In this interview, the teacher leader verbally established the goal for the teachers’ use of student data to support academic instruction. When asked what the goals are for teachers’ use of data, they stated: “Data is to show you how students are doing; data should be used to facilitate what you do next to support students and to be self-reflective.” The teacher leader indicated that classroom teachers must have a clear understanding of why they are changing their instructional practices to motivate them. The teacher leader added: I think it is very important, again to explain the “why” behind everything you are looking at because again, if they do not see the importance behind something that takes quite a bit of time, especially as a new …show more content…
In fact, the teacher leader stated that the team has a unified goal, “We have a common goal: across any type of data analysis is student achievement and increasing student achievement.” As this quote illustrates, the teacher leader supports teachers and motivates them to use data through a common goal: student achievement growth.
Theme Two: Clarifying the Path by Removing Obstacles
First, it was evident in the response of the teacher leader in this interview, that there is a need to remove barriers for classroom teachers. As stated by the teacher leader, “making sure they understand what data they are looking at and is it relevant data to support their bigger vision,” is a critical component to continue to motivate teachers’ use of data. Even more, this quote highlights that the teacher leader in this interview is essential to connecting teachers to the appropriate data and removing additional data analysis that could cause frustration in the learning process. As the teacher leader explained, allowing teachers to be frustrated with the data process; I think allowing them to
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Notably, this teacher leader seeks open feedback from the teachers, as explained by the teacher leader, “Additionally, allowing space to say, ok, this data is no longer relevant to you, ok let’s see what we can do to pull up different data.” As explained during this interview, this teacher leader encourages classroom teachers to vocalize when data they are using is no longer relevant. Through this open communication process, the teacher leader then provides the teachers guidance on what data can be substituted or used to continue to monitor student growth. Correspondingly, through open communication, this teacher leader provides support to teachers through the removal of obstacles and providing an alternate path to meet the larger
And while each of the six elements are important perhaps none is as important as the first, “Teacher leaders convey conviction about a better world.” (Crowther, 2008) Perhaps the single greatest ill to plague educators today is the deficit thinking that strips them of hope for their students’ and their schools’ success. “My pupils live in ‘this’ district, and go to ‘this’ school so their ceiling for academic growth lies here.” “Well of course they are academically unacceptable, have you seen our socio-economic status?” While these quotes may not be attributed to anyone individual the sentiment that drives them are pervasive in our education system today, and in particularly the district to which we find ourselves employed. Deficit thinking that places external caps on student production, and teacher ingenuity, is the greatest barrier to achieving success. Crowther ends his discussion of element one by saying, “we have been struck by the clarity of the values aspects of these teacher’s lives, and also by their sense of confidence regarding the power of schools and the teaching profession to shape lives.” (Crowther, 2008, p. 13) For Crowther, the first step in creating a successful school is recruiting or nurturing teacher leaders to unfalteringly share the same vision. That vision must be that all students can succeed,
According to Ravitch, what Klein and Rhee failed to recognize is that teachers improve with experience and that children do not lead static life’s. Children experience ups and downs that effect their abilities on any giving day. As teachers, we know many different things can affect a student’s academic abilities. Klein and Rhee felt that the best way to improve schools is to fire “bad” teachers and principals. However, what we are finding is that it impossible to improve schools with constant firing and hiring on new teachers, management, or using different curricula each
For the lead teacher interview assignment, I had the opportunity to sit down with and interview my son’s EC teacher from last year, Mrs. Hamm. Since my son started at the school last year, Mrs. Hamm has helped him in so many different ways. Mrs. Hamm has been teaching for over 20 years from her home state of Pennsylvania and more currently at Mount Energy Elementary School in Creedmoor, NC. Mrs. Hamm has been teaching at Mount Energy Elementary School in Creedmoor, NC for the last 12 years and recently awarded “Teacher of the Year”. Mrs. Hamm, up until this school year, was the main EC teacher for all grades Kindergarten through fifth grade at Mount Energy Elementary School. As of the present school year, the school district made the determination that she was over the acceptable number of students. As a result, they decided to hire an additional EC teacher and assistant to teach grades 3-5th and Mrs. Hamm would teach grades K-2. Mrs. Hamm was the teacher of 18 students until this decision was made, now with grades K-2, she has 9 students in her class.
Teacher knowledge has always been the basis to an effective learning experience. Without a knowledgeable teacher, students are not able to receive a quality educational experience. This pillar encompasses the influence teachers have on student learning and achievement, possession of research based knowledge, and effective teaching practices. I thrive to be educated and knowledgeable on the information presented to my students. By having a variety of teaching techniques that work and I use often in my classroom, I am able to mold my instruction around student needs and provide efficient and
My three year plan is called the Strive for Excellence plan. For the first two year I will be focusing on the decline of test scores for the last three years. By making all staff views all 2,800 students that were below average for all three years. Requiring mandatory training for all teachers and staff should be complete upon reviewing data. So they are able to identify their student’s specific strengths and weakness. The teacher will know where they need to concentrate their attention. (Sue W. Astley, 2016) School improvement is an evolving process that takes constant progress monitoring and constant input. A special computer-based program is needed in Rocky Road School District to pull up records of any student or classroom more efficiently. This will also assist with the monitoring progress over the two years. A committee of parents and staff will be created to better understand the data, come up with methods to increase scores and to maintain the...
