1. LEAD TEACHER INTERVIEW PRESENTATION JACQUELYN FARMER EDU650: TEACHING LEARNING AND LEADING IN THE 21 ST CENTURY INSTRUCTOR JACKIE KYGER DECEMBER 23, 2014

2. INTRODUCTION Good afternoon. Thank you so much for meeting with me today. My name is Jacquelyn Farmer and I am interviewing for the Lead Teacher position for the 3 rd grade class. I have a Bachelors Degree in Education Studies from Ashford University, and I am currently working on my Masters in Education, with a specialization in Family and Community Services. My background in education includes coaching and mentoring youth in a high school format, to become better athletes, students, and prominent members of society.

3. EDUCATION PHILOSOPHY Every child deserves a rich education regardless of their diversities, circumstances, and abilities. I believe in: Building successful and responsible student-teacher-parent relationships with open lines of communication. This begins with the first day being assigned with the position of lead teacher. I will reach out to parents, students, and previous instructors to get a good understanding of each students learning styles, preferences, and history. As well I would want to deliver my own teacher expectations while receiving the students and parents expectations. Classroom Management is a key component to successful learning in a safe and trusting environment. I plan to begin with my management plan and then work into involving the students. This way students learn to take ownership in their own success. 21 st Century Skills will be key in my classroom as students will need to be well prepared to enter a world that is steadily changing. This will be supported with mixed media tools, student driven projects, mentoring and motivating.

4. CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT “Educators have consistently rated discipline as one of the most serious obstacles to promoting effective teaching.” (Kratochwill, PhD, 2014. p. 1, 3) As previously stated, classroom management is key in providing a safe learning environment. Having a successful management plan keeps order in the classroom, informs students of expected and unexpected behavior, and gives a teacher a concrete set of rules to follow to build trust and consistency in the classroom. Classroom management allows a teacher to teach, a student to learn, as well as an accountability tool to teach students responsibility and ownership in the decisions they make.

5. SCHOOL MODELS I am aware that this is a very prestigious position and with that responsibility will decisions on school models. There are several, however a few key models that I have had the honor to interview are Charter and Technology Magnet schools. There are other examples such as traditional, public, and private schooling, however to move this school forward in thinking and innovation, studying other schools that have made successful steps forward will be key in the decisions we make as a school. Charter Schools Zoning is more lenient in comparison to traditional public schools Also have more control over curriculum design, structure, and teacher licensure There are some arguable cons to this model. Some people feel that Charter Schools do not put enough focus on teacher education and development, stating that teachers “attending fewer professional development trainings focused on instruction and aligned to teaching assignments, fewer opportunities for professional development and collaboration with colleagues, and lower perceived fairness of teacher evaluation.” (Education Policy Analysis Archives, 2014. v. 22) Technology Magnet Schools Technology Magnet Schools are a lot like traditional public schools when it comes to zoning and teacher licensure The difference is how these schools offer more innovation and creativity, and are driven by a large amount of technology entwined through virtually every lesson. These schools are given “additional subsidy to ensure there is adequate support to implement the school's specialized programs” (Newman, 2013, p. 12)

6. EFFECTIVE LESSON PLANNING AND STUDENT INVOLVEMENT “Lesson plans communicate to learners what they will learn and how they will be assessed, and they help instructors organize content, materials, time, instructional strategies, and assistance in the classroom.” (TEAL Center Staff, 2012. p. 1) Teachers need to take the time out to plan out the objective of a lesson, how to achieve those objectives, and how knowledge will be assessed. This takes time, practice, and patients as teaching is a forever changing process, a art of adaptation, and plans can always go in an unexpected direction. However, if the lesson plan is in tact and a strong classroom management plan is in place, those hiccups that can occur in a third grade class filled with active minds will not be as big if those measures were not in place. Objectives in lesson plans need to be clear, concise, attainable, and assessable. Students need to know what they are expected to learn so that they can key in on core aspects as well as drive their own understanding through questions and experimentation. A clear objective helps drive away any confusion. The objective needs to be attainable, reachable. Having an objective that is too difficult or nor differentiated to meet the needs of all students, will yield unfair results and cause a loss of trust with students to the teacher. And finally, assessable. There has to be an assessment plan in place that will help complete the lesson, deciding whether the information needs to be revisited or students can continue on to the next module All of these plans are great to have in place, but to involve the student makes these plans more valuable. Rubrics are great examples of assessments involving students. If students are given a measure that they can work to reach, it helps them to stay on task and motivated to the end.

