Teacher Interview
1. What inspired you to become a teacher? How long have you been a teacher?
- My inspiration to become a teacher was actually a teacher I had in high school. It seemed like at the time all my friends going into Junior year had their lives planned out. I had no clue what I wanted to do or what college I wanted to go to. However, my first day of American History with Mr.Thompson my Junior year of high school changed my life. I quickly decided I wanted to be the type of teacher he was. He inspired, believed and taught me so many things I wanted to be that person to students myself, so Senior year I decided the path I would take in life would be education. I haven't looked back since, and I am so glad I had a Mr.Thompson in my life! I have been teaching for 7 years now and I love every second of it!
2. How do you build a positive rapport with your students every year?
- Building a positive rapport with my students is one of the first things I focus on the moment I meet my students each year. Something as simple as a smile, and good morning could make a difference in the type of relationship you have with your students. I always make sure they know I am there for them, listen to them and help them with everything and anything, be approachable, students will not succeed if they are scared of you.
3. How do you engage students on different levels; whether it be activities or lessons?
- Having taught multiple levels of students I quickly learned it can be challenging to make sure everyone is engaged at all times, however, I have learned that changing activities slightly to make them more accommodating for lower students or even higher students can make all the difference. Just giving students something totally different then what everyone else is doing isn't always the best option. As far as lessons go, assessing the students and making sure you are being as present as possible while teaching the lesson you will see and pick up on who are your students that are falling behind or getting it quickly, which could help with maybe pulling small groups, or giving extra practice time.
4. How do you ensure all students are participating regardless of confidence issues in the classroom?
- I use multiple things, I have a number system where I will randomly pull the students' number out of a bucket, or I use a random number generator online if you are a more tech-savvy person! Haha
5. What is your classroom management plan? Has it changed since you started teaching? What has worked? What hasn’t worked?
- I have had multiple classroom management plans in my short seven years of teaching and I feel like they change every year. You can't just stick with the same thing and expect it to work for every group of kids you teach. Every class is different and you have to find what works best for that specific group of students, not to mention grade level. I have learned in 6th grade that clip up and clip down charts do not work. Big kids do not care about that. I have learned that a reward system of some kind always works.
6. What would you say is a weakness for you? How have you overcome it or how are you working on making it better? What is your strength?
- As teachers, I think we are always hard on ourselves when it comes to everything. Currently, I feel my biggest weakness is technology. Times have changed and integrating tech into my classroom has been a challenge. I have taken a few PD's and talk with my teammates all the time and bounce ideas off of them and learn from them, which I find to be the best! My strength would be making sure my students know that I'm here to help them succeed and I won't let them fail.
7. What advice did you wish you received your first year? What would your best advice be to a first-year teacher?
- I wish I would have known that, while teaching is the most rewarding profession it can also be the most challenging one. You really have to find a balance between your classroom life, home life and everything else going on. Make sure to have that balance. Things that happen in the classroom as far as students, curriculum, parents and everything else, is not going to be in your book, you learn from your mistakes and grow from them. I guess that would also be my advice. Learn from mistakes and take advice and always be open to criticism, good or bad! I have a poster in my classroom that says pencils have erasers for a reason. We make mistakes so we can learn from them, don't be scared to try new things and fail. You can always erase and start over. That, in my opinion, makes the best kind of teachers!!
My Response
For my Educational Psychology class, we had an assignment that required us to interview a teacher that has taught for five or more years. I had the pleasure of interviewing a 6th grade, General Education teacher, Sarah Zabelka. Mrs. Zabelka teaches at Frank A. Brodnicki Elementary School in Justice. She has been teaching there for 7 years.
I wanted to base the majority of my questions on creating a positive rapport with the students, how to engage all students, classroom management - what has worked for them and what has not, what a weakness and strength is for them and how they are doing to surpass them, and some advice they wish they received and would give.
I started off by asking Mrs. Zabelka what inspired her to become a teacher and how long she has been a teacher. She was so energetic and excited to tell me about her high school experience and her path to education. We then slid into how she creates a positive rapport with her students every year, that is the first thing she does the moment she meets her students. She makes her students feel comfortable and shows them that she is there to help them with everything and anything. As the text states in chapter 13, page 512, “All students should feel emotionally and physically safe in the classroom.” Mrs. Zabelka does this by being and showing the students she is approachable. Also, in chapter 13, it states “All efforts directed toward building positive relationships with students and creating a classroom community are steps toward preventing management problems.”
