Entry 3: Teacher Interview and Reflection Teacher: EV Grade: 4th Date: October 10th, 2013 Time: 3:10PM

Planning Questions: How do you write a typical lesson plan? EV: We do grade level planning as a team, with support staff each week at least once. We meet on Tuesday mornings with all the fourth grade teachers from 9:30-10:10 while the students are in specials. Each teacher is responsible for a subject and prepares outline note slides for the smart board, also sample practice opportunities (sample problems, questions, worksheets etc.), and assessments possibilities. Then each teacher uses with her individual class the way it works best for their needs. What types of materials do you need available when you plan lessons? EV: We use the new revised edition of Blooms Taxonomy to create our lesson plans. Also we use the common core. I have a flip chart with the common core and examples of specific objectives for each standard. We also use the common core ladder showing what they should have been prepared with from previous grade and what they will need to be ready for, for the next grade. In what ways do you plan to accommodate individual differences in the classroom? EV: At our school we have our classes divided into clusters based on ability to guide more direct and specific needs of the students. My class is the high-flyers, they have all tested above grade level on MAPS, and EOGS. There is an ESL cluster, Exceptional Children cluster, and two grade level clusters. When planning the teachers provide a range of options to meet the lowest ability and the highest, but the teachers have flexibility with the lesson planning to make adjustments to what their class needs. Even though I have all high flyers I still have a wide array of ability in my classroom, for example in reading I have several students that just barely tested above grade level at about 4.4/4.5 level, but then I have one student that tested off the scale above 12th grade reading level. So I still have to adjust for individual needs within the high ability class. I usually offer extra challenges or more difficult conferencing questioning for the students that are significantly higher to keep them engaged and thinking. Instructional Questions: What are some of your instructional challenges as a teacher? EV: Time! Time! Time! Trying to cover everything in the allotted time is always a challenge. There is a lot of material to prepare these students for life, testing, and not nearly enough time. However you cannot add time to the school day because they are already long days for the student and teachers. Also the restrictions they have placed on teachers and what and how they can teach is a challenge, it is much different than it was when I first started but adjusting to the changes makes it work out ok. What have been some of your instructional successes as a teacher? EV: I have learned to be very flexible. Things will hardly ever go exactly as you have planned and I have learned pace myself with my students understanding and make changes to the schedules to maximize our time. My students have continued to show growth and proficiency from year to year as well. It is always a successful feeling when you can see the difference you have made with the students.

What do you consider essential characteristics for successful teaching? EV: REFLECT! REFLECT EVERYDAY! Reflecting often, reflecting everyday overall, reflecting each lesson, each subject, really I cannot say it enough reflect anything and everything. I wish I had of taken the time from the beginning to reflect more often, and take notes about my reflections because it really will make you a better educator and more effective too. I have started really stressing the importance to my students about reflecting as well. I think it is a valuable trait for anyone to have. Also a successful teacher needs to build and maintain a good rapport with the students, firm but friendly, consistency is key. How often do your students receive social studies/science instruction? EV: We are on a three week rotation where we have science for three weeks, and social studies for three weeks and flip all year. There is not a lot of science content or instruction to cover in fourth grade curriculum. Are you satisfied with the amount of time that you currently allot for social studies/science instruction? Explain. EV: NO! Science and Social Studies are not considered heavies therefor they are often the first things to be condensed, shortened, or removed from the schedule. The emphasis has become so strong on Math and Reading that Science, and SS have really suffered. Integrating Science, and SS curriculum into reading texts, or math problems is a good way to get the information to the students, but it is not enough to really impact them like it could be with more instructional time. What social studies and science topics/units will be studied during the second week of my clinical experience? What are possible goals/objectives I could address for my lessons? Do you have any instructional resources that would support these goals/objectives? EV: We are finishing our SS unit next week, so as we discussed earlier you can teach your SS lesson on Thursday (10/17) before we move into science curriculum. The SS lesson will be on comparing the three regions of North Carolina, Physically, Culturally, and Economically. I will give you the teacher edition lesson planner that corresponds to their textbook today. Science will be on Static Electricity. I will give you the teacher planner for Science today as well. The science lesson needs to incorporate their chapter vocabulary in it in addition to the lesson. What does reading instruction look like in your classroom (e.g. readers workshop, basals, etc.)? What reading topics will be studied during the 2nd week of my clinical experience? What are possible goals/objectives I could address for my reading lesson? Do you have any instructional resources that would support these goals/objectives? EV: School and district wide we have adopted the Balanced Literacy Program. We still have basals but we do not use them as a whole class anymore, students can choose to read the texts from the basals independently if they want. We have more mini lessons than whole group lessons, and we do not have direct instruction lesson every day. We either start by having our lesson and then they will read independently with a task to complete on a Post-It note to be assessed, or we go directly into independent reading. They get a minimum of 35 solid minutes of independent reading every day. During

