TEACHER INTERVIEW
TRANSCRIPT
Interviewer: Adam Jahanghiri (Student/Son)
Interviewee: Mrs. J. (Mother)
Interview Setting: Dining room table at home.
(Start of Interview)
Interviewer: Hello Mrs. J, is it ok if I can record this interview and post it on YouTube, which is a social network platform?
Interviewee: Yes Adam. You can record the interview, but I don't want you to video tape me, and you can post it.
Interviewer: Ok, sounds good. How is your comfort level?
Interviewee: I'm feeling ok, thank you.
Interviewer: Alright, let's start off, what inspired you to become a teacher?
Interviewee: I always like to help people, and being a teacher is what you do everyday. You are just with people. I am a people person, I like to talk to people, I like to give them directions, I like to answer questions, and I had that opportunity since growing up, because I was the older one out of two kids, that my Mom had. I was helping my sister through my whole life even now.
Interviewer: Tell me about your path to becoming a mathematics teacher?
Interviewee: Mathematics was always my passion. It came easy to me. I enjoy numbers, and working with people. My best marks were in mathematics and science. In primary school I was placed in a special block class for kids with mathematical abilities higher then average, then when I went to high school, I chose the path of a specialized high school with mathematics and physics as major subjects, which led me to university in Gdansk Poland where I graduated after five years with masters degree in mathematics and minor in physics. In 1989 there was a civil war in Poland, so I immigrated to Greece, and after one year I was accepted to come to Canada where I arrived in 1990. A year later I was a student at University of western Ontario, fourth year student since I was granted three years, so I could jump to the fourth, and I studied mathematics as my major and later on after two years with my masters degree in mathematics I was accepted to teachers college and I graduated a year later and became a high school teacher, major mathematics and science and I still work until today.
Interviewer: Can you think of any moments that brought you joy during your math career? Maybe with the students, or with the parents or.....
Interviewee: I enjoy working in a classroom environment, I enjoy looking at the students who are happy when they achieve success. I enjoy talking to parents, talking to colleagues. I'm a people person so any conversation is making me happy. When the students solve difficult problems and they jump from joy and shout, that was the moment of joy for me as well because that shows that I did my job.
Interviewer: Ah, ok so seeing successful students that you've taught.....
Interviewee: Yes, seeing success makes me happy as well.
Interviewer: Perfect. How do you connect with your students? What teaching strategies do you use?
Interviewee: I use different teaching strategies to connect with my students, and to teach them better. One of them is descriptive feedback where I explain what students did wrong. I write notes on their tests, and show them the correct path. The other one is reciprocal teaching where students are in charge. They work in groups to discover the problem and place the main idea on a bulletin board their answers and then we discuss and talk about it so they become teachers and then we correct other mistakes together. I also use, it's called 'Space and Math' practice, where you give different opportunities for the students and you repeat the same topic, but with a different face more then three times. Questioning, many different questioning strategies, when the questions could be long or short, or encouraged students ask questions. I reward students with stickers. I award students with extra computer time, they can play mathematical games like Prodigy. I also provide direct instruction like regular old fashioned teaching when I explain a concept on the blackboard and students copy it down and ask questions, and the have time to practice. I provide students with concrete examples, how they can use the knowledge in the real world, and that will be in group work and collaborative learning. I place students in groups of four or two where they have a opportunity to discuss the concept amongst each other and then present it to the whole class. We use different tools like iPads, computers in the classroom, calculators. We have blocks, we have tools, manipulatives for algebra so students can use it all the time.
Interviewer: Perfect, wow, so you have all these tools and objects for your students to learn from, so it's not just straight form the textbook
Interviewee: No. We use the textbook for homework because that's what they can take home, but in the classroom we use manipulatives and like I said electronic devices as well.
Interviewer: Ok, so it is more like a hands on environment in the classroom.
Interviewee: Yes, yes it is hands on. We have work stations, four corners. We use the white board and markers for students who draw pictures. So they can prepare solutions using numbers, using words, using white boards, using pictures, using blackboard with coloured chalk, different coloured markers. We have special computer programs for students who are not able to read the question. The program is called 'Kurzweil' and it is reading a question to the student. So that is how we use the computer. We use iPads to play different games with questions and answers, the internet, so I believe we have a variety of sources.
Interviewer: Now with the computers. Do you have a computer for every single student, or do the students have to share a computer?
