Teacher's Interview

I interviewed Colleen Dunlavy, she is a middle school teacher. She's been teaching for fifteen years. she also own Dunlavy tutoring center in Homewood IL. I asked her what is her teaching philosophy: and she said that all students can learn. All children can and want to learn.She does not think that there is any students without capabilities. My second question was, describe the classroom management structure? Colleen thinks that  instructions are a main part in class management.It  is also respect and especially with  leading by example. Mutual respect, teacher should lead and by showing that we can work hard and play hard. Students can move around not only sit, that will help keeping them engaged. I asked Colleen  how does she use technology in her classroom? She answered by saying:  as much as possible, she also thinks that technology is already ingrained in students. Her and her students use it to verify information, especially when teaching a new lesson to check for general understanding. My fourth question was,  how do you connect lessons to real world? She connects lessons with real world experiences by bringing a  guest speaker to talk about own experiences. Have kids interview them. using resources helps keeping kids engaged. How to keep kids on task, was the next question. She keeps her students on task by using shorter lessons, as well as working together. As it  helps with task orientation. Helping them manage time is a great way to help students stay on task. Using timer is very  effective. How do you  differentiate students with different abilities? Colleen differentiate her expectation . From enriched students her expectation is more higher than the rest of the students. She tries to challenge them more. For the medial students she  would read with them or have them read at loud, they do recommend more one on one help. we try to differentiate information. It is very important for the teacher not to do it in the open. My last question was How do you redirect negative behaviors? She thinks that students with negative's behaviors usually means that they are struggling with something, whether it is   academic, or emotional and this is why they are acting negatively. It is usually a result for attention or draw attention away. Situations like this would need to be dealt with by being individualized. Talking  about it on the side is also very helpful. Physical presence is important, being there for them help tremendously. You might have to remove a student even in situations, however it is important to do so calmly.

I have known Colleen for few years now, she is a very caring, passionate and hardworking teacher. She is in the field because of her passion for children. She loves teaching and does it to make a difference in students life. She believes that all students are capable of learning, however we have to find the right strategy for each. She also believes that if the students are not doing well, it is because the teacher is not teaching well. She takes responsibility for her students failure rather than blaming it on them. She makes teaching fun, and allows students to move around the classroom. She also understands how to contain negative behavior, and she even thinks it is a result of a struggle. If we can help them get over their struggles, we should not be receiving any negative behaviors in our classroom. I do like the way she handles situations in her classrooms, and would love to adopt the few ways she uses. I have learned a lot from interviewing her.