Dejah Pope

Professor Cervantez

TEL 370

31 October 2023

Professional Development Event

Mentor Teacher Interview

On Monday, October 30, 2023, I interviewed my mentor teacher primarily during her free

Second and Fourth hour class periods but also in free moments during her other class hours. I can

confidently say that the interview/discussion covered the span of close to two full hours. As

proof of attendance I have my internship attendance form where it can be noted that I was at my

assigned placement for longer than I typically am and I also took this as an opportunity to take

photos of her classroom setup.

At the end of the document I have attached the questions and notes that I took during our

interview. They are a little scattered and not the most organized but there was a lot of overlap in

the topics we discussed in addition to the actual amount that we covered. My mentor is new to

this school and district but has been an educator for 30 years, 25 of which were spent at the same

school in Tucson. We talked a lot about adjusting not only to the new location but also the new

dynamics, curriculum etc.

I think one of my biggest takeaways from our conversations was the importance of

forming relationships with everyone around me and establishing balance both professionally and

personally. To be successful in my school and district I will need to be able to create a support

system around me and work as a part of a team with my department/school. When it comes to

teaching and managing my classroom we discussed the importance of forming relationships with
my students and their parents so that everyone involved is aware of not only my expectations but

my intentions. On the subject of balance, we talked a lot about her transition to this new school

and the curriculum they are using. My mentor, in addition to general experience gained through

years of teaching, has created grants and programs, served on countless committees, including

those dedicated to creating curriculum and district assessments, and has been an AP grader for

the College Board for several years now. Despite her long list of credentials, she has struggled in

feeling as though her efficacy has remained in line with her usual standards. She noted that

although she is trying to follow the curriculum in the same way as the other teachers in her

departments, she has had to make adjustments in her instruction in order to ensure that the

students are still learning from her what they need to. For general life balance, we discussed how

it will be a process of its own and that although it might be really difficult my first year, it will

get easier. She told me that it’s important to make sure that I have that support system in place to

really help me through the period where I work to find my balance.

It's a bit difficult to summarize all of my takeaways as I feel like it was a really great

conversation, but I will definitely be keeping the notes that I wrote while talking for future

reference.
 Interview Questions and Answers

1. Why did you become a teacher?

a. Liked to read, degree in British literature, almost went into the fbi-psych major
originally- forensic psych, liked analysis and forming relationships, started
teaching and ended up staying, almost went into law, switched into British lit
when teaching became an option.
2. What is your philosophy on teaching?
a. You should instruct the whole child. Scaffolding curriculum, takes a village.
You need to examine the exigence in general. Keeping the students engaged
and engaged with each other, staying responsive, changing content and
instruction when needed,
3. What is the most important thing you learned in teaching so far?
a. The standards re going to change over the year nut the core content of the
skills is going to remain consistent always
4. What is the biggest challenge in teaching?
a. In education, the technology dump has created a lot of issues, increased
parent involvement, schools are competing for students and funding,
adjusting to the technology, the shortage of teachers
5. What is the difference between a good teacher and an
outstanding teacher?
a. The ability to relate to the students and forming strong connections so long
as they are meeting the content standards.
6. What are your interests outside of teaching?
a. Hiking, rockband (the video game)
7. What do you feel is wrong with public education?
a. The technology dumping, the turn towards education as a business model
8. How do you prepare students for standardized testing?
a. Ap test- looking at the big pictures, familiarizing them with the test and the
expectations, the tasks etc. pre testing to see what it is that they need to
know and to see where the students are. Scaffolding the tasks. AP exposes
them to as many past essay questions as possible, just depending where the
students are when they enter the classroom. how do you fill in the gaps
9. How closely do you follow your lesson plan?
a. Really enjoys creating lesson plans and curriculum
10. Describe the most effective teaching techniques
a. Creating engaging material but also holding students accountable in their
engagement, being responsive to the kids and the content. Understanding the
capabilities of the student. Mix of groups, pairs, and individual work. Pairs are
good.
11. How much homework do you assign and how often do you assign
it? How do you know this is a good amount?
a. Don't believe in homework and doesn't like to assign it
12. How would you deal with difficult parents
a. Being proactive in communication with them. If parents and kids know that
you care, it'll really lessen the issues, the main goal is the success of the
 students, make sure that they know it from the beginning. With the crazies-
document everything, follow all the governing board policies, communicating
with your administration.
13. Give an example of how you differentiated instruction in a lesson
a. Start with the general population of the class, knowledge of them in general,
make adjustments based on the needs of your students. Work with the
modifications that you know
14. Strongest piece of advice for a soon to be teacher?
a. To be authentic. Being yourself even though I'm in the persona of being a
teacher. Keeping the core of who I am in everything even as I'm working to
create that distance and dynamic with the students as a younger teacher.
15. What do you think about the Kagan Cooperative Learning Model?
a. Never taught with it before but thus far it's really great. Isn't sure about the
students being solely in groups in terms of management when it comes to
freshmen. Her assignments are typically partner based and less about the
groups of 4. Partners can turn into groups of 4 but it's not always the group.
She's working a lot to shift her tasks and teaching methods to meet the
curriculum of the new district. Trying to incorporate her vast content
knowledge/base with the new curriculum
16. Favorite literary activities?
a. Book sales- students choose a book with literary merit, talk about why they
would like to read the book, the class votes, leads into the book circle,
minimum 3 books for the circles, kids pick their top two until the list is
narrowed between 6-8 choices and then the students sign up for the group
that they want
17. Thoughts on socratic seminars? The best ways to manage them?
a. It's great to have student led activities, it just needs the right scaffolding. If
you keep the expectations high but provide the support.
18. How do you feel about admin involvement in the classroom?
a. Based on her previous school- the biggest issue with the admin is that at the
moment they don't have a lot of power. They are struggling with the
community and they dont have alot of support, there's a lot of conflicting
input from the community, government, etc. the admin needs to talk to all of
the parties/stakeholders, teachers, parents, state requirements etc, compile
the data and come up with a strong vision for the school. There needs to be
consistency.
19. Favorite authors?
a. Shakespeare and twain for their satire and description of the human
condition, the alchemist coelho, jody picoult, ya- john green, hamlet is her
favorite shakespeare play, likes to teach of mice and men to freshmen, the
great gatsby, huckleberry finn,
20. Honors v on level
a. It's more about the culture and the willingness to stay engaged and less
about the intelligence of the students. They're capable of the same tasks

Classroom management- the content needs to be engaging and difficult enough.

Scorer for the college board, has written grants and programs for freshmen. Has a lot of
experience teaching both freshman and AP
As educators we need to help with the growth mindset and help the students move past the
learned helplessness. Teaching them how to help each other and how to work in a group
setting. For connection to reality- helping them to learn the life skills that they need. Keeping up
with what is current and connecting it to the lessons

Roles she's had- AP grader for the college board, english department chair for her school, team
for created the districts assessments for all grades, been on textbook selection committees,
created the first cross curricular humanities program at her school, Instructional coach and
mentor, lead teacher, procured a grant and established programs to help new students and
freshmen, redesigned and scaffolded the whole curriculum for her school, countless committed,
created tutoring programs at her school with AIMS intervention and extensions sat prep, etc,

Collaboration over competition

Doing things because i want to do them, not necessarily because i think theyll make me look
better than someone else.