Teacher Interview

I interviewed Liz Stevens. She is a family friend who I have known for basically my whole life. She teaches elementary special ed. at an alternative behavioral school in Joliet. All of her students have IEPs and specifically have emotional behavioral disorders. Our interview provided me with a ton of insight on how to manage a classroom effectively and efficiently. As a side note,  Liz was fighting a sore throat during the interview. That being said, I really do appreciate her cooperation with this interview and her responses to the questions.

One connection that I have made was from chapter 13 from pages 527 to 529. This discusses how to stop problems quickly. Liz mentions in the interview how she has to act quickly to diffuse any situation (like outbursts or yelling, for example) with a student so there will not be a chain reaction amongst other students. She mentions that she has to redirect students in a quiet way or with hand signals so as not to draw attention to the student. The attention will only cause anxiety for the student. She keeps in mind her students' population background as a factor for this as they are already from a very troubled group.

Another connection I made was when she mentions that she uses group contingencies as a reward system. This is basically where everyone in the group needs to earn the reward by doing what they are told or cooperating with others. If one student does not earn it,  no one in the group receives the reward. This reminds me of the Group Consequences section in chapter 7 on pages 278 and 279. The textbook describes this as rewards or punishments given to a class for either following directions or defying them.

 My interview with Liz was very insightful. Though we are in different content areas, (mine is music, her's is SPED) I felt like that aspect did not matter because classroom management breaks down those difference. Plus, I love getting perspectives and insights from teachers with experience. For example, Liz opened up about how she handles with the lack of parental involvement. She mentions how parents are often at odds with her about their child's behavior, both positive and negative. Also, I appreciated her honesty in that it is absolutely fine for teachers to consult the other teachers for help or to bounce ideas off each other. In all, I feel that Liz runs a very successful classroom. She has been given a very difficult population to teach and I do genuinely feel sympathetic for her. Yet, I admire her tenacity in the situation and I can see how much of a difference she is making in her students' lives.

The video of the interview, please enjoy! (Sorry for the phone moving):
https://youtu.be/knizWgQl57w

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Module 5

Chapters 12, 14 and 15 is what I read this week! Chapter twelve was about motivation in learning and teaching. It seemed very informational and I did my research unit on this chapter. It was descriptive of different students and how their behavior is but a symptom of what is really happening inside to motivate, reinforce positively or negatively. Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation is explained and it seems to shed light into how both types of motivation can be useful but intrinsic is longlasting and will allow the person to overcome obstacles and hardships more than rewards which are temporary immediate and elusive. I was interested to see ow the Maslow's hierarchy of needs explain how certain needs are more pressing than others at certain times. I had learned about Maslow's theory and thought it was sequential. Physiological come before safely, love and belonging, esteem, cognitive, aesthetic and finally self-actualization (466). It is interesting to learn that these needs do...
Read more

Module 5 !

This last week of reading and blogging covers chapters 12, 14 and 15.  Chapter twelve talks about motivations and since I just wrote my paper about his topic I have a lot to say about motivation in the classroom.  This chapter also talks about goals and self-worth which are also very important in the classroom and they all go hand in hand.  As a physical education teacher, getting the students to change their ways of thinking to have that growth mindset (p. 478).  Getting the students motivated to get active and to start accomplishing small. smart goals will help increase their self-esteem and self-worth and hopefully get them to keep trying newer and bigger goals, as well as get them to understand that there is always something more to accomplish.  Moving onto chapter fourteen, this section of the book talks about what it talks to become an expert teacher and all the different approaches.  It also talks about adaptive teaching, which in physical education ...
Read more

Module 5

Chapter 12 discussed motivation in learning and teaching. The topics included Maslow's Hierarchy of needs, goals and goal orientation, attributions and beliefs about knowledge, ability, and self-worth, and topics about learning (interests, curiosity, emotions, and anxiety). There was one section that made me furrowed my eyebrows. It is on page 479 in Mindsets and Beliefs About Ability section. It was about the choir director who put the students who had the worst singing ability in the back rows while the ones that were the best, he put up front. I have heard of concepts like this before and it offends me. That should not be the way one organizes a choir, let alone a choir of students. The best way is to mix it up in terms of ability. Have a stronger singer stand next to a weaker singer. This helps the weaker singer with matching and builds their confidence. The stronger singer will also benefit by being able to balance their sound so they won't be as overpowering. This is how ...
Read more