Bringing up the topic of conducting a case study to my cooperating teacher was a surprising experience. I remember asking my teacher to recommend a “difficult” student that would provide an interesting interview. My teacher quickly responded, “Why do your professors always want a difficult student? Sometimes good students provide the most interesting interviews.” I thought about his response and the next day asked him if I could interview Antonio, a student who had intrigued me from the first day I entered Dunn Middle School. Antonio caught my attention because based on his appearance and demeanor in class, one would assume Antonio was a poor student who could not care less about what was being learned in the classroom. However, once a lesson began or a worksheet was distributed, Antonio transformed into a focused and enthralled student. During my lectures I had to avoid calling on him because he knew the answers right away and loved giving correct answers. I wanted to know how a student who was so quiet and indifferent during homeroom could become an ideal student when class began. Antonio might not be considered a “difficult” student, but he is definitely an interesting case and I learned a lot from him during the interview.
In this interview I conducted with my host teacher at Benton STEM Elementary, I talked about the various ways that she explores strategies inside her classroom for how students are provided access to mathematical learning experiences. My host teacher has been teaching elementary education for eleven years now and is currently teaching 2nd grade. Talking with her about the various methods that she uses in the classroom really informed me of how I want to teach as a future educator. When conducting the interview, we talked from the differentiation practices that she uses in her classroom when teaching mathematics. I will be connecting this interview to chapter 5 by Jo Boaler that I read on tracking in the mainstream classroom and how students mathematical abilities are affected by this.
In my interview I had the pleasure of conversing with an individual that was not only an adult learner but now also operates as an adjunct professor for adult learners at a university. Some might not realize the parallels of adult learners and yet still there are vast differences that impact both. It was refreshing to find an individual that was able to succeed as a professional, a student and most recently a professor at the same time. My goal is to introduce you my amazing interviewee and paint a vivid picture of his journey, his growth and through his challenges along the way. Surprisingly this interaction was able to take a lot of excuses and reasons of why a person would be to busy to go back to school.
I interviewed a teacher from the Philadelphia School District and here is the result from my interview. I am a teacher in the head start program of Philadelphia .I have been with the head start program for 10yrs. I see children younger than kindergarteners with special needs. I see this problem not only with education but behavioral. Children with special problems can learn. You have to know how to deal with children period. Regular children and special educational children all learn. Special educational children know exactly what they’re doing just as well as regular children.
Teacher Interview Interview Question Summary 1. How has the student composition in the special classroom changed over time? Though this is not something that I personally experienced, I am aware that more students with disabilities are being educated now than forty years ago. Education systems have worked to create a better environment for these students. This environment is as free from restrictions as possible and challenges the individual.
Everyone knows that when it comes to making a difference in a child’s academic and life achievements, their teachers play a large role. A teacher’s ability to relate to their students, and teach them to achieve both socially and academically contributes to how effective they are. What does it mean to be an effective teacher? Overall there seems to be an emphasis on teacher effectiveness related to how well their students are performing on standardized testing. As teachers we know there is more to being an effective teacher then just teaching our students based on tests. This paper will identify different definitions of an effective teacher along with how to assess teachers on being effective.
I chose to do my teacher interview in my home town at Richard D. Crosby Elementary School. This K-3rd grade building is very new, it was built in 2010. It has 4 pods, one for each grade level and has a large discovery center in each pod. The school is very colorful, with each pod a different color so the children find it easy to go from area to area. I did my interview with Mrs. Doe, a special education teacher. Her room has a lot of materials for learning and is set up to have several work stations for group activities. Mrs. Doe shares her students with other special education teachers and also has a special education classroom aide. My research question is how does a teacher’s perspective on learning reflect theories and concepts in educational psychology? Mrs. Doe is faced with many challenges in her classroom, overcrowding, multi-cultural differences, learning disabilities, several students with low socioeconomic status and English language learners. There are many challenges for Mrs. Doe to deal with, but she has been teaching for 21 years and has a lot of experience. She started out as a regular classroom teacher, but switched to special education and has done so well that when she asked if she could return to the regular classroom setting, the Superintendent begged her to stay in the special education department because of her success.
With the proper guidance and support, teachers can achieve academic excellence in the classroom. They follow their principal’s vision and share their goals. Teachers also serve as leaders in their classroom. They share their vision and goals with their students promoting positive attitudes in the classroom. Just like it is important for principals to respect and understand what their teachers need, students also need the support, understanding, respect and empathy from their teachers. When teachers demonstrate commitment in the classroom and set high expectations they raise the level of learning in the classroom. Teachers that work with the students and their parents to understand and meet their needs will achieve positive academic outcomes. Students engage in learning with positive attitudes and strive for high achievements. Teachers work together with their leaders to improve their teaching
We need to continuously assess and evaluate our students so we can set appropriate goals for each student and individual instructions. Each child learns different, so as a teacher we need to have different styles of teaching for positive reinforcement.
The most successful teaching begins with clarity about important learning outcomes and about the evidence that will show that learning has occurred (Marzano, 2010, p. 74)