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TEACHER INTERVIEW

Teacher Interview
Amanda Cross
EDUC 101

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TEACHER INTERVIEW
Standard #3: The teacher works with others to create environments that support individuals and
collaborative learning, and that encourage positive social interaction, active engagement in
learning, and self-motivation.

Artifact: Teacher Interview

Class: EDUC 101
Date: March 01, 2016

Description: In this assignment I had to interview a teacher with several questions pertaining to
not only her past and present as a teacher but her beliefs on the teaching profession itself.
Discussed in the interview was the following; how the teacher supports the families of the
students and the students, why the teacher became a teacher, confidentiality in the classroom,
diversity, professional demands and what the teacher believes is an essential qualification of a
teacher.

Rationale: I met the standard with this assignment because in the interview that teacher discusses
how to support not just the families of students but the students as well. She talked about how
she always teaches her students to take care of each other and to treat one another like family.
She models her classroom as one big family. I think that in order for collaborative teaching to
work they all need to know how to treat one another and teachers need to be able to support their
students families as well. The teacher discussed a positive social interaction and self- motivation
with the family model as well. I think that the family model really covers the basis of Standard
#3.

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TEACHER INTERVIEW
Abstract
The following paper consists of the interview I conducted with a 2nd grade teacher, Mrs. Wilson. I
asked her a variety of questions pertaining to being a teacher and being in the classroom. She
answered me with her thoughts or opinions and how she handles things as a teacher. It also
consists of whether or not I agree with her statements and what my thoughts are on the topics.
The reflection of why I want to be a teacher is included before the conclusion.

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TEACHER INTERVIEW
Teacher Interview
In conducting the teacher interview I came upon some of my own personal views and
ideas that I had not thought of so thoroughly before. The teacher that I interviewed for the
assignment was a second grade teacher named Mrs. Wilson in Decatur Township. I chose to
interview her because since working at Blue Academy I have developed quite a good
professional relationship with her and I think she is a good teacher. She was one of the first
teachers at the school to make me feel welcome and comfortable.
Teacher History
Mrs. Wilson stated that she became a teacher because she comes from a family of
teachers. Her Great Grandfather had a one room school house in Plainfield, Indiana. She also had
a lot of great aunts that were teachers too. As a child she would use her little sisters and stuffed
animals to practice teaching. For holidays she would ask for her gifts to be things like chalk,
boards and utensils for teaching. She has been a teacher for twenty-eight years. She taught in
third grade the longest but floated between third and fourth for a long time. This is her second
year as a second grade teacher and she likes it the most. (personal communication, 2016) I feel
like she was the perfect person for me to interview because she has experience with the three
grade levels that I am most interested in.
Qualifications
The essential qualifications for a teacher to her are to actually care for and like children.
She said that she has seen many people become teachers thinking it would be an easy job and
something guaranteed but they did not like children. (personal communication, 2016) I would
definitely agree with her thought on that. She had stated that being a teacher is like being a
missionary because of the different roles that teachers have to play for the children. She also
stated that a classroom is like a family. Her belief is right in line with what I believe and how I

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TEACHER INTERVIEW
want to be as a teacher. I accept her response. I feel that we have to like and care for children in
order to be a good teacher. I think that a missionary is a good example along with her examples
of teachers being counselors and social workers as well. A lot of kids may not have the family
aspect at home and for them to get that in a classroom is an amazing thing.
ProfessionalDemands
The demands in which the profession has on a person in general discussed by Mrs.
Wilson were time. She talked about balancing time out between family at home and work at
school. Being a teacher can be very time consuming. She talked about how her mother was hard
on her for not being home as much as she felt she should have but that when she was younger
she would take a day away here and there to attend field trips with her sons class or to have
lunch with him at school. (personal communication, 2016) My own personal thoughts would be
very similar but I think I would refine what she stated because even though I agree with her, I
think there are more demands. I think that teaching has a mental demand on teachers. This idea is
from my own personal experience as an instructional assistant. I already experience some of the
demands on time but the level I experience it at is nothing compared to the teachers time needed.
Confidentiality
Before conducting the interview I hadnt thought much on how I as a teacher would
maintain confidentiality and liability within the classroom when dealing with parents. Mrs.
Wilsons response really made me think about this. She had stated that no matter what it is, she
runs it through the office. She makes sure the academic coaches and principal know what is
being said and how it is handled. She keeps record of everything by doing this. (personal
communication, 2016) Discussing this with her made me realize how important it is for a teacher
to do the same thing just to make sure they are backing themselves up.

