1. The Big Interview Robert Hinderer EDU 650 Dr. Smith April 18, 1015

2. Introduction and Position My name is Robert Hinderer and I currently hold two Bachelor’s degrees and working towards a Master’s degree in Education. I am interested in the 6 th grade Social Studies position. I have a great passion for children that extends from the classroom into the athletic arena.

3. Philosophy of Education Students should expect me to believe in them and encourage them to grow socially, intellectually, physically, and emotionally. Lopez (2013) stated, “When you believe in your students, it changes your actions as you respond to their needs” (ch. 5). Parents should expect me to have the ability to instruct their children with their individual needs in mind, care for their children as if they are one of mine own, and encourage them to become life-long learners. A teacher should continue to hold themselves to the highest expectations and use all available resources to ensure your students are receiving the best education possible. The greatest responsibility of a teacher is to help students become self-sufficient/take ownership of their own education. Students that recognize their own strengths and weaknesses is just as important as a teacher that recognizes them. A teacher should be open to change and recognize how the world is changing around them.

4. Classroom Management Plan The rules of the classroom will be created in a joint effort between the teacher and students, also known as a student-centered classroom. These rules will be created, modeled, and expected by everyone in the classroom that promotes the best learning environment possible. These rules and expectations will be clear and concise in an effort to avoid confusion or misinterpretation. Newman (2013) stated these, “rules can serve as a mechanism to build cohesion and community among students and teachers, particularly when students have had input in their construction” (sec. 4.6). It is important to express these rules and expectations with words, both written and spoken, that present what the teacher and students should do, instead of what they should not do. Students are expected to enter the classroom with all expected materials needed for the classroom (e.g. textbook, paper, pencil/pen, etc.) and begin the warm-up question or problem either individually or they will have the choice to partner with a classmate, which I would prefer collaboration to generate more ideas or possible solutions.

5. Visual Representation This classroom attempts to give students opportunities to sit in various places, could be the desk or tables, especially those students wanting to work in groups or collaborate with their classmates. The classroom will hopefully allow students the opportunity to move about the room as they transition from one task to another. Placing the teacher’s desk in the back corner of the room places less emphasis on the importance of the teacher and more emphasis on the students that fill the room. Having technology placed around the room provides students additional resources to learn more about the content being taught or take virtual field trips to learn more about a different place, culture, society, landmarks, etc.

6. Different School Models I learned our students struggle to read at grade level, making learning extremely difficult. Those that can read still struggle to comprehend or interpret what information is important. The other important aspect was the amount of poverty that exists, not just in inner-city schools, but those rural schools as well. This poverty also impacts learning as students who do not have their essential needs met (food, water, shelter) struggle on a daily basis to place any importance or focus on their academics. Lopez (2013) mentioned one thing “is true that there are many factors that teachers cannot control, including class size, students' incoming level of knowledge, and the overall mix of students on their rosters” (sec. 7.1). We must be willing to work with organizations around us to improve our classrooms of those areas we cannot control (e.g. hunger) and place more of an emphasis on collaboration. Collaboration will improve the need of human contact, love, support, etc. While, understanding that two minds are better than one. Allow your students to become part of the classroom by sharing their ideas, expressing their thoughts about rules and expectations, and actively engage in the learning process. The work should involve more group activities and using real-world situations as much as possible. Allow for breaks, a time to move about the room; although, this can be difficult with the limited amount of time to teach a core subject we cannot expect students to sit quietly in desks throughout most of the day and learn all the content being taught. Technology has an important role in the learning process, but reliance on too much technology simply takes away from the creativity as well. Technology should only be used to enhance the learning process not to make the learning easier (e.g. finding the answer quickly). Both schools thought technology can make the learning more intriguing or more engaging, but emphasized not to rely on it all the time. Technology can be used to bring real-world problems to the classroom, enhance the learning environment, improve feedback and assessment data, plan global field trips, and allow teachers to assess their own teaching. (Chen, Yun Dai, & Zhou, 2013)

7. Effective Lesson Planning The important elements are: Start with an end in mind, Standards, Learning objectives, Assessments, and Activities that can be assessed. Effective instruction Starts with Learning Objectives, Based around Standards, Engage students, and Newman (2013) stated, Move beyond the classroom. Effective Learning Objective; Common Core State Standards: "8.82 Explain the significance of 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.” Learning Objective: Identify the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments of the U.S. Constitution and their impact on our nation, even today. A 'good' learning objective explains what students should be able to do after a lesson or unit of study. Newman (2013) explains backward design which; Simply means to plan backwards, not necessary different. Start with the end, what students should know, be able to do, understand, explain, etc. Assessments that can measure these objectives, Activities with assessment and learning, Teach, Assess results based around objectives, Provide Feedback, and Reteach or New Topic.

