon. Conclusion The final question that was asked to both of these teachers was What advice would you give a future teacher? Their answers were both sincere and concerning. Mr. Sturgeon said to stay positive even if things seem horrible; that no matter what the students, parents, or government says or does to put teachers down, you still make a difference. Ms. Crismore said to make sure to always remember why you became a teacher. Ignore the outside politics and just do your best. Their advice was honest and I hope to always remember it. They both seemed genuinely serious about this and it made me nervous to think of the stress they must be under at times.

TEACHER INTERVIEW PROJECT Interviewing both Mr. Sturgeon and Ms. Crismore has given me more insight and knowledge than I expected to have from this assignment. I am grateful to both of them for their time and effort in helping not only myself, but their students as well.