We then discussed how she engages students on different levels; whether it be during activities or lessons. Her response was “It can be challenging at times to make sure everyone is engaged at all times, however, I have learned that changing activities slightly to make them more accommodating for lower level students or even higher level students can make all the difference.” She then continued to state, “As far as lessons go assessing the students and making sure you are being present as possible while teaching the lesson you will see and pick up who are your students that are falling behind or getting it quickly, which could help with pulling small groups or giving extra practice time.” As Woolfolk explains in the text, “as teacher supervision increases, students’ engaged time also increases. One study found that elementary students working directly with a teacher were on task 97% of the time, but students working on their own were on task only 57% of the time (Frick, 1990).” By Mrs. Zabelka being present and available, she is showing her students that she is there if and/or when they need help. This shows that she is caring and willing to do what it takes to help her students succeed.
This led me to ask her how she ensures all students are participating regardless of confidence issues in the classroom. The way she can track that all students are participating is by using a number system. Each student is assigned a number, which is used for multiple things, she will pull sticks out of a bucket with numbers and that is how she does this. Another way she will randomly select students is by using the computer to randomly generate numbers for students to participate. As the text states, “These rules defining who can talk, what they can talk about, when and to whom they can talk, and how long they can talk are often called participation structures.” (Woolfolk, p 511). Mrs. Zabelka represents this structure because when she calls a students number, they know that it is their turn to answer a question and/or participate. I like the structure of her process to ensure that all students have the opportunity to participate in activities and lessons.
The text states, “The basic management task for teachers is to achieve order and harmony by gaining and maintaining student cooperation in class activities” (Woolfolk, p 510). I asked Mrs. Zabelka what her classroom management plan was and if it has changed since she started teaching. Her response was that she has had multiple plans since she started and that she feels like they change every year. She continues to explain that you cannot stick with the same plan and expect it to work each year with different groups of students. I feel that her response to this is very accurate based on the fact that your student demographic changes from year to year and so does the cognitive skills of each student. With that being said, I would devise different ways to create a safe, respectful, and fun environment for my students to learn.
Everyone struggles with a weakness, which brought me to ask Mrs. Zabelka what her weakness was and how she is learning to overcome it. Her response was “As teachers, I think we are always hard on ourselves when it comes to everything. Currently, I feel my biggest weakness is technology. Times have changed and integrating technology into my classroom has been a challenge. I have taken a few PD’s and talk with my teammates all the time and bounce ideas off of them and learn from them, which I find to be the best!” I like how she is very open and her willingness to educate herself on new ideas to bring technology into her classroom. I also like that she is able to collaborate with her teammates and everyone works together to help one another succeed. Her strength is that she makes sure her students know that she is there to help them succeed and will not let them fail. I feel that this is a great strength to have in order for your students to succeed and I plan on making sure I do the same thing.
My last question for Mrs. Zabelka was what advice she wishes she received her first year and then what advice would she give to a first-year teacher. She replied, “I wish I would have known that while teaching is the most rewarding profession, it can also be the most challenging one.” She continued to state that you have to find a balance between school, home, and personal life. That there are going to be things that happen in your classroom as far as students, the curriculum, parents, and many other things. As these challenges arise it will encourage you to understand that mistakes will happen but not let them get you down but to learn and grow from those mistakes; this is also her advice. She expressed, trying new things and failing are learning experiences and that we should accept advice and criticism; whether it is good or bad. She stated that she has a poster in her classroom for all of her students to view that says, “Pencils have erasers for a reason! You can always erase and start over!” Mrs. Zabelka feels that this makes the best kind of teachers!
After this interview, I was grateful to be able to interview such a young, strong, positive teacher. I will take every part of this interview and apply it to my future classroom. She had many great tips and information that everyone can learn from the amazing interview I had with Mrs. Zabelka.
Woolfolk, Anita. Educational Psychology. 14th ed., Pearson, 2019.
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