VICTORIA BROWN IVY TECH COMMUNITY COLLEGE Teacher Interview Project

INTASC Standards Education 101 InTasc: Standard Description and Rational Standard #10: Leadership and Collaboration The teacher seeks appropriate leadership roles and opportunities to take responsibility for student learning, to collaborate with learners, families, colleagues, other school professionals and community members to ensure learner growth, and to advance the profession. Name of Article: Teacher Interview Project Date: February 24, 2015 Course: Education 101: Intro to Teaching Brief Description: This assignment was to interview two teachers face to face and ask them questions about their life in teaching. This will help you figure out how different teachers do things in the classroom and find out how teaching has affected their lives and who has motivated them as a teacher. Rationale: To document my understanding of InTasc Standard 10, Leadership and Collaboration, I have selected to include a skillfully laid out plan to help me understand how to be a leader and to take different learning opportunities in my future classrooms. I also should collaborate with other teachers or people to see what advice they might have to promote growth in the classroom.

Background Information Keri Brown works at Hamilton Southeastern Junior High as a 7 th and 8 th grade special education teacher. She has been teaching for 24 years. She has a Masters Degree from IUPUI. Holly Reine is a 9 th -12 th grade Social Studies teacher at Lawrence Central High School. She holds a Masters Degree as well. Her favorite subject that she gets to teach is Sociology.

Traits of an Effective Teacher Mrs. Brown: “having humor, understanding the child’s background, being patient and being empathetic” Mrs. Reine: “having an open mind, being flexible, being dedicated to teaching, learning from students, and having patience.”

Philosophies, Values & Beliefs Mrs. Brown: “I do not have one single philosophy, I am very straight forward, tell it like it is and I never lie to them. I believe each child can learn and its up to us as teachers to find out how to best help them. I also believe each child’s behavior comes out of something they need but aren’t getting.” “No, my beliefs haven’t changed at all over the years.” Mrs. Reine: “I believe that every child wants to learn but some just have to be pushed more than others. I also believe that truly caring for a child and getting to know them goes a long way in the teaching world.”

Important Qualities Mrs. Brown: The most important quality a teacher can have is “being able to convey your students that you truly care about them” Mrs. Reine: The most important quality a teacher can have is “being able to adapt to any situation that is thrown at you in a classroom and being able to hold myself to the same standard as I do my students”

Personal Reflection I believe that Mrs. Brown is right when she says that as a teacher you should always show students that you care for them. All of my favorite teachers are ones who truly cared and were always helpful. I barely remember the ones who didn’t care and who didn’t want to help us kids learn.

Traits or Qualities Possessed Mrs. Brown: “being able to be patient and understand that all my kids learn at different speeds and in different ways.” Mrs. Reine: “ the best quality I have as a teacher is patience. High schoolers can be very difficult to deal with and please and the more patience you have the easier it will be for you.”

Traits and Qualities I Possess Some great qualities I have are being extremely caring and understanding. I know as a teacher I will care for each one of my kids like they are my own. I will always try to fully understand them and their ways of learning to the best of my ability and make sure I have a great learning environment for them.

Teacher Quote “Successful teachers invite their students’ lives, languages and cultures into the classroom. They start building a classroom community on the first day of school. They care about their students and they create an environment where social justice is both a goal and a reality.” (Koch, 2014, Pg. 174)

Summary Both of the teachers that were interviewed said that their support systems came from their families, and both had people in their family who had previously been teachers and influenced them.

Exciting Aspects of Teaching Mrs. Reine stated the most exciting aspect of teaching was “the feeling you get when you realize your “making an impact on kids and actually helping them learn”. Mrs. Brown said the most exciting aspect was that “you never have a dull moment in classrooms, there is always a new story to tell”.

Summary Mrs. Brown stated her most difficult challenge during her twenty four years of teaching is getting the parents of her students to care as much as she does.

Teacher Quote Everything is a collaboration; there is no such thing as “teaching” separate from “learning.” (Teach. Pg. 166)

Summary Mrs. Reine states that her most difficult challenge that she faces while teaching is cell phones and technology. She stated that since it is so easy to cheat and just memorize things off of the internet students aren’t actually learning.

My Conclusion My conclusion from my interviews with these two teachers are that patience goes a very long way when you are a teacher. All kids have a different way of learning and some need more time and attention than others. I also realized that the best way to be an effective, great teacher is to truly care for the kids that you are teaching. What you are teaching them will be with them forever and you are shaping their future. You can truly make an impact on the kids you are teaching and could possibly change their lives.

References Koch, J. (2014). Teach. Belmont, California. Cengage Learning.