Share something interesting or surprising from your interview. It can be something about the content of the interview or something related to your interviewee. You could also use this space to ask a question about the analysis of the interviews that we are about to begin.
Yuritzy Martinez:
ReplyDeleteThe teacher I interviewed was my teacher for 3 years. We were already close before I graduated high school, and though I was curious about her upbringing into teaching, I never asked her. Learning about her point of view of education did not Suprise me because she was always clear about her opinions with her students, but through her, I learned as an educator, one of the biggest qualities to be a great teacher is to have empathy. Overall, the interview went really well and went much smoother than I thought.
Rob Horvath
ReplyDeleteThe teacher who I interviewed is one of our close family friends. I was able to sit down with her and gain an understanding of her viewpoint as a special needs educator and the difficulties/fullfilling aspects which come along with that line of work. It was very amazing to see the way she lit up in conversation regarding her experiences and how she is so patient with these children. Her ability to genuinely care about them and the way that they are able to celebrate the small wins along the way is inspiring and shows me that there is so much good in people as a whole. It is amazing to see the love that she has for her profession despite not having a crazy salary to back it.
Mia :)
ReplyDeleteFor my interview I chose my 11th and 12th grade English teacher. She has been teaching for over 30 years, and really shaped who I am as a student now. During our interview she was in her classroom during a free period, and blatantly said a couple times that she had to be discreet about saying what she would change about schooling because admin might disagree. This was really interesting to me because when I went to school there, it was shown to students that everyone was inclusive and helpful to students as well as staff. Interesting to see the other side of things.
Cady Ayers
ReplyDeleteI interviewed the Teachers for Tomorrow teacher from my high school. She shed some light on the toxic work environments within schools. It's typical to hear about student-to-student bullying, but I had never thought about teachers bullying each other. It's almost like how there could be a hierarchy of popularity for high school students-- but instead the teachers are critiquing each other and trying to break each other down. It should be noted that my interviewee was just basing this off of a specific situation she had been in before. She also talked about the "chain of command". If there is an issue that you, as a teacher, would like to be addressed, you can't just go straight to the school board. You must go to the next person above you AKA the principal.
The teacher that I chose to interview was someone who I spent all four years of high school with. She was one of my dance teachers, so she had a different opinion on some of the questions than you would expect of a regular (math, science, history, english) teacher. Something that really surprised me was the politics within the school. Arts are always on the chopping block, and unfortunately that's something my teacher wishes she could fight, but unfortunately is not in the position to do so. It was very inspiring to hear her thoughts and opinions about this.
ReplyDeleteAlistair here: I decided to interview a professor of mine because I am looking into teaching at the Collegiate level. I enjoyed talking with him as I have loved his classes and teaching style thus far. I got the feeling from him of a very Laissez-Faire style of education, where students are responsible for their success and generally are pretty equipped to succeed. Granted, this was a different context than most grade schoolteachers, as his students are electively paying for this experience rather than it being required.
ReplyDeleteDanny Trainham:
ReplyDeleteThe teacher I interviewed currently works at a private school and teaches computer science/engineering. She also partners with NASA and has led 3 student satellite missions to orbit. During our interview, I was surprised to hear that Trump's removal of DEI has already affected the programs she is involved with. She was supposed to present about the Women of Artemis at a conference, but it was cancelled and removed from NASA. She also mentioned that when she went to the Naval Academy for a student contest, she noticed that all the Black Academy groups and clubs had been disbanded. The eradication of diversity, equity, and inclusion programs is disappointing, but it was enlightening to hear how government policies impact teachers.
ReplyDeleteAniyah Johnson-Lee
For my teacher interview, I am going to talk to my daycare administrator. I have a very close relationship with her, and she is a part of the reason why I wanted to pursue a career in Education. I loved the idea of this whole assignment, it's very different but also fun. Can't wait to see what's to come with this assignment.
Charlie Campbell!
ReplyDeleteClaire Cook:
ReplyDeleteI found the story of how my interviewee became a teacher very interesting. She was my teacher for my culinary class, and I was always curious about why she chose to teach culinary rather than pursue a career in the culinary field. Through this interview, I found out that she never applied to be a teacher, she started as a substitute teacher for the previous culinary teacher, which ended in her being offered a full time job, replacing the teacher she had been a long term substitute for.
Mack Mboh
ReplyDeleteI had asked my teacher an obstacle she has had to face in her teaching career, and I was surprised to hear the answer. She had shared a recent experience of a student this year and her parents language barrier. This student needed disability assistance and the parents didn't agree. I was confused on why the parents didn't agree, but learned the parents were scared the students would be taken out of her class. It made me think about the culture that follows my students families and how I should comfort then when a problem arrises. It makes me especially think, how would I talk to parents about having to test their student for a dissability?
Talia:
ReplyDeleteI found a couple things from my interview interesting. I decided to interview my 7th grade history teacher and he has some pretty interesting views on our education system, especially the functioning of it. One thing we talked about a lot is how the education system is so data driven, more specifically numerical data like test scores, student attendance, etc. He brought up how being so data driven can actually lose a lot of these qualitative aspects of a properly functioning education system that promotes genuine engagement and understanding. Like connecting with a student over the butterfly lifecycle and them genuinely understanding the stages through hands-on projects, but them scoring a poor grade on the assessment. I fear that we've allowed data to control too much.