7. ASSESSMENT MATTERS Earlier I touched on assessment, however let me give a more in depth view on what I mean by this. Assessment in education is measuring student knowledge for the betterment of their education. It does not stop with the information gathered, it continues into what is done with that data and how it will be applied. In essence, assessments drive the lesson. Assessments decide whether the lesson can be continued or needs to be revisited. There are two types of key assessments. They are formative and summative. Formative Assessments Give and allow for immediate feedback Information gathered from this assessment happens in the midst of a lesson Assessments drive classroom differentiation as it allows the teacher to maneuver the lesson around the needs of the diverse classroom Summative Assessments Done in scheduled times of the year as benchmark tests Often associated with state mandated standardized tests Can also be conducted in the classroom as end of unit tests. Data gathered from summative assessments inform teachers of whether a particular text works, teaching style works, lesson plans work, etc. Stake holders such as parents can take this data and decide whether the school r district are performing to their standards. Data helps drive school choice. When summative assessments are done in the classroom they can be converted into formative assessments as teachers decide to revisit lessons before moving on to the next lesson.

8. PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITIES “Professional learning communities (PLCs) offer an infrastructure to connect individuals and a way of creating an organization that is dedicated to collaboration and continual learning.” (Newman, 2013. p. 2) PLCs help a very important term in education for teachers and that term is called continual learning. Continual learning is how teachers continue their education in order to deliver the best well educated and up to date teaching methods and subject knowledge. While the focus is always the educator, it begins with the facilitators of knowledge, the teachers. PLC’s collaborate to stay abreast of the latest teaching technologies and methods to better prepare teachers and their awareness. Teachers “actively engaging staff and teachers in learning from one another will enhance their abilities to improve student learning and ensure that the organization serves as a mechanism for continual learning.” (Newman, 2013. p. 3)

9. CONCLUSION In conclusion, I want to thank you for giving me the opportunity to interview for such a prestigious position. The responsibility of such a position would involve not only core competencies and a student and teacher driven achievement desire, it also pushes for innovation in reforming our school to strive in a forever changing world, success in diverse 21 st Century classrooms, and building a community of educators, innovators, and professionals. Thank you for this opportunity, and I hope that you see my goal is to teach to succeed in life, not just in the classroom. I plan to mentor, motivate, build everlasting relationships, and help in the move towards educational equality. Thank you.

10. REFERENCES Kratochwill, Tom, PhD. (2014) University of Wisconsin. Classroom Management, Teachers Models. Retrieved from APA http://www.apa.org/education/k12/classroom-mgmt.aspxhttp://www.apa.org/education/k12/classroom-mgmt.aspx Newman, R. (2013). Teaching and learning in the 21st century: Connecting the dots. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc. TEAL Center Staff (2014). Fact Shift: Effective Lesson Planning. Just Write Guide. [Retrieved from] https://teal.ed.gov/tealGuide/lessonplanning https://teal.ed.gov/tealGuide/lessonplanning

11. IMAGE REFERENCES http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Bachelors%20of%20Arts&qs=n&form=QBIR&pq=bachelors%20of%20art&sc=8-16&sp=- 1&sk=#view=detail&id=AD7033CADD3E169562FB6A92134606F019401274&selectedIndex=17 http://classroomclipart.com/images/gallery/Clipart/Graduation/masters-degree-logo-2.jpg http://csh.depaul.edu/centers-and-institutes/dfcs/PublishingImages/DFCS-splash.jpg http://youthvoices.net/sites/default/files/image/27087/oct/education.jpg http://mikedalgarno.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/equality.jpg http://www.education.vic.gov.au/images/content/studentlearning/effectiveschools.jpg