For the teacher interview assignment, I had the pleasure of interviewing a good friend and mentor of mine, Beth Pater. Ms. Pater has been a high school math teacher for fifteen years, with her entire career at the same school. She has been a freshman dean, in charge of a freshman mentor program, has taught computer sciences, took a group of students to Germany and has been selected for various educator programs, including a trip and tour to Google headquarters. As I mentioned, she has been a mentor of fine and one of my biggest cheerleaders when I decided to return to school to pursue my dream. She is one of those teachers that looks for the positive in every student, is understanding and sympathetic to their home/family life and how it affects their schooling and truly believes that the future of our world is bright because of the students she encounters every day. We share very similar beliefs when it comes to education, students, curriculum and more, so I purposely chose her to interview because I knew that I would greatly benefit from her responses and learn from one of the best educators I know!
The questions I used to interview her were:
- What are your best practices from classroom management?
- What is your relationship like with administration?
- What areas do you wish you could go back and change?
- Do you have areas of opportunity?
- What are your strengths?
- What philosophy do you incorporate in your classroom or believe deeply in?
- How do you address specific students who continuously act our or push your boundaries?
First of all, in Chaper 13 of our textbook, Anita Woolfolk states “The aim of classroom management is to maintain a positive, productive learning environment...It is unethical to use classroom management techniques just to keep students docile and quiet.” (page 511) As Ms. Pater states in our opening question, her one and only rule is to be kind and their classroom “goal is to be kind and learn math”. She tells me that she the most important aspect to classroom management is to build relationships, which aligns with what Woolfolk tells us on page 512.
The topic of relationships continues in our interview, with Ms. Pater telling me that her ability to connect with her students is her biggest strength. As Woolfolk states on page 524, “Students respect teachers who maintain authority without being rigid or harsh, are fair and honest, demonstrate emotional support and caring, make sure students understand the material, ask if something is wrong when they seem upset and use creative instructional practices to make “learning fun”. Woolfolk also says “Students also value teachers who show academic and personal caring by acting like real people...communicate effectively, and show an interest in the student’s lives and pursuits.” These qualities are demonstrated by Ms. Pater as she tells me more about her strengths, which include that she connects with the kids, makes time for the struggling students, asks all her students about their day. She proves that she has a great understanding of students emotional needs, each individual student’s needs, and the psychology behind what causes students to act in certain ways. Throughout the interview, you can see that the driving force behind her responses and her classroom management technique is supporting and understanding her students.
Another one of Ms. Pater’s techniques, and this she says is powerful, is to use the “I” messages. Although Woolfolk’s description of the “I” messages varies slightly than how Ms. Pater uses it, both ladies know that this is a great way to both be assertive and non-judgemental, while also reaching the student. Ms. Pater tells me that she tells her students “I noticed…” which shows her students that she has paid attention to them while also sending the message that something is off. Ms. Pater also demonstrates that she uses withitness in her classroom. She tells me that she walks around the classroom, interacts and makes eye contact with her students. As Woolfolk says on page 523, withitness teachers are “aware of everything that is happening in the classroom”.
When it comes to disciplinary issues, Ms. Pater and Woolfolk have opposing views on how this should be handled in the classroom. Woolfolk says that students shouldn’t be reprimanded in front of the whole class (page 281). While Ms. Pater acknowledges that this is what we are taught, she says that by addressing individual students in a direct way helps to remind them of her expectations. She tells me that she doesn’t yell at them or hand out consequencing during this moment but rather is careful with her words and makes it so the whole class knows that she is consistent with her expectations.
While Ms. Pater doesn’t directly state this in her interview, you can grasp the strong self-management skills that she teaches her students, which Woolfolk discusses on page 513. Pater walks often about group work, and how her rule of being kind impacts student’s contribution and expectations to their group. She says that she walks around her class often and will directly talk to individual groups to help keep them on task. As Woolfolk says, “If you teach your students to manage their own behavior and learning, you should have fewer management problems, less stress, and more time to teach.” (page 513) Ms. Pater contributes the lack of disciplinary problems in her classroom to the way the class ‘operates’, saying that there is much peer-peer interaction. This brings out the student’s better behavior as they want to behave and perform better for one another.
Lastly, a big take away from this interview, and one thing that is just a quick blurb in our book is that “Separate the deed from the doer in your response. The problem is the behavior, not the student.” (page 517). This connects to what I mentioned above, that Ms. Pater has a great understanding of the psychology behind their actions and motives. She proves in her responses that this is one of her best practices. She tells me “kids carry a lot of baggage” and demonstrates she has a great grasp on the worries and insecurities that often drive student’s behavior. I think that her ability to differentiate the behavior from the student is what contributes to the strong relationship that she has with her students.
Classroom management is probably my greatest concern going into teaching (because who isn’t a little nervous about 25+ little humans verse 1 new teacher), Ms. Pater proves that with the right mindset and tools it’s easy to keep behavior down and student’s on task. She and I are similar in the fact that we both deeply believe in building relationships with students and getting to know them on a personal level. This interview and her expertise have helped to ease my anxiety with this.
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