Interviewee: It depends on the classroom because I travel from one room to another, so for one of my periods I do have a computer for each student, but for the other two classes which the number is huge and the classes don't have any computers, so incase if I want to use it, I need to switch the classroom with the colleague and we have a computer lab where you have to book ahead of time but we also have iPads that we can take everyday and we have graphing calculators that we can use, so that helps a lot.
Interviewer: Was there a time where you felt frustrated as an educator? How do you overcome these frustrations?
Interviewee: I believe every professional gets frustrated at one point and sometimes I get very challenging classes, special educated classes with students who are on medication and the frustration is when I try to reach a student and I do not get a response that I expect and it could be a problem with the medication or not taking the medication on time, or forgetting the medication. In that I case I will call the parent and find out why the student is not successful in spite of different strategies I am using, and many times that solves the problem, and it helps when you have a contact with the parents in high school.
Interviewer: Now, are you a teacher that provides extra help for your students?
Interviewee: Yes I provide extra help during my lunch and prep time. As well as after school by appointment. My door is always open during the day. Students can visit me anytime with one or more questions. Could be one or a group of students, I am always available to provide extra help.
Interviewer: Do you like the way the high school curriculum is set up?
Interviewee: My job is to implement curriculum. I have no choice of liking it, or not liking it, and I am doing my best to implement it in the classroom the best I can for students to understand, so sometimes when you are working in groups you can combine the chapters because the word problems could be more complicated and that way it gives students more time to practice, more then one chapter at a time, and by repeating the material students have better memory of it so they can recall it easier when they got to the next level. I always cover everything in the curriculum, just it could be combined. In one word problem you can cover three units for example, so yea.
Interviewer: Perfect, now is there anything you would change in your life right now, or are you happy right now being a mathematics high school teacher?
Interviewee: I think I am happy right now with my career, I enjoy what I do, I like the high school life, I enjoy the high school students. Teenagers are interesting because they are changing from grades nine to twelve and I can witness the change. You know, you see the student in grade nine, and then after a few years they could be a completely different person. I enjoy teaching them, I enjoy talking to them, I enjoy working with them, so I don't think I'll change anything. I like my job, and I think I found myself, and I will continue until retirement.
Interviewer: Being a mathematics teacher, presenting your ideas can be kind of challenging I'm assuming, especially to many students. How do you present your lessons, tests, quizzes towards your students?
Interviewee: Ok, I think that the best, if you want to make your students be successful, I want to make my students to be successful because this is my job, this is my goal, and if the students are successful then I am successful. To help them to be successful I give them criteria of success, so you develop a rubric, and in the rubric you clarify your expectations so when the students read the rubric they know what they are supposed to do. Also I give them a sample of excellent work for them to look at and compare and measure up to it. I post students work up on the wall so they can always look at it. I build success criteria with the student so when they are going to do an assignment they know exactly what to expect and they know what I will be marking like for example "I expect you to write a formula, the numbers have to be rounded to one decimal place, please make sure you have a unit included in the solutions, please explain all the steps in your solutions and write the statement at the end. So once they know that those are my critical points and this is what I'm going to check for. It is easier for them to achieve the best results. So this way I help them to achieve their goal. During the lesson, when I have a lecture lesson and I am the one talking for most of the time I use the "traffic light" which means students have the choice of two colors. They can show me green or red. Green means they understood the concept, and they will raise the green paper, and the red paper will be used if they don't understand the concept. So that gives me an idea if I have to go back and explain it again. During the group work students present their solutions, so they are now teaching each other, reciprocal teaching, collaborative learning at the same. So at the end they have time to solve the problem and then present the problem. They work in groups on the problem. They discuss, they present the solution as a group, and then they choose someone in the group to present on behalf of the whole group. Now group members can help at the same time, so the student is not left alone in the middle of the classroom, and then we compare our solutions with the classroom, then we discuss if there is a need for a correction and we do it right there on the spot. I believe that feedback should be given to a student as soon as possible so that they have an opportunity to improve. Many times I use a quiz with no mark where I describe what I want them to work on, and this way they have a path and direction so when the real quiz comes along and it will be graded, students are well prepared and they are not afraid. The other thing is that I value mistakes in the classroom, I actually praise students for presenting mistakes, because mistakes is a curve to learn better and we should not be afraid of making a mistake, but we should learn how to correct them so we don't make the same mistake twice. So there should be time for the student to have an opportunity to correct their mistake.
Interviewer: I completely agree with you. Now, is there anything you would like to ask me?
Interviewee: In the future what would you like to do? What do you want your career to be in the future?