Riley B:
ReplyDeleteI interviewed a kindergarten teacher and I found it very interesting when she was talking about how she didn't feel she learned nearly as much as she should have when she was in school. She even listed off different courses that I should be taking in the near future that she wasn't offered. She even talked about how the future generations of teachers should be more prepared than teachers in the past due to the different classes available she was never able to take.
Halie Murphy-
ReplyDeleteI interviewed a special ed preschool teacher and what I found most interesting was her emphasis on mandatory preschool. She talked about how important school is for social skills and how mandatory preschool would give kids a better chance of succeeding later in school.
Jordan Dent: I interviewed my advisor for a student support program. She also taught a UNIV intro to university type course that is typically required for students entering the program during their first semester. She talked a lot about student engagement and relationships. I don't think it was necessarily surprising, but it was interesting to hear, especially considering that her main job is as an advisor so I do know that she really values relationships with and among students. It is interesting to consider that she also wanted to initially be a math teacher for grade school, so I do wonder if that had anything to do with her yearning for student engagement and connections. I should have asked that!
ReplyDeleteMy interview went a lot better than I thought it was going to. The person I interviewed used to be a teacher and has since transitioned to becoming an IEP advocate for children (while also doing other things in the EDU system) While talking about IEP I was kind of surprised at how much better the system had gotten. As someone with an IEP growing up, I found it very unorganized and not easy to work with. They have come a long way in improving the system for children, which made me ecstatic. I love knowing the system always works to improve things for the upcoming generations.
ReplyDeleteVeronica here
ReplyDeleteI interviewed my orchestra teacher from high school, who I'm still close to. She talked about student-teacher relationships and how they should kind of have a close relationship to maintain respect and balance within the classroom. She said something like the teacher could remember small like a school game and talk to the student about it, and the student would be happy to talk about it. What happens with that is that the student would continue to talk to the teacher and would form a comforting relationship between them, and that's how they would respect one another.
-Nida Hadi
ReplyDeleteFor my teacher interview, I chose one of my political science professors, whom I have gotten to know for the best 2 years. He has been a great mentor and has watched me grow immensely both personally and academically over the course of my time here at VCU. I was really interested in how he got into teaching, and I was shocked to find out that he does not follow the provost's curriculum. He has the freedom to choose what and how certain topics are discussed in his class without the pressure of following the rules or strict agenda by a higher-up relative to strict expectations of how primary secondary school teachers are expected to abide by.
I found her perspectives very surprising and very insightful. Her perspectives about teaching opened my eyes to new ideas on how I could start my classroom!!
ReplyDeleteElise Ginn
DeleteRosalyn:
ReplyDeleteI interviewed my 11th grade U.S. history teacher, who also ended up being my U.S. government teacher for half of my senior year after my original civics teacher got in trouble for “grabbing” a student (a whole other story). One thing that really stood out to me was when he shared a story about a student who kept getting into fights and was even suspended for a week because of it. At first, he thought the kid was just being difficult and trying to stir up trouble. But over time, just by talking with him like a regular person, he learned that the student was basically raising his younger siblings because his mom worked three jobs. That really shifted his mindset—he said it made him realize that a lot of what we see as “bad behavior” is actually just kids trying to survive really hard situations.
Something else I appreciated from the interview was how casual and comfortable our conversation felt. I’ve always liked that I can talk to him pretty naturally—our humor is about the same, so we can joke around while still having meaningful conversations. Our conversations aren't super formal or stiff, and that made the interview feel more real.
Tola Reasons :3
ReplyDeleteI was interested to hear about my teachers multiple perspectives in education from her vast teaching background. She taught kindergarden, then college level students, additionally teaching across many different states. I felt that that left her with a very interesting perspective on many topics like culturally responsive teaching and her meaning of teaching. She kept repeating the importance of understanding the students you are teaching and who they are, and forming meaningful bonds with them. I was interested to hear how she has kept in touch with many of her students from when she taught kindergarden, showing me how serious of an impact teachers can have on students. I was also suprised to learn her perspective on diversity in schools, her saying she didnt have too much experience there because all of the schools she has taught at were extreamly diverse in the students and their backgrounds, as well as teachers.
The person I interviewed is a teacher at my mother's school; and it's someone who my mom would actually call a "problem teacher". I didn't know about this before interviewing her; and was quite surprised to hear her about her sour reputation because she gave off a totally different impression during the interview. She was very formal, kind and enlightening. She told me a lot about her experience with working with different cultures, people of other languages, and refugee students--which I was very intrigued to hear about. She told me about the way that young refugee students upon arrival to America are underprepared and ill-equipped to have the linguistic skills to succeed in school and how she worked with lots of them to bridge that gap between languages, learning, and getting accustomed to the ropes of a new country. It was inspiring and showed me the different avenues that you can take as a teacher and the important impact that a teacher can have on someone's life--she approached these kids with compassion and just helped them learn a vital skill and how to navigate. I love that kind of stuff.
ReplyDeleteFranky Mattos
ReplyDeleteSomething that surprised me was that the person in which I interviewed was actually hesitant to stay a teacher after her first year of teaching. She said that it took a year sabbatical to come back and try again because of how she felt after her first year. She explained that the faculty in her first school was not very supportive as well as not having much instruction on what to teach, needing to teach world history in a year and not knowing what to start or end with.