Missy Bildeaux

6-9-2020

Learning Level 4.0

The student will:
● Interview someone in the field of education and ask:
● How has teaching and learning changed since your career began?
● To your knowledge, how has state and national legislation changed the
way your classroom/school/district operates?

I had the opportunity to sit down and talk with a teacher in the Grand Rapids school
district. She has previously worked for many years as a 2nd-grade teacher. However, she
just recently accepted our MTSS/Gifted and Talented teacher position in the school district.
She is a phenomenal teacher and I enjoyed sitting down and learning from her.
When I asked her what has changed in teaching and learning since her career began,
her first and most enthusiastic response was technology. I consider her to be very
tech-savvy. She’s very appreciative of the opportunities the school district gives her to use
technology in her classroom and with her students. She gave the example of the school
district being 1:1 with devices K-12. She also emphasized the importance of this with
distance learning.
This teacher also talked about the increased focus on social-emotional learning and
the importance of parent communication. She also recognized there is more pressure
around standards and meeting these standards. She talked about the rigor with which
students are expected to learn. In response to this question, she also said there’s been a lot
of back and forth on current and best practices. As a teacher, she’s been exposed to so
many options that it’s challenging to know which ones we are supposed to use in the
classroom and which best practices are best for the students.
When I asked her how state and national legislation has changed the way her
classroom, school, and/or district operates, she spoke immediately about changes to
special education. She is excited about the growth and continued changes our school
district and legislation are making with special education. She spoke about previous
restrictive practices and the support that is now available for escalation and behavioral
students. She said that we expect special education to achieve at high levels and the district
is going in the right direction of encouraging and promoting this achievement. She also
came back to the topic that there is now more pressure and a bigger focus on standards and
state requirements than there has been previously. She undoubtedly thinks there is more
pressure on teachers overall.