Teacher Interview

Teacher Interview with Kelly Aceto

I interviewed Kelly Aceto, a business education teacher at my local community high school.  My interview with her left me excited and encouraged about my upcoming career change.  She too has practical business experience and has taught several years at both the collegiate and high school level.  I realize the video has a lot of background noise but our venue options were limited. 

The biggest takeaway I had from the interview was the importance of creating connections and getting to know the students.  As noted in Chapter 13, Managing Learning Environments, it is important to create a positive learning environment (pg. 513).  During my interview when discussing key elements in establishing classroom expectations, Ms. Aceto noted that she tends to be more collaborative in establishing the rules.  While there are particular classroom rules she uses, along with her fellow teachers, she finds that collaboratively developing some with the class is helpful too.  The other item she noted is getting to know her students.  Even at the high school level, she has the students complete an "All About Me" questionnaire which gives her insight into what the students hope to get out of the class, questions they may have for her or understand their future goals.  Especially with elective classes, it is important to understand why they are taking the class and how it may apply to their future goals.  There is one business class, Personal Finance, that is required by the state.  She noted there she truly does need to understand the students background and goals.  This helps her tailor certain assignments so students do not feel awkward about their situation.  Personal Finance is taught to all students and not every student is college bound or has similar financial means.  She noted she is sensitive to that and certain assignments she may not have students share their information with the class.  By her awareness of her students, she creates a culture of acceptance and understanding which in turn creates a positive learning environment.

I was surprised by the challenges of creating seating assignments.  She noted in one school, it was required and a standard within the school.  The seating assignments had to be changed after a few weeks.  In her current school, the use of seating assignments is more a departmental choice.  Her colleagues do use seating charts as she herself noted, it helps her remember names.  She does a picture seating chart so she can better put the face with the name.  Over the course of a semester she may see 150 students and when remembering names is not her strong suit, a seating chart helps her immensely.  The challenge with creating any of these seating charts is working with students that have an IEP or Section 504 plan.  She noted that many of the accommodations are seating the student away from distractions, away from other behavior orientated students or must sit near the teacher or at the front of the class.  When there are eight to ten students in a class of thirty, there are only so many places to put the students with IEPs and 504s.  She noted it is a challenge each semester and she gets creative with the seating to ensure the students' needs are met.  Again this is another example of creating a positive classroom environment to enhance and encourage learning of the topic.

Overall I enjoyed this assignment since I got to hear first hand about what she finds works and does not work within the classroom.  It was interesting to hear the business classes implemented cell phone pockets for their classes.  I always wondered about that since my son has not told me any of his classes use the cell phone pockets.  Thing is he doesn't take business classes.  He likes engineering classes, just like his father.  Back to Ms. Aceto she stated at the beginning of the semester she strictly adheres to having the students put their cell phones in the pockets.  This gets the students to not be tempted or rely on having them.  As the semester progresses, there have been times when putting the cell phone in the pocket is forgotten by both the student and herself. What she noticed is that because the classroom culture established did not allow for the use of cell phones, students weren't even tempted to use them when they were in their possession.  The students respected the rule that they were not to be used and she trusted them on those occasions to not use them.  She helped establish that trust within the classroom.  

In the end, I am excited to hear about her experiences and her story on becoming a business teacher.  She didn't take the traditional route either and obtained her license through Illinois' alternative certification process versus my approach of the Professional Educator License.  She was very encouraging of my career change and noted that my experience in the corporate world will prove to be beneficial with teaching.  It will help to establish credibility with the students since I worked in the "real corporate world" and can explain how theory works in a company.  We parted our interview with her inviting me to observe her and some of her colleagues classes this fall.