Name of your host: Don Gordon
Relationship to you: Father
The Interview:
- What is your job title? He is a grade 8 teacher and team leader.
- What is your job description? He teaches math, science, art and physical and health education.
- What are the duties and/or tasks you perform at your job? He teaches grade 8 students and he leads a team of five teacher. He also coordinates activities for teachers on Pro-D-Days.
- What qualifications do you have for this job in the following areas:
a) training? He did a thirteen month practicum as part of his eduction training.
b) education? He has a four year bachelor of arts degree as well as a bachelor of education degree. He also has is masters of education degree.
c) experience? He worked for four years as a youth worker. He also worked for nineteen years as a teacher, three of those years were as a faculty advisor at UBC. He also worked for seven years as a district professional coordinator.
d) skills and attributes (personal qualities)? He is patient, creative, friendly, artistic, compassionate and is a very good listener. He is also organized, hard working, a critical thinker and has strong speaking skills.
5. What are some of the things you like about the job? He enjoys creating lessons, understanding ciriculum with students, working with students and other teachers. He also likes the holidays, the hours and the flexibility.
6. What are some of the things you dislike about this job? He dislikes the long nights of work and having to mark students assignments.
7. How do anticipate this job changing in the next five years or so? He thinks there will be an increase in technology usage and growing government control.
Other questions: How many years of schooling did you do? He did nine years of schooling.
Student Reflections:
- Give three reasons why you would like this job:
a) I love working with children and being able to teach them new things.
b) I would be able to learn new things and it would also help me grow as a person.
c) I like the hours and the holidays that come with the job, it will give me time to spend time with my family.
2. Give three reasons why you would not like this job:
a) There is a lot of marking you would have to do to correct students quizzes and assignments.
b) I wouldn’t want to spend so much time writing report cards and planning lessons.
c) Many students need one on one help and there would be many kids in a class.
3. Is this job for you? Why or why not? I think this job would be a perfect fit for me because I am very organized, I enjoy working with children, I love learning new things and being able to have a positive impact on someone else’s life.
4. Explain the value of the TOKTW experience in relation to your ideas about your post secondary plans: I think that the value of TOKTW is to help show students the different opportunities and different job paths that they could take in the future. It also shows students what their parents do at work during the day, while they are at school.