Assignment:
Directions:
You will interview a veteran classroom teacher, one who has been teaching for a minimum of five years. After completing the interview, write a two-page critical reflection/summary paper based on the answers the teacher gave to the questions asked during the interview.
Develop a list of questions (you may use the questions below) to ask the veteran classroom teacher.
You paper include the following:
- Background information on the teacher interviewed
- Summary/reflection of the information elicited during the interview process
Suggestions:
When completing this activity, you may want to record your interview if the teacher allows it. This will help you to capture a complete response. If not, you should do your best to write down the entire response. Your final paper should begin with the teacher's background, then include a summary of his/her responses, and conclude with your reflection of the teacher and the insights you have gained from the interview.
Possible Interview Questions:
Curriculum/Subject Knowledge:
- Do you prefer homogeneous or heterogeneous grouping? Why?
- What does individualized teaching mean to you?
- How can you tell students are learning? Which evaluation techniques do you use?
- How do you individualize the learning process in your classroom?
- What are some ways that a student in a group can show you s/he has mastered a concept?
- In which curriculum area are you particularly strong?
- If you were asked to obtain in-service experience in one area of the curriculum, which area would you choose?
- What are some of the ways that you present materials to students, such as in social science?
- How do you integrate technology into your teaching and students' learning?
- What do you think a teacher needs to know in order to begin lesson planning for a class?
- What four key components do you believe you must include in a lesson plan?
Instructional Techniques:
- Describe any school experience you have had, particularly in student teaching (or in another teaching position) that has prepared you for a full-time position at a school?
- Describe any innovative projects you have been involved in developing.
- Give an example of how you have used cooperative learning in your classroom.
- How you accommodate the different learning styles of the students in your classes?
- What do you consider to be your strengths and how will you use them in your teaching?
- What two core teaching strategies do you use to achieve your desired results?
Classroom Management:
- How do you set standards for acceptable performance in your class at the beginning of the year?
- How do you get students to do what you want them to do?
- Describe your system of classroom management.
- How do you help students develop in self-discipline? Can you teach this skill?
- In your opinion, who should be responsible for the discipline in the school?
- If a student is disrupting your classroom, what steps would you take to solve this problem?
- What is your opinion about individual vs. total class punishment?
- Compare negative and positive reinforcement and describe the affects of each.
- Describe a typical student in your class with reference to his/her developmental stage, study habits, attitude towards learning, and his/her behavior characteristics.
- How do you assist a student who has been tardy to become punctual?
- Describe your classroom's physical environment.
Parent Relations/Communication:
- Describe some ways you inform parents of what is going on in your classroom.
- How do you involve parents in your classroom?
- How do you update parents on the progress of their child?
- In your opinion, how effective are parent conferences in solving student problems?
- Describe how you become acquainted with parents and students.
- What would you tell a parent who complained about his/her child not having enough homework?
- What information do you include in your Open House presentation?
Personality, Personal Attitudes/Professionalism:
- Why did you want to teach?
- Describe an "ideal" teacher.
- Why would you want to teach in a certain School District?
- What is wrong with education today? What is right?
- What do you expect from the school principal, psychologist, and superintendent?
- What would your closest teaching associate say about your relationships with students?
- What are your greatest teaching strengths? What are your greatest weaknesses? How do you overcome these?
- How do you collaborate with other teachers/staff in your school?
Teacher Relationships with Students:
- What kind of students do you like to work with? What type of students could you teach most effectively?
- How would you deal with a student who ridicules a given assignment?
- How do you help students experience success?
- How would you differentiate instruction for students?
- What procedures do you use to evaluate student progress besides using tests?
- How do you challenge the varieties of learners, both slower and advanced, within the same class?
- How much do you need to know about your students in order to be most helpful to them?
- What three things do you most want to know about your students?
- In what major ways do you most want to influence the lives of your students?