Teacher Candidate Interview Script

Hi I'm Rosaria Micks and I'm a teacher candidate at Medaille College.

As a little girl I loved being around children, working with children, and teaching children. I would often
involve myself in imaginary play that involved my stuffed animals and Barbies being my students and I
was the teacher.

Growing up these passions do not change it only intensified.

In grade 12 I was given the opportunity to complete my co-op hours in an elementary school classroom
and that solidified my wants and my passion for teaching.

In post-secondary education I completed my diploma in Early Childhood Education and my degree in

Through these programs I gained way more hands-on experience with working with children of all
different ages in all different environments.

Not only do I have a passion for teaching, but I have a passion in changing and molding the young minds
of the students that I work with.

It is important that I employ differentiated learning to reach all students in the classroom and to build
my objectives for my lessons based on curriculum standards.

We have taken many courses at Medaille that would help solidify the best teaching practices within the
classroom.

We have learned about culturally responsive teaching, as well as technology within the classroom.

I think that we have a great understanding of how to have classroom management skills and how to
employ them within our classroom to make sure that our students have the best environment, safe
environment to learn in.

Right now is a crazy time in terms of what is going on in the world and the way we received our
education through covid-19 allows us the opportunity to see how teachers can engage students in an
online platform and an online classroom.

With that experience alone I feel that I am well-prepared and entering the school board and the
education system today as I too have been a student on the online platform.

Moving forward in the education system we don't know exactly what that looks like. Will it be in
classroom? Will it be online? or will it be a mixture of both.

With that alone I can say that I have been well-prepared and well taught through many courses through
Medaille as well as being student on the online platform to enter and be able to engage my students
with cool and interactive websites as well as a properly organized Google classroom and extending that
to a classroom website.

These are all skills and things that I have been taught through my teacher's college courses which
prepare me to be the best possible teacher for my future students.
Currently working within the school board as a EA, Behavioral teaching assistant I've been able to
employ a lot of the lessons and skills I've learned in Teachers College into the classroom and into the
online classroom as well.

Using things like symbaloo, padlet, and quizzes I was able to engage my students with fun and
interactive activities in the online platform as well as incorporate them it was in the class, navigating
through their curriculum and making it accessible in a totally different way then what is being taught in
the classroom.

Differentiated learning is super important within the classroom and it is essential to reach all children.

So providing different activities for the students to learn the same curriculum is essential for the success
and overall success of the classroom and student.

Within this Weebly Website I have been able to utilize many of the different skills that I've learned
throughout Teacher's College not only in the technology course but in other courses as well.

Is important that we address that through our course in classroom management we employ rules not
only for in the classroom but for Online safety as well as rules for the online platform classroom.

Moving forward we have learned technology in terms of creating the actual website itself but using
padlet, quizzes, symbaloo are all different forms of technology in order to engage students allow them
to reach links to websites that are beneficial to their learning, and also enjoy Virtual Field trips.

In our course in culturally responsive teaching we have learned not only how to be culturally responsive
but culturally responsive in our teaching, in our classroom setting, and in the conversations we are
having.

Those difficult conversations with in the classroom allows to open the minds of our students and start
accepting views or thoughts that they may not have been aware of beforehand.

With that being said, making sure that each student feels represented not only in the classroom setting
but in the online platform as well as through an online website or a classroom website is important to
allow a student to grow and learn in the safe, respected, and accepted atmosphere.

One of the main goals for myself as a teacher is the safety of my students, and I'm not only talking about
the safety from violence or the safety from bullying or what is going on in the world around them, yes
these things are super important, and they're are things that I can address within the classroom, or be
an advocate for each student with in my classroom to make sure that these things don't happen but I'm
talking about the safety of them being able to be unapologetically themselves, to ask questions, to have
difficult conversations, to teach them and open their mind to the world around them through the
curriculum standards that I should be employing as a teacher.

Allowing a child to feel that they are in a safe environment to ask questions, to dig deep, to know that
we are all learning together is one of those things that I really hope that as a teacher I am able to instill
in my students.

Let them know that making mistakes is how we learn and to never be afraid of making mistakes.

I want my students to see me as a learning partner.

I feel that this is something that motivates children and engages children in lessons.

Speaking of lessons, we have been able to create so many different lesson plans.

More specifically in specific targeted areas like science, math, and guided reading.

We've also been able to create a culturally responsive learning activity.

And in the Weebly Website itself I have embedded an art lesson which is a flipping of the classroom
where students learn online and then bring it into the classroom.

Unfortunately, we haven't been able to employ these lesson plans into the classroom but we have
learned a great deal of spreading the lesson over many different curriculum areas, as well as address
Common Core Learning Standards, and add technology in the mix.

Throughout our courses we've been able to see many different lessons plans.

Some based on one subject area and some based on many different subject areas.

All backed up by Common Core Learning Standards for the subjects that are present.

I believe it is important for teachers to create lessons that touch up on many different subject areas
based on one specific topic.

The reason for this is because the student themselves are not focusing on the smaller learning areas
rather the bigger picture.

Therefore, feeling more comfortable and confident to have conversations, to make mistakes, to apply
their knowledge, to every different area and allow us to observe and assess them based on that
comfortability.

For example, If I was to create a lesson based on social studies, which we are learning about the country
of Brazil, I could then make sure that we touch upon curriculum areas of math, reading, writing, and art,
all based on that one single unit.

Allowing students to express themselves and their knowledge in many different subject areas or
curriculum areas and be able to gain observations and assessments based on that understanding is
critical in understanding the knowledge that the child has and the overall understanding the child has.

Differentiated learning applies and happens because students are able to express their knowledge and
their understanding in many different ways.

Whether that be through the readings that they're doing, the writings that they're creating, the
drawings that they're doing, or just general conversations that are happening between students while
these lessons are taking place or while they're exploring different curriculum areas without even
knowing it, is where we understand the true understanding of the student.

Being inviting of Technology into the classroom and into your learning experiences is great way to make
sure that students stay engaged as well as learn how to use technology to their benefit.
Moving forward technology is taking over and everything is based on technology.

Although I do agree that sometimes students need to learn the basics of education through hands-on
learning I do believe that technology can help aid education and create learning opportunities for
students that do need more visual stimulating lessons.

Being understanding of this, accepting of this, and also knowledgeable of the technology that we are
bringing to the classroom allows us to keep children engaged and motivated as well as make them
successful active members of society moving forward.

Making sure that they stay informed and that they are educated on the technology and what technology
has to offer allows them to be able to branch off into any which way they want in any profession they
may want in the future being knowledgeable in the core of what technology has to offer.

After all that being said, I do believe that I am fully ready to enter the classroom as a teacher.

I do believe that teaching is a passion that comes from the heart and it is something that I have had a
passion for it for a very, very long time.

I am proud to say that I know exactly how I want to be seen as a teacher and what I have to offer the
students that I work with.

Through both my work experience and school experiences, as well as Teachers College I feel that I am
both equally prepared in teaching but in being a great colleague to many other teachers.

I think not only is it important to be able to teach our students but be able to be a great team player
when it comes to working with others.

We can’t employ the same things within our classroom that we are unable to do ourselves and with that
being said, that's my interview video I hope you enjoyed it and got to know a little bit about me and
what I feel I am ready to be within in the classroom.