Interviewer: Well, I would like to become a teacher. My goal in the future is to become a secondary school teacher. I would like to teach mathematics and music. I have learned a lot from this interview, and enjoyed listening to your stories related to the teaching career. You inspire me and motivate me to work hard and achieve my goal. Thank you for your time.
Interviewee: Thank you, and al the best in your future Adam.
Interviewer: Thank you so much.
REFLECTION
Adam Jahanghiri
Doing this interview with my Mother Mrs. J was a great experience and I had lots of fun with it. She is my role model, because of the hard work, and dedication that she puts in her job. Coming to Canada all the way from Poland is very hard as a student, and learning a new language so that you can get a degree and graduate from university is even more challenging, but she did it. After interviewing her I got a lot of teaching ideas that I might use in the classroom with my future students. I love how her classroom is "hands on" because in most math classrooms, there is no such thing. Every student is sitting in a desk listening and copying down formulas that the teacher is writing on the board in front of them, with no understanding of what they are doing. The way my Mom gets her students lured into the math work is by games on iPads, and computers. This new technology is a perfect way to connect student and teacher in a classroom environment. The simple signals like her "traffic light" description of pulling out a green piece of paper if you understand what is going in class so far, and a red piece of paper if you are still having trouble with what is being written on the board. This helps the teacher, my Mom, see who is taking in the material and who is not quite there yet, so that now she can ask those with the red sheet of paper what they did not get, and at the end of the day all of her students know what to do for homework that night. I liked the rubric classification that she was talking about. As a student I love rubrics for assignments, or tests, because the feeling of knowing exactly what to study or do for a particular test or assignment is very satisfying in my opinion. When my mother Mrs. J mentioned "feedback should be given to the student as soon as possible", I completely agreed with her. In my opinion, as a student, it is very important to know where you are at after big assessments, so that you can improve, and do better on the next big test or assignment. If you do not know where you stand as a learner in the classroom, then you may be shocked by the results at the end, and then it is to late to go back and ask for improvement. To me that is very important, and as a future music educator I will make sure my students get feedback at the end of every week on how they are doing in the classroom. Overall this interview ment a lot to my mother and I, and I really appreciated the time I had with her learning many new classroom teaching techniques that I will use one day as a future music educator.
Interviewer: Adam Jahanghiri (Student/Son)
Interviewee: Mrs. J. (Mother)
Interview Setting: Dining room table at home.
(Start of Interview)
Interviewer: Hello Mrs. J, is it ok if I can record this interview and post it on YouTube, which is a social network platform?
Interviewee: Yes Adam. You can record the interview, but I don't want you to video tape me, and you can post it.
Interviewer: Ok, sounds good. How is your comfort level?
Interviewee: I'm feeling ok, thank you.
Interviewer: Alright, let's start off, what inspired you to become a teacher?
Interviewee: I always like to help people, and being a teacher is what you do everyday. You are just with people. I am a people person, I like to talk to people, I like to give them directions, I like to answer questions, and I had that opportunity since growing up, because I was the older one out of two kids, that my Mom had. I was helping my sister through my whole life even now.
Interviewer: Tell me about your path to becoming a mathematics teacher?
Interviewee: Mathematics was always my passion. It came easy to me. I enjoy numbers, and working with people. My best marks were in mathematics and science. In primary school I was placed in a special block class for kids with mathematical abilities higher then average, then when I went to high school, I chose the path of a specialized high school with mathematics and physics as major subjects, which led me to university in Gdansk Poland where I graduated after five years with masters degree in mathematics and minor in physics. In 1989 there was a civil war in Poland, so I immigrated to Greece, and after one year I was accepted to come to Canada where I arrived in 1990. A year later I was a student at University of western Ontario, fourth year student since I was granted three years, so I could jump to the fourth, and I studied mathematics as my major and later on after two years with my masters degree in mathematics I was accepted to teachers college and I graduated a year later and became a high school teacher, major mathematics and science and I still work until today.
Interviewer: Can you think of any moments that brought you joy during your math career? Maybe with the students, or with the parents or.....
Interviewee: I enjoy working in a classroom environment, I enjoy looking at the students who are happy when they achieve success. I enjoy talking to parents, talking to colleagues. I'm a people person so any conversation is making me happy. When the students solve difficult problems and they jump from joy and shout, that was the moment of joy for me as well because that shows that I did my job.
Interviewer: Ah, ok so seeing successful students that you've taught.....
