Mme. Letteri (A teacher) Interview:
For my community connections project i decided to interview a teacher since i have been thinking that it would be a good job. To interview Mme. Letteri I used e-mail. My interview follows:
1. What are your roles and responsibilities as a teacher?
· Provide instruction.
· Assess and Evaluate Learning
· Create/Foster learning opportunities.
· Classroom Management
· Communication with parents/guardians
· Collaborate with colleagues.
· Attend Professional Development Opportunities
2. What obstacles have you faced to get you where you are today?
· Financial obstacle – working part-time and sometimes full time during post-secondary to get accredited to become a teacher.
· Mental Health – sometimes you can feel really empathetic/sympathy for struggles a student might be going through so learning how to manage and cope with this.
3. What advice would you pass on to someone interested in teaching?
· Set healthy boundaries – don’t bring work home/stay at school late.
· Stay positive – this job can be very challenging, and it is important to give yourself and your students grace.
4. Why are you passionate about your job?
· I am passionate about helping the youth feel successful and confident in their ability. I find that seeing their progress from September – June very rewarding.
· Making connections with students is also very important to me, and for some, being a positive adult role model is very rewarding and makes me feel as if I might be making a positive contribution to student lives.
5. How do you keep everyone’s attention in a classroom?
· I try a variety of different strategies (all depends on the class and the year) lots of trial and error but some of my favourites are using a music wand or slowly counting down from 3s to gather attention. I have also been know to tap dance in the front of the room until everyone is staring at me so I stop (not sure if you want to include this not haha..)
· To keep attention, I use Affective Statements towards behaviours I want to see such as “Thank you Blank for taking out their materials” or “I see Blank is ready to go”.
· To keep attention: Use of Body/Brain Breaks, keeping lessons engaging (not always me talking) but time for students to talk, practice etc.
6. Do you have any philosophy’s for teaching? If yes then what are they?
· Some of the philosophies/theories I try and incorporate/prescribe to are Restorative Practices (Affective Statements, Restorative Questions, Circles, Holistic learning, etc) and UDL (Universal Design for Learning) using inclusive learning strategies such as shape of the days, delivering instructions orally and written, student choice in projects, etc.
Who i interviewed:
I interviewed a middle school teacher at ecole kwayhquitlum middle school who’s name is Mme. Letteri. Her role as a teacher is to provide instructions for students, manage the classroom while keeping a good environment for teaching, and keeping in touch with parents/guardians.
why I chose to interview her:
I chose to interview Mme. Letteri because I may someday be interested in being a teacher of some sorts and i wanted to know a bit about the roles and what its like. I have always admired Mme. Letteri’s teaching style and hope to someday be like her.
what I learned from the interview and how it connects to my passions:
From this interview i learned the Challenges and rewards of being a teacher such as the mental aspects as a challenge and connecting with students as a reward. I learned tips and tricks on how to be a teacher such as keeping attention in a classroom with a wand or counting down or using positive statements (thank you blank for getting out your materials). I have always liked helping others learn things and i think this has been a very positive experience with learning what teaching actually is.
Media:
One thing that i wanted to show you was my conversation with Mme. Letteri leading up to the interview. I feel that i did this part of the project very well and think it is important to showcase.
