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Teacher Interview A. http://education.ohio.gov/Topics/Learning-in-Ohio

1. The teacher I decided to interview believes their classroom goes beyond the state standards as they teach upon child level not state standards. She believes the standards may be too generalized. Due to this she doesn’t see them as being extremely beneficial as her school teaches for each student independently majority of the time versus as a whole class learning the same thing. A big internal feature she mentioned that impacts the way they teach is a mindset of each child learns and develops at their own pace. She also mentions some external features that are critical in the learning process for example a student learns daily task at school, they must go home and perform these as well daily even on the weekends to create a routine. She believes a routine is a big part of learning. Due to state standards they assess each child in the classroom daily and document it in an organized way and the kindergarteners have 3 sets of state testing each year to make sure they are hitting progress points. In my interview I learned that this teacher sees herself as patient, knowledgeable, organized, loving/kind, nurturing, compassionate, empathetic, creative, problem-solving, fun, passionate and many other things including the desire to keep learning and growing yourself as a teacher. This teacher believes all of these key aspects needed in a teacher align with Hattie’s Mindframes as they are key skill aspects everyone wanting to be a teacher will need to gain. This teacher continues to grow by observing in other classrooms as well as other schools. She attends webinars, training sessions and workshops. This school sets aside days in the school calendar year as “Professional Development Day” this is used as a day where the teachers are free to attend professional development opportunities. This school has also created books for study related to teacher talk, development topics, etc. Professional development is always an ongoing, ever- developing process. 2. I was a bit nervous before the interview. I have never really sat down and asked a teacher questions like I did this time. I believe this was very important as it taught me a lot about being a teacher. Right after I had started the interview my nerves were no longer there and I had calmed down which made me more comfortable asking the in depth questions. This made it a very enjoyable discussion. I believe the teacher enjoyed the interview as she was very encouraging to aspiring teachers. There was not a question she wouldn’t answer which also made me more comfortable as she was very open and honest during the deration of the interview. 3. This interview was a lot more than I had expected it to be, as we talk about every topic as in depth as we could get. I was able to learn about Hattie’s Mindframes in action while watching the classroom but also talking to the teacher. I believe this part of the interview went really well. I was able to get a small glimpse of how being a teacher isn’t just teaching; but is creating our future. This shocked me because I had never thought of it in that sense. One thing I thought teachers did a lot was talk, but when I actually stopped and watched the teacher is a well maintained balance between the teacher talking and the student listening vs. the student talking and the teacher listening. This is a key aspect in

teaching as the student learns from the teacher, but the teacher learns from the students. Based on my experience from this interview, I would change how nervous I was walking into the interview. This interview was a privilege and reflecting on that now I see how much I learned from this experience. 4. I disagree with this teacher’ belief of content standards in our state. I believe it is good to have a solid ground to base all students off of as this creates an ability for the teacher to notice if a student is falling behind early on. I believe her beliefs about internal and external influences on education are correct because you must be able to combine them to teach students in a classroom, not just as a whole but one-on one as well. Hattie’s Mindframes were very aligned with what this teacher believes and how she works in the classroom. Almost all of the qualities she listed off had something to do with Hattie’s Mindframes, as she uses them as a base in her classroom. I believe this is very practical in a classroom as it creates that balance of teacher to student learning. In my town there are many ways a teacher can continue to grow as this teacher pointed out, I believe this will also be beneficial in my future as I will know where to continue my education and to continue to challenge myself in the classroom. 5. I learned many things from this interview. I learned that many people have this idea of what a teacher is until they ask questions or watch a teacher in the classroom interacting with their students. This has changed my idea of what a teacher is because teachers don’t just teach. They build meaningful relationships with the students based on trust and understanding. Without trust and understanding in the classroom setting there would be no room for learning and growing for the teacher and students. This interview I believe will help me be a better teacher in the future as I am learning from someone who has been teaching a very long time, seeing what works and doesn’t work as well for her. If I were to do this interview again, I wouldn’t change a single thing. I thought it was very beneficial and actually allowed me to learn what a teacher really is besides just teaching. 6. One of Hattie’s Mindframes that supports teacher success the most is, “engaging in dialogue such as monologue.” This supports teacher success as the teacher learns from the student as well as the student learning from the teacher. This is important to show the teacher aspects of their teaching they might need to change besides state standard testing. Having a balance between talking and listening in the classroom is extremely important in my opinion. I also believe teachers must have good communication skills not just with students but also with parents and other teachers. Teachers can learn from each other and good communication sets a base for learning from others. One weakness of this Mindframe is the amount of feedback a teacher will receive, for example if a teacher has 15 student’ they now must be able to configure the feedback from all students and change their way of teaching based on all the students. This could be challenging for a teacher. A personal strength of having good communication in the classroom is the bond it creates between teacher and student. This allows the teacher to grow and evaluate their way of teacher based on each student personally. Even though this seems like a fantastic idea a personal weakness of Hattie’s Mindframe is that in creating a strong bond between teacher and student you lack a connection with the whole class as a whole. This could cause and issue when creating a lesson for the entire classroom not just in a one-on one

setting. One SMART goal that I have made for myself is to observe in a classroom once a week until graduation. I believe this will set me up for success as This creates experience in a classroom setting. This goal sets me up for my current long term goal which is to obtain a job in my current major field (Elementary Education) within 3 months of graduating with a Bachelors in Elementary Education. An online professional development experience that aligns with my smart goal is Teach.org, this site allows aspiring teachers to gain experience in real world classroom, for example teaching in a summer school class. This could be an excellent opportunity as it allows me to get the experience I want before finishing college.

Reference List

Hattie, John, and Klaus Zierer. “10 Mindframes for Visible Learning.” THINKING PATHWAYS, thinkingpathwayz.weebly.com/10-mindframes-visible-learning.html. “Gaining Experience.” TEACH.org, www.teach.org/becoming-teacher/gaining-experience. Current, Sarah. “Teacher Interview.” 6 Nov. 2020....