My Interview With A Veteran Teacher

For this interview I decided to speak to a teacher who I have found myself utilizing when I am in need of strategies to help students who are not mastering a concept, and to obtain ideas on engaging students in certain areas. She is a veteran teacher with thirty four-years of teaching experience and has been in our district for almost twenty years. I have found her to be knowledgeable in the areas of interventions in both reading and math. However I have also noticed her to be the most resistant to change, and one of the teachers during our staff collaborations who will express overly negative opinions to seemingly gather a team of equally minded teachers. As a result this year I found myself avoiding her, instead of using her as a valuable

To answer the second question, my interviewee’s experiences were very eclectic. This teacher is very passionate about the students. One of the biggest complaint is lack of support. This was one of the first examples of my mind wondering. For the most part, our school is very proud of the support they receive from our administrator, so in moment of forgetfulness of the rules of the interview, I interrupted and asked her to explain. Her explanation focused more on new programs that the district expected to be implemented, such as PBIS and AVID. This conversation then turned to the issue of behavior, and immediately the conversation focused on the type of students we are now getting in our classroom. On account of me being only in my second year at this district, I felt this was an appropriate time to ask for more explanation of how these students are different from students in the past. I have heard of negative opinions being expressed due to the different generations and variety in parenting styles, but her body language told me that this might be different. She seemed almost embarrassed, and the conversation took on a positive feeling. She started to talk about how sweet and cute all the students are,how it’s not their fault,

To be honest, I did feel empathy during parts of our conversation. It is true most districts continue to implement new programs, just to change them, or create new ones the next year. I also can also admit that it must be hard to teach one way for so long, and then find yourself at the end of your teaching career finding the strategies that you have been using for so long, not to be enough. I could lend myself to sympathize with the mindset that the students coming from other areas were not going to behave or would not be able to learn the same