8. The History Lesson The End in-mind Common Core State Standards: "8.82 Explain the significance of 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution." 8th Grade: Learning Objective: Students will be able to recognize each amendment and explain how these amendments changed America. Assessments: Students will write a timeline of the Reconstruction Era, including the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments. Performance Assessment: Choose, one of two posters: One that would resemble these new amendments for the freed slaves or One that resembles white southern extremists. Activities: Watch videos about the Reconstruction Era Amendments, Khan or Youtube, preferably at home. Work in groups in the classroom rewriting the amendments using informal language. (The idea is to learn how each group views what the amendment actually means). Activity: Students will divide into two groups; one being the freed slaves and the second being the white southerners. The freed slaves will use those constitution amendments to secure their rights (e.g. work, schools, trades, vote, etc.), while the white southerners will use their Black Code Laws to prohibit the freed slaves from actually receiving those rights. The end discussion will include a theory about whether or not written laws change society or the mass of people recognizing injustice.

9. Assessment Matters There are two basic types of assessments; formative assessments, which is the most common assessment but not always the most effective if not used correctly, and summative assessments, which are used to determine students’ mastery of a unit of study or what Mr. Wormeli (2010) called, “post-learning.” Mr. Wormeli (2010) mentioned three main keys to effective formative assessments: 1) Set a goal or objective that students must reach, 2) Where are the students in relation to that goal or objective, and 3) What can be done to close the gap. Many people would agree that if something is not measured then it is not important; therefore, students that perform well at music, art, athletics, science, or history, but perhaps struggle with reading and math would be considered failures. We must be willing to evaluate our educational system as a whole through properly gathering data in all aspects of the educational setting. These assessments should also involve the student’s input and teachers should provide descriptive feedback to help students achieve the goal or learning objective. Effective assessments is the determining factor when recognizing student and ultimately school success. Assessments should come full circle, meaning students should learn how to assess their own learning, then teachers should involve peer evaluation during this process, and finally teachers should be the last to evaluate student work. The full circle approach ends with the student receiving his or her work back with descriptive feedback to improve student learning. The role of assessment in my classroom will involve using assessments to promote self-learning, not to just get the “correct” answer but understand why the other choices are not “correct”. In other words develop a deeper understanding of the content and how it relates to them on a personal level. Newman (2013) said it best when he stated, “It is important for students to discover their own learning processes, to assess their own progress, to be actively engaged in learning and generating knowledge, and to have the process become personal” (sec. 11.4).

10. Professional Learning Communities It is important to use the professional learning community around you to improve the learning environment; both for your students and yourself. Set goals, short-term and long-term, and determine what you need to make yourself more qualified to successfully reach those goals. 1) Continue to gain coaching experience. 2) Become an assistant teacher at a community college. 3) Continue to expand my network. I hope to use my advance degree MAEd specializing in higher education to improve my qualifications to become a head college basketball coach, which generally requires teaching a course or two at the college you coach at. Long-term Goals 1) Graduate with my Master’s degree. 2) Become an adjunct professor at a college or online school. 3) Become a Head College Basketball Coach One year from today I hope to accomplish my goal of being an assistant teacher for one year at a community college, as well as another year of college coaching experience. Newman (2013) stated, “Teachers need opportunities to share data, student work, lessons, and their thinking on a range of topics to ensure that they not only have increased opportunities to improve their practice, but also to ensure that they are meeting the needs of their students” (sec. 13.3). In five years my goal is to become a head college basketball coach as I will have the education and experience to have the preferred qualifications for the job.

11. References Chen, J., Yun Dai, D., & Zhou, Y. (2013). Enable, enhance, and transform: How technology use can improve gifted education. Roeper Review, 35(3), 166-176. doi:10.1080/02783193.2013.794892 Common Core State Standards InitiativeCommon Core State Standards Initiative (http://www.corestandards.org/) Lopez, D. (2013). No excuses university: How six exceptional systems are revolutionizing our schools(2nd ed.). Turnaround Schools Publications. Retrieved from https://content.ashford.edu/books/AUNEUNo excuses university: How six exceptional systems are revolutionizing our schools Newman, R. (2013). Teaching and learning in the 21st century: Connecting the dots. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc. Retrieved from https://content.ashford.edu/books/AUEDU650Teaching and learning in the 21st century: Connecting the dots Stenhousepublishers. (2010, November 30). Rick Wormeli: Formative and summative assessment [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJxFXjfB_B4Rick Wormeli: Formative and summative assessment