The Classroom Teacher Interview

The Classroom Teacher Interview: The purpose of this interview is to gain practical knowledge and insight from a professional in the field of education. Upon submission of the interview, ensure you include and submit contact information about the person you interviewed, his/her responses, (11 points) and your reflection of the experience (200-350 words for the reflection- 5 points).
Name of Teacher: _____________________Campus: ________________________________ City and State: ____________________ Date of interview: _____________________________ Phone/email: ________________________ 1. What do you believe are the essential features of effective teaching?
• Effective teaching entails a supportive environment that can enable the learners to attain their objectives easily.
• Similarly, effective teaching can be indicated by entire participation by the learners in the learning processes through asking and answering the class question.
• Discussions in the classwork are also indicators of effective teachings.
• Constructivism among the students will show their active participation in the learning process hence a sign of effective learning.
• The use of effective teaching models can help the learners to understand the topic well.
• Effective questioning also simplifies a teaching feature that is directed towards the achievement of the learning objectives set by the teacher
2. What do you believe is the greatest predictor of student achievement?
I believe that resilience and adaptability are the greatest predictors of student achievement.

Other predictive indicators such as setting goals, decision making, and connection to others base their foundation on resilience and adaptability. The two factors adaptability and resilience helps the learner to cope up with the challenges and setbacks that will follow them throughout their lives. When the student possesses these two aspects, they are likely to succeed easily since they overcome challenges through adaptation and perseverance of the situations that came by while they are in school and even after school. I am convinced that a student who shows resilience and adaptability will go far since challenges will not be a big deal in their entire life.
a. How does your role in education support that?
As a teacher, I try my level best to ensure that the learners adopt flexibility on their way of approaching scenarios. I advise students to be open for the new things and environment so that they can go the right direction. I foster these two subjects by creating experiments and the finding to point out if the learners can identify their course of action depending on the situation.
3. What are your strongest strategies utilized in the classroom to ensure students are learning?
• Group work is one of the methods that I employ to see to it that almost every student takes part in the learning process. The learners are also able to exchange ideas and gain new knowledge
• Frequent testing and evaluation of the results help me to understand the way the learners are progressing in their learning process.
• I also create conducive and supportive learning environment through the mutual participation of the learners so that they can familiarize and develop new modes of learning that are more productive for them as far as acquisition of knowledge is concerned,
a. What do you do when those strategies do not work for certain students
• I introduce an initiative of helping the particular students who are not doing well with the strategy by assigning some special groups to help them get to par with the others.
• I also try to work closely with the specified students to understand their problems in understanding the lessons.
• Besides, I always check at the learning process and how the students cope-up with my teaching modes. If they are not working efficiently, I mix the models to take care of every student.
4. Do you think theories of learning and developments are important in the classroom? a. Can you explain why?
Yes, I am certain that the theories are very helpful as they act as guiding tools for both the learners and the teachers in setting up the right procedures to succeed. The teacher can understand the behavior of a child basing on the development theory hence coming up with the appropriate teaching modes that will fit such students. Similarly, the development theories enable teachers to have tolerance on some of the ways students behave while in the learning institutions. The cognitive, behavioral and the environmental influences on the learning process can be well understood through the learning theories. Therefore, the learning theories set up the foundation and act as the reference point on the way teachers and learners accomplish the learning process. Behavioral theories such as classical conditioning can be employed by the teacher in evaluating the reason and the probable solution to a fixed behavior that a student may possess.
5. How do cultural diversities affect the classroom?
Cultural diversity can impact both negatively and positively on the learning process. When there is diversity among the learners, tolerance and understanding among each other prove to be futile especially if there are a major culture and many other small culture groups. The major group will try to force the others to buy into their culture hence causing conflict. For instance, religious differences may be a dangerous aspect of culture if interfered with, can make the learning process to be impossible. Language parity due to the varied culture can also be a setback to the learning process since communication may be a problem to some of the learners who are from other regions that do not use the common languages like English. However, the cultural diversity can also make a class to be a complete environment for learning. The students develop tolerance, and cultural differences are put aside as they pursue the common goal which is learning. The result of such a class becomes a society that is very tolerance and recognizes the cultural diversity that exists in the world.
a. What do you do in the classroom or as a campus to ensure cultural diversities are addressed?
• I borrow examples from the different cultures while explaining a point in class to take care of the varied cultures that are represented in the classrooms.
• We also undertake guiding and counseling sessions through the families we create among the learners each family comprising of students from different cultures under one teacher to embrace brotherhood.
• We also emphasize on the use of official language whenever at school to avoid biases and cultural conflicts that can come up as a result of language differences.
6. Do cultural differences affect your teaching approaches?
Yes, I am obliged to ensure that I cover my lessons in a professional manner so that cultural differences do not pop up from my methods of teaching. I am always challenged to understand most of my students basing on their cultures so that I can help them to understand my lessons well.
My reflection/impressions from the interview
I was able to point out key features of essential teaching and how the differences in the students can influence how the teacher employs the teaching techniques to fit the whole class. Teaching in a class with students from diverse culture is one of the greatest challenges that a teacher can face while instructing. I also noted that the teacher plays a great role in helping the learners to succeed in their studies by using the appropriate strategies that benefit most of the students. Teachers face different challenges while teaching, but though the development and the learning theories, they can navigate through the challenges with ease. I have come to realize that there are four major predictors of successful students with adaptability and resilience being the greatest of all. Students who are flexible can fit in changing environments hence being able to strive for success in whichever environment. Learners require the support of their teachers to know if they are going in the right direction or not so that they can remain focused on their studies while at school. From the interview, I can point out that the learning process is full of challenges that require the cooperation of both teachers and the students so that a favorable learning environment can be created to enable the learning process to succeed.