Interviewee: Yes, seeing success makes me happy as well.
Interviewer: Perfect. How do you connect with your students? What teaching strategies do you use?
Interviewee: I use different teaching strategies to connect with my students, and to teach them better. One of them is descriptive feedback where I explain what students did wrong. I write notes on their tests, and show them the correct path. The other one is reciprocal teaching where students are in charge. They work in groups to discover the problem and place the main idea on a bulletin board their answers and then we discuss and talk about it so they become teachers and then we correct other mistakes together. I also use, it's called 'Space and Math' practice, where you give different opportunities for the students and you repeat the same topic, but with a different face more then three times. Questioning, many different questioning strategies, when the questions could be long or short, or encouraged students ask questions. I reward students with stickers. I award students with extra computer time, they can play mathematical games like Prodigy. I also provide direct instruction like regular old fashioned teaching when I explain a concept on the blackboard and students copy it down and ask questions, and the have time to practice. I provide students with concrete examples, how they can use the knowledge in the real world, and that will be in group work and collaborative learning. I place students in groups of four or two where they have a opportunity to discuss the concept amongst each other and then present it to the whole class. We use different tools like iPads, computers in the classroom, calculators. We have blocks, we have tools, manipulatives for algebra so students can use it all the time.
Interviewer: Perfect, wow, so you have all these tools and objects for your students to learn from, so it's not just straight form the textbook
Interviewee: No. We use the textbook for homework because that's what they can take home, but in the classroom we use manipulatives and like I said electronic devices as well.
Interviewer: Ok, so it is more like a hands on environment in the classroom.
Interviewee: Yes, yes it is hands on. We have work stations, four corners. We use the white board and markers for students who draw pictures. So they can prepare solutions using numbers, using words, using white boards, using pictures, using blackboard with coloured chalk, different coloured markers. We have special computer programs for students who are not able to read the question. The program is called 'Kurzweil' and it is reading a question to the student. So that is how we use the computer. We use iPads to play different games with questions and answers, the internet, so I believe we have a variety of sources.
Interviewer: Now with the computers. Do you have a computer for every single student, or do the students have to share a computer?
Interviewee: It depends on the classroom because I travel from one room to another, so for one of my periods I do have a computer for each student, but for the other two classes which the number is huge and the classes don't have any computers, so incase if I want to use it, I need to switch the classroom with the colleague and we have a computer lab where you have to book ahead of time but we also have iPads that we can take everyday and we have graphing calculators that we can use, so that helps a lot.
Interviewer: Was there a time where you felt frustrated as an educator? How do you overcome these frustrations?
Interviewee: I believe every professional gets frustrated at one point and sometimes I get very challenging classes, special educated classes with students who are on medication and the frustration is when I try to reach a student and I do not get a response that I expect and it could be a problem with the medication or not taking the medication on time, or forgetting the medication. In that I case I will call the parent and find out why the student is not successful in spite of different strategies I am using, and many times that solves the problem, and it helps when you have a contact with the parents in high school.
Interviewer: Now, are you a teacher that provides extra help for your students?
Interviewee: Yes I provide extra help during my lunch and prep time. As well as after school by appointment. My door is always open during the day. Students can visit me anytime with one or more questions. Could be one or a group of students, I am always available to provide extra help.
Interviewer: Do you like the way the high school curriculum is set up?
Interviewee: My job is to implement curriculum. I have no choice of liking it, or not liking it, and I am doing my best to implement it in the classroom the best I can for students to understand, so sometimes when you are working in groups you can combine the chapters because the word problems could be more complicated and that way it gives students more time to practice, more then one chapter at a time, and by repeating the material students have better memory of it so they can recall it easier when they got to the next level. I always cover everything in the curriculum, just it could be combined. In one word problem you can cover three units for example, so yea.
Interviewer: Perfect, now is there anything you would change in your life right now, or are you happy right now being a mathematics high school teacher?
Interviewee: I think I am happy right now with my career, I enjoy what I do, I like the high school life, I enjoy the high school students. Teenagers are interesting because they are changing from grades nine to twelve and I can witness the change. You know, you see the student in grade nine, and then after a few years they could be a completely different person. I enjoy teaching them, I enjoy talking to them, I enjoy working with them, so I don't think I'll change anything. I like my job, and I think I found myself, and I will continue until retirement.
Interviewer: Being a mathematics teacher, presenting your ideas can be kind of challenging I'm assuming, especially to many students. How do you present your lessons, tests, quizzes towards your students?
