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Yessica Cancino Valdovinos

Teaching and Learning 333
Joy Egbert
4/1/18
ELL Teacher Interview

Kathy Chumney is a third-grade dual language teacher at Eastgate Elementary. She has

been teaching in the Kennewick school district for over a decade. Although becoming an

elementary school teacher was not her first option, she now says that she is really happy with the

decision she made and she loves being able to have an impact in her students lives. When I was

in elementary school I attended Eastgate elementary and now that is the school I want to pursue

my career in. The building is locked and in order to be able to enter the person working the front

desk has to open the door and this provides the students and the staff with high security. This

school does not really have a majority in race, it is a very diverse school and community.

I really enjoyed interviewing Kathy, she is a very sweet and wise woman. During the

interview with Kathy, she taught me a lot and helped me understand concepts that I was not sure

of. For example, something new I learned is called a ten-two. A ten-two is basically a rule where

for every ten minutes that you talk you give the students two minutes talk to each other and

interact. This came up when I asked her when she knew when the right time was to stop talking

and let the children talk. She said that when the students start to get impatient that is when she

stops talking. Another method that she uses is that she does not let the students keep a lot of

pencils in their desk. This way, at some point, they will need to get up and sharpen them, she

does this because Kathy wants her students to be able to get up from time to time so they can

stretch and get their wiggles out. Another thing that I liked was her answer to the question “how

long is the wait time based on the level proficiency” and this was a topic we covered in the
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beginning of the semester. We also made up profiles for our students and determined their level

proficiency in speaking, listening, and other areas. Kathy’s answer to this question was that she

waits a total of three seconds and then gives the answer. Although we should trust our teachers

and in the way they teach, I believe that waiting more than three seconds is better because it

gives them more time to collect their thoughts. She also explains that when it comes to her

students’ participation she asks a question, gives the students time to talk to each other and then

asks what their partners said. This way the students don’t get anxiety if they want to answer the

question because the teacher wants to know what their partners said and not what they thought. I

think this was a great idea because she is helping the students interact and listen to what others

have to say and they might have a different level proficiency. That helps the students strengthen

their own proficiency and help their classmates. Another thing I love is that she will not call out

on students that are not paying attention because she doesn’t want to embarrass them and I think

that is very important because the children need to feel that they are safe and comfortable in your

classroom and not scared to have to attend because of the fear of not getting something right or

not know what the subject is.

Another subject we recently covered in class and Kathy emphasized was the saying “I say

you say”. This is when the student gives a response and another student will say I agree or

disagree and give a reason why. That is when you can really notice if the students are

understanding the subject or not. We recently learned about this in class and it is important for

students to do this because it helps them learn more when they interact with others and

understand the subject more in detail. This also helps them build and develop how to have a

healthy and educated argument, it also provides them with different sides of a question and

different possible answers.

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I think it was very helpful for me to interview someone with so much experience and

learn from them on a one on one basis. I really enjoyed interviewing Kathy because I agree with

the way she teaches. It really shows how much she cares about her students and how she only

wants the best for them. I also love that she believes that we should teach students English while

also teaching them their native language, so they can grow in both languages, she also thinks it is

important that we learn all our student's culture, so we know what the best way to help them is.

At the beginning of the year, Kathy goes through all her student's profiles so she so she has a

better understanding of how to connect and teach each student to the best of her ability.