Teacher Interview

            For my classroom management interview, I decided to interview Ms. Patty Williams, a teacher I had the privilege to work with during my junior year for one of my placements. She was very welcoming to me as a student in her classroom and welcomed me into the daily life of the class, allowing me to help in small group discussions and even lead a class. Ms. Williams had a unique trip to her current teaching location, having been an elementary school teacher for many years before transferring into a new position in a seventh and eighth grade teaching position at Prairie Junior High in Alsip, Illinois. That, in addition with her masters being in administration, gave me another reason to work with her for this interview.

            When reading through chapter 7 of our book, Woolfolk discusses the importance of understanding the “why” behind a student’s behavior. (284) Rather than assuming why a student is behaving a certain way, Woolfolk encourages educators to focus on understanding the possibilities as to why the student may act a certain way in respect to their background situation. This mindset is one that is definitely shared by Ms. Williams and is exhibited in how she conducts herself in and out of the classroom. She shared with me in the interview how she always tries to know what her students have going on in their lives outside of school. She shared that she does this to develop a sense of respect and understanding between her and the students so that she can understand the “why” behind their actions. I think that this is an essential piece of being a teacher, that understanding a student’s background and current situation can lend clarity on that student’s behavior. This is something that I want to be sure to use in my future classrooms. I want to make sure that I make an effort to know what my students live through outside of school so that I can best encourage them at school.

            Another technique that Ms. Williams shared with me that Woolfolk discussed was that of Positive Behavior Supports or PBS. (285) She shared that the entire school system for elementary school has the same PBS system, with “clip up and clip down” charts where students are involved in the management of their behavior. She shared that the middle school also has a type of the PBS system, but that it is not as well defined or universal as the elementary grades.

            Woolfolk also encourages teachers to have authentic tasks in their classroom. (522) She states that teachers can encourage student engagement through connecting lessons to other areas of students’ lives or interests. Ms. Williams tries to embody this type of teaching marvelously, sharing that she tries to connect lessons to sports or other activities that the students are involved in. This connects back to trying to know students’ lives outside of school and to then try to engage them through connecting lessons to what they have going on in their lives. I think that this is a very effective way to teach and add engagement to instruction. When considering what may be effective for my future high school classrooms, I believe that this is even more important to work on. High school students are often very busy in many areas of their lives, in addition to the fact that many of them can easily become distracted or disinterested in school as they progress throughout the years. Engaging the lesson with their personal lives is an effective way to lessen the disinterest that may grow in them, in addition to continuing to build those real relationships with them as individuals.

            One final insight from Woolfolk that I worked into my interview was the idea of working with difficult students within a class setting. Woolfolk’s term for not being distracted or absorbed by a single student acting out in class, while still being able to continue instruction effectively, is “withitness”. (523) Woolfolk states that this mindset is essential to being able to both deal with students who are acting out, keep effectively teaching the rest of the class, and making sure that the issue is dealt with effectively. When I was interviewing Ms. Williams, one technique that she used jumped out to me as a comparison with Woolfolk’s idea of “withitness”. Ms. Williams uses signals or gestures with certain students to alert them to their behavior while not disrupting the flow of the class. Her intention with these subtle actions is to make sure the student knows that they are acting out of line while also guarding their dignity in front of their classmates, which is something that is very dicey in middle school. When considering this type of technique in high school, I think that it is still important, but changes shape. There may not be many actions or signals that I will be able to effectively use with high school students, but learning to deal with the student in question outside of the flow of a lesson is essential. I need to be able to overlook a couple of students that may be acting out for the learning of the rest of the class. I need to be wary that I do not become absorbed with the issue and in dealing with it lose the rest of the class as well. There needs to be a balance between addressing issues during class and continuing to teach through them if they do not disrupt the rest of the class’ learning too much. 

To view the full interview, click this link: https://youtu.be/RtsLHsbjIFA