their independent reading the TD (Talented and Gifted) teacher and I do conferencing with students one on one. We ask them challenging and thought provoking questions during our conferences, also during conferencing we can work with students on their understanding and mastery of the concepts taught during the lessons. If the students are struggling we can provide them assistance and remediation during this time. Classroom Management Questions: What motivation tactics do you use to ensure a desire to learn? EV: Praise! Students always respond well with praise. I offer other rewards and incentives too, such as 5 or 10 minute dance party, 5 minute extra recess, We are having our multiplication celebration Thursday where the more multiplication facts the successfully completed the more toppings and scoops of ice cream they get to have. I give tickets to go into the treat box too. The treat box has a variety of inexpensive items for them to choose from, for every ticket they get one item of their choice. Motivation does not have to cost anything and shouldnt, keep it simple, free or very inexpensive. Be creative. Tell me about the classroom community. What are the class rules? How is student behavior monitored? In what ways is positive behavior reinforced? In what ways are negative behaviors prevented? Tell me about the consequences for negative behavior. EV: It takes consistency and time to establish the classroom community. On the first day we established expectations for an A+ teacher, A+ Classroom, and A+ Student. (She pointed to them hanging on the wall.) We made a chart for each one that lists what expectations we have to be the teacher, student, and class we want to have, incorporating the students into the building and maintaining of the classroom community makes it more relevant and in my experience more successful. So I do not call them rules we have expectations that we created together. If they are not meeting expectations then they will be addressed. The expectations are basic, respect, not talking while others are talking or the teacher is talking, completing assignments on time, responsible, trustworthy, fair, etc. I state the expectations for each assignment, lesson, and activity, anything every time and repeat them. I make sure that they always clearly know what expectations I have of them, and they need to have of each other. We talk about expectations at the beginning and during every lesson, for every subject, all day, every day, consistency and frequent reminders keeps them aware and on task. We have a clip-up, clipdown system; Purple/Outstanding, Green/Good Day, Orange/ Good Morning, Yellow/Think about it (requires completion of a behavior reflection sheet), Red/ Parent Contact (and completion of a behavior reflection sheet). Each day their color is recorded in their planner for their parents to see and sign. The students loose privileges for negative behaviors such as, tickets, group time, dance party, recess they have to walk laps instead of play, etc.

Reflection After completing the interview with the teacher I knew that I was going to be learning a great deal from her. I could tell with her confidence and presence during the interview that she has been teaching for several years (almost 12), and that she had figured out a lot along the way and was going to give great feedback and pointers to me. She was so good at explaining acronyms and teacher talk terms to me during the interview and the entire time I was at the school. She not only explained her planning style during the interview but she actually pulled out her planning books, and planning guides to show me how she plans. I was able to actually go through her plans for the weeks I was there and see exactly what was coming up when I would be teaching. She was organized and knew what she was doing. She also showed me her common core flip chart that she referred to as a life saver for this transition to the new common core curriculum. I found it very interesting that the school was clustered by ability to the extent that it was at this school, at first I was not sure how I would like it but I actually really liked the experience I had with the clustering. Though I can see where it still has flaws and disadvantages as well. My teacher explained her feelings during the interview. She has been both the EC and TD and general education teacher for fourth grade and she admits that it is easier to have the TD students which are what we had this year. There is a lot of additional paper work for the EC teacher than for the others. After talking with her and the EC teacher both about their feelings they both seem to think that a Special Education Licensed teacher for the EC cluster would be ideal, and for the same teachers to keep their ability cluster level year to year for better and easier planning. I completely agree. I found it much easier compared to previous experiences I have had to teach to a closer ability cluster. I felt that I was better able to reach the students direct ability and

challenge where they should be challenged and provide one on one additional instruction if needed too. Also took note on her emphasis on time management and instructional time. She stressed that you have to be very aware of time and become very good at time management. You have to teach, reading, writing, math, science, social studies, character (such as responsibility, fairness, accountability etc.), in 7 hours minus 30 minutes for lunch, 30 minutes mandated recess, and 3540minutes for specials. There is a lot of time taken away from instruction throughout the day, but it is not wasted time it is important too but just shows how little time you really have to complete everything you need to complete. As she mentioned in the interview that often SS and Science end up being reduced or eliminated from the curriculum. I personally feel as though this is a serious problem and that we should do better in that aspect. I feel like it is often a disservice to the students to not have the access or explicit instruction for those curriculums because so much pressure and weight is on mathematics and reading instruction. Integration is the key but I feel like explicit instruction and activities are still important too. I also took note during the interview that the school district was transitioning to the balanced literacy program that she uses for reading instruction. She mentioned the advantages of the program including the students are able to read more texts, more challenging or level appropriate texts, and texts relevant to them, they get choice and feel empowered by that. However I noticed that there is still a lot of learning and different understandings as to what exactly and how exactly material is covered. I noticed that they had a lot of questions and concerns about assessments and grades for reading since the shift to the new program. They are moving in the right direction but still have a lot of kinks to work out. The idea is grand to have

students more challenged and be able to have voice in their own education but there is definitely a lot of growing room for the program, as to be expected with a shift like this though. I took the most out of her pointers and conversation about classroom management. I think that working with her and getting her advice from the interview and the entire experience for classroom management was the most beneficial part of the whole experience that is something you cannot teach in a classroom. She made it very clear that her class had expectations and she held them accountable for them constantly. She explained how making them a part of creating the classroom community makes them fill empowered and more likely to follow through with the expectations. She also mentioned how at the beginning she was tough but made sure they knew where she stood; she said she made it clear to them that she was their teacher first and foremost not their friend. She is caring and nurturing to the students but she established that relationship from the beginning that has helped to create the classroom community. The students know that she means business and if they do what is expected of them that they will be rewarded and it will be good environment, but they know that if they do not do what is expected they will have consequences and loose privileges. I want to be able to establish that same classroom environment. I want them to respect me as a teacher, but feel comfortable approaching me at the appropriate times with concerns or comments. I also want to establish a system that is a consistent and effective as her system is. Her behavior even with some challenging students was effortless at this point in the school year because of the hard word and time she devoted to the classroom community at the beginning of the school year.