Interviewee: Ok, I think that the best, if you want to make your students be successful, I want to make my students to be successful because this is my job, this is my goal, and if the students are successful then I am successful. To help them to be successful I give them criteria of success, so you develop a rubric, and in the rubric you clarify your expectations so when the students read the rubric they know what they are supposed to do. Also I give them a sample of excellent work for them to look at and compare and measure up to it. I post students work up on the wall so they can always look at it. I build success criteria with the student so when they are going to do an assignment they know exactly what to expect and they know what I will be marking like for example "I expect you to write a formula, the numbers have to be rounded to one decimal place, please make sure you have a unit included in the solutions, please explain all the steps in your solutions and write the statement at the end. So once they know that those are my critical points and this is what I'm going to check for. It is easier for them to achieve the best results. So this way I help them to achieve their goal. During the lesson, when I have a lecture lesson and I am the one talking for most of the time I use the "traffic light" which means students have the choice of two colors. They can show me green or red. Green means they understood the concept, and they will raise the green paper, and the red paper will be used if they don't understand the concept. So that gives me an idea if I have to go back and explain it again. During the group work students present their solutions, so they are now teaching each other, reciprocal teaching, collaborative learning at the same. So at the end they have time to solve the problem and then present the problem. They work in groups on the problem. They discuss, they present the solution as a group, and then they choose someone in the group to present on behalf of the whole group. Now group members can help at the same time, so the student is not left alone in the middle of the classroom, and then we compare our solutions with the classroom, then we discuss if there is a need for a correction and we do it right there on the spot. I believe that feedback should be given to a student as soon as possible so that they have an opportunity to improve. Many times I use a quiz with no mark where I describe what I want them to work on, and this way they have a path and direction so when the real quiz comes along and it will be graded, students are well prepared and they are not afraid. The other thing is that I value mistakes in the classroom, I actually praise students for presenting mistakes, because mistakes is a curve to learn better and we should not be afraid of making a mistake, but we should learn how to correct them so we don't make the same mistake twice. So there should be time for the student to have an opportunity to correct their mistake.
Interviewer: I completely agree with you. Now, is there anything you would like to ask me?
Interviewee: In the future what would you like to do? What do you want your career to be in the future?
Interviewer: Well, I would like to become a teacher. My goal in the future is to become a secondary school teacher. I would like to teach mathematics and music. I have learned a lot from this interview, and enjoyed listening to your stories related to the teaching career. You inspire me and motivate me to work hard and achieve my goal. Thank you for your time.
Interviewee: Thank you, and al the best in your future Adam.
Interviewer: Thank you so much.
REFLECTION
Adam Jahanghiri
Doing this interview with my Mother Mrs. J was a great experience and I had lots of fun with it. She is my role model, because of the hard work, and dedication that she puts in her job. Coming to Canada all the way from Poland is very hard as a student, and learning a new language so that you can get a degree and graduate from university is even more challenging, but she did it. After interviewing her I got a lot of teaching ideas that I might use in the classroom with my future students. I love how her classroom is "hands on" because in most math classrooms, there is no such thing. Every student is sitting in a desk listening and copying down formulas that the teacher is writing on the board in front of them, with no understanding of what they are doing. The way my Mom gets her students lured into the math work is by games on iPads, and computers. This new technology is a perfect way to connect student and teacher in a classroom environment. The simple signals like her "traffic light" description of pulling out a green piece of paper if you understand what is going in class so far, and a red piece of paper if you are still having trouble with what is being written on the board. This helps the teacher, my Mom, see who is taking in the material and who is not quite there yet, so that now she can ask those with the red sheet of paper what they did not get, and at the end of the day all of her students know what to do for homework that night. I liked the rubric classification that she was talking about. As a student I love rubrics for assignments, or tests, because the feeling of knowing exactly what to study or do for a particular test or assignment is very satisfying in my opinion. When my mother Mrs. J mentioned "feedback should be given to the student as soon as possible", I completely agreed with her. In my opinion, as a student, it is very important to know where you are at after big assessments, so that you can improve, and do better on the next big test or assignment. If you do not know where you stand as a learner in the classroom, then you may be shocked by the results at the end, and then it is to late to go back and ask for improvement. To me that is very important, and as a future music educator I will make sure my students get feedback at the end of every week on how they are doing in the classroom. Overall this interview ment a lot to my mother and I, and I really appreciated the time I had with her learning many new classroom teaching techniques that I will use one day as a future music educator.