Assignment:
1. Why did you choose to become a teacher? What excellence in teaching have you observed as a student or during observations?
2. How have the "acceptable" and "unacceptable" practices in teaching changed in the last 25 years for the profession?
3. How do you see social media fitting into the acceptable and unacceptable practices framework for teaching?
4. Why do you think one in five beginning teachers leave the profession within the first three years? What solutions do you have for this problem?
5. What will be your reasons for considering teaching in a high poverty area? What would motivate you to teach in this area? What inhibitions would you have about this?
6. What factors do you think have helped cause the shortage of teachers in Math, Science, English Language Learners and Students with Disabilities? What are your solutions to these problems?
8. Technology is hotter than ever in public schools as it becomes more affordable and easy to access. What will be your greatest challenge in teaching with technology in five to ten years? How can you harness your students' mobile technology for good, rather than fighting the losing battle of keeping it away from them?
9. Collaboration with colleagues is a large indicator of success as a new teacher. How do you plan on collaborating with your team teachers? How will you handle the conflict that will inevitably arise in differing opinions over teaching philosophies and/or curricular decisions?
10. High quality teachers are experienced, prepared and licensed. Looking over your program plan for completion, how do you feel about your preparation to enter as a high quality teacher and what advice do you have for teacher preparation institutions?
11. What cultural capital do you take to your classroom? Does everyone bring cultural capital into the instructional situation? How will you bring this out from the resistant students?
12. What are your thoughts on "zero tolerance" discipline policies in schools and how effective have they been over time?
13. Why is the achievement gap between black and Hispanic students and white students not closing? What can be done to resolve this issue?
14. In your opinion, will encouraging children to move and play more decrease the national epidemic of childhood obesity? If not, what do you think needs to be done to reduce childhood obesity?
15. What is meant by, "learning to teach and how to apply this knowledge in the classroom is truly a developmental process?"
16. How did John Dewey's progressive ideas revolutionize the teaching field in the twentieth century? In what ways do we see progressivism in classrooms today? What does it look like in practice?
17. Do you think this era of high-stakes testing has shifted our nation's philosophy of education into an essentialist philosophy? Why or why not?