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TEACHER INTERVIEW
Support
Supporting the family of your students is important and I think Mrs. Wilson does a great
job at doing just that. She also does a great job in developing the teacher/family partnership. She
makes herself available to the parents for any needs they may have concerning the student. She
has a policy of getting back to them within twenty-four hours if she cannot get back to them
immediately. She accepts phone calls and emails. (personal communication, 2016) She believes
in a theory that you only assign homework for ten minutes times the grade level so that families
have time to do things that they need to do. (personal communication, 2016) She shared her own
personal experiences on why she believes in this so deeply. I loved this homework idea! I feel
that as a teacher I will use the same theory for my classrooms. I may refine her response by
changing the time of getting back to a parent to within forty-eight hours instead of twenty-four
simply because if for any reason I was unable to get back to them that quickly, I wouldnt want
someone getting irate with me.
When it comes to the families, she treats the children as her own. She tells the parents
that she will treat them the same way she would want her child treated in the room. She lets them
know that the kids come first and they can count on her. When it comes to families of other
cultures, she bends over backwards to accommodate them. She knows that many of them do not
speak very good English if any English at all. She wants the families to feel comfortable with
their child being in her classroom and that they are being treated fairly. (personal
communication, 2016) I whole heartedly agree with her view on this. I accept it. The kids should
always come first in a classroom because they are why we are here. I also couldnt see anything
wrong with bending over backwards for a family of a different culture because it can be really

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tough being different from everyone else around you. As teachers we will have to adapt to the
group of kids given to us whether we understand their culture or not.
Diversity
Diversity plays a huge part in our schools these days. Mrs. Wilson stated that she has seen
it change so much over the years. She talked about de-segregation in the school system for
Decatur Township and how it brought about a lot of changes. She believes that diversity is good
to have in schools because it is all around us in the world. She likes the idea of everyone getting
along and being happy. (personal communication, 2016) I myself do not have much experience
with the times before where schools were either all white or all black but I too believe it is a
good thing that it has changed. I couldnt imagine it being segregated. I would refine her
statement to fit my views a little more by saying that in education we need to bring the cultures
together more. I think that students tend to still segregate themselves into groups in school and
teachers can help with bringing them together. I feel that is a good way to get kids to understand
someone different from themselves better.
MyViews
A lot of my own personal views and ideas come from working as a substitute and then an
instructional assistant but also from doing the interview. Before I conducted this interview I had
not thought about my own view on certain things, like how I would handle confidentiality in the
classroom for example. Listening to Mrs. Wilson explain things really opened my eyes to my
own ideas because I either agreed with her or I didnt. Previously I had just been an observer to
most ideas rather than have my own. Most of the ideas I have come from my own personal
experiences in the field.
IwanttobeaTeacher
My own personal reason for wanting to become a teacher is because I want to make a
difference. I started out in social work and got the opportunity to work with teenagers where I

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was helping them to learn life skills and independence. I absolutely loved it but some of the
aspects of social work were too strenuous for my current life situation. I wanted something
where I could still make a difference but not have the stress of trauma on my shoulders. Teaching
is just that! You make a difference and instead of just helping 1 or 2 students at a time, you get to
help an entire classroom. As a teacher you get to be that one person in some childrens lives that
they come in contact with who build them up. In social work I was working with children who
were already in the system. As a teacher you work with both. It is not a secret that there are
children who slip through the cracks of the system and never receive the help they need so as a
teacher I feel that we can help the child who has yet to be identified by the system. We can help
those who are slipping through the cracks by developing healthy relationships with all of our
students and encouraging them to do well.
The interview assignment was an eye opener. I think that it definitely helped with getting
my mind on the right path to think more about teaching. It helped to make me think about other
aspects of being in a classroom. I now can start to think of how I would handle things in my
classroom and start to plan. I feel that it is never too early to get a head start on these kinds of
things.

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TEACHER INTERVIEW
Reference:
(D. Wilson, personal communication, February 22, 2016).

Powell, S.D (2012). Philosophical: Foundations of Education in the United States. (2nd Ed.).
Your introduction to education: Explorations in teaching (pp. 211-232). New Jersey:
Pearson.