Subject Interview: Eric H.
Years of teaching: 17
Q: What are your purpose of teaching literature? It’s all about stories. Stories are fundamentally human. People always tell stories, they always have. To understand the art of story telling is to understand what it means to be human. Interestingly, in the article Dripping with Literacy, a Jazz-Fueled Road Trip, a Place to Breathe, Maja Wilson makes the exact same statement, “English class is about stories” (71), identifying a common theme and purpose among teachers.
Q: Has this philosophy ever changed over the year? Oh no. I actually started out as a social studies teacher and kind of fell into teaching language arts, partly because stories have always been important to me.
Through Eric’s response, I could sense the enjoyment he has with the subject area of English and the passion he has for teaching it. This ties into Csikszentmihalyi’s theory on intrinsic motivation in his article Thoughts on Education. Csikszentmihalyi states that, “When people enjoy whatever they are doing, they report some characteristic experiential states that distinguish the enjoyable moment from the rest of life” (2). This holds true for students as well. Once students realize that learning can be enjoyable, then tend to succeed.
Q: What is your teaching philosophy? Teaching is about touching the future and trying to give it roots in the past. In many ways I am a Shepard, helping to lead the flock from one place to another in the time that I have them. It’s always my job to go from a condition of less to a condition of more. I think it’s important to look at what do they need, where are they coming from, and where are they going. Essentially, what can I give them, in the time I got, to get them closer to what they need?
This statement ties a little into the article by Smith and Wilhelm, Teaching so it Matters: Where Should We be Going, and How Can We Get There? Eric’s statement that we need to tie the future in with the past gives meaning to teaching. It matters because we are preserving history and passing on stories, morals, and ideas to the future.
Q: What is your philosophy of classroom management? Classroom management slash discipline is something you do ALL the time. It involves everything in the classroom. When you get into discipline, i.e. punishment, that’s when something else didn’t work. It’s just something you do all the time. It’s keeping in mind what the goal is, what are you trying to get done, what kind of atmosphere are we trying to create. I think the kind of atmosphere you’re trying to create is a bit of a collegial one, to a degree, where we all understand that we are here to learn about something… to do something, and we’re in it together. The idea or goal is to build a community whereas the students don’t want to disrupt that community, they want to be a part of it and move along with it. The discipline classroom management issue is something you build into every second of your time. It’s best when it’s subtle, when the students don’t realize you’re managing them, even though you are. What you’re doing is bringing them along, in a very gentle and persuasive way. The confrontation thing is about you building a culture. If classroom management is all about confrontation, then you are building a confrontational atmosphere. I don’t think there’s many teachers that would say that is what they want to happen, but that’s what you’ll get. You reap what you sow, you get what you put in.
Classroom management is a huge issue, and one of the biggest fears of many new teachers. I really like the advice Eric gave in this question, don’t get into confrontations or you will build a confrontational atmosphere. I think the more students are engaged in learning, the less time they will have to become restless and, often times, confrontational and misbehaved. I really think the Understanding by Design books helps offer tools and planning to set up an engaging curriculum and active lesson which ultimately would help alleviate behavior issues
Q: How do communicate both verbally and non-verbally? Everyone comes with their own style for how to do that. This is the part of teaching that is more art than science. I think one of the things that all teachers learn, at least beginning teachers learn, is communication and classroom management are things you need to do to match your own style, or it wont work for you. So, it’s a very individual art form. You need to communicate with students in both verbal and non-verbal ways… so you need to be aware of thing like body language, gestures, and locus (walking around the room).Also, make sure you are projecting the character you want to be projecting. I always think of teaching like possessing an acting degree.
I believe this is a very important question. Taking from my own experience of coaching girls volleyball over the years, I know what an impact body language and gesture can have. If even one girls gives another girls a “bad look”, that negative energy spreads throughout the team. I think the same thing is true in the classroom.
Q: How did you establish rapport with your students and what’s the importance of that? Oh it’s very important. It’s also a balancing act… you don’t want to be their best buddy, that’s not your role…but at the same time, you’re not their antagonist either. You’re an adult and their not, ok, but they will be. You kind of talk a lot to their future selves. You show a genuine interest in them as people and the things they are interested in. The kids I find out are interested in sports, just by listening to them or hearing them talking in the hallways before class, I talk sports with them. And I don’t care about sports myself, but I’ll talk sports with them. And I don’t try to pretend that I’m interested in sports for my own sake, they understand I’m interested in sports for their sake, because I’m interested in them. I think everyone that wants to be a teacher has in their heart a great love for every kid, so you tap into that. You don’t care about kids in general, you care about this kid, this kid, and this kid. And you really nurture that care in yourself and be open for all the little wonderful surprises that will pop up.
I’ve realized in my observations that rapport is an incredible way to connect with students and if that rapport is established early, students will learn to respect you and, although they may not complete a certain assignment, they’ll do it anyway just because of the respect they have for you.
Q: How does your teaching method align with your values? Well, one of my values is being painstakingly picky about being honest. Honesty is a big thing for me, I don’t even like white lies or lies of omission. I like being really, really honest with kids, which is a value that affects my teaching style. For instance, when we’re covering material, I like to very honest with them and say, “This is why we’re covering this. This is why I think you need to know this” and just be really open about that. And material that I don’t think would be of value to them, frankly, I’ll try to avoid covering it.
Q: How do you interact with students families? It’s tough to motivate yourself to do that sometimes. I think, however, the more I do it, the more comforatable I get with them, and the easier it is to do it. Here at Spectrum, with our technology focus, there’s an expectation that everyone has and reads their e-mails. And that really helps, because an e-mail is a quick and convenient way to send out a message saying this happened and so on. Good and bad messages alike. Phones can be tricky sometimes, because you never know how you come across on the phone, but e-mails are nice. If you’re not sure how its coming across you can always not send it, look it over, and send it the next day. You don’t want to be doing anything in the heat of the moment. Sometime, however, parents will come to you in the heat of their moment and in that case you should just sit and listen, let them state their point, then wait till they come down from their emotion. That’s something I find myself still working on … doing that communication piece with parents. Part of that is becoming a parent myself and having kids go through school. There’s been times I’ve wished teachers had communicated with me more to help them through something. I realized that 90 to 95% of the time that’s where parents are…wanting that same goal.
I think this will be a challenge in teaching, just because you are adding more personalities and opinions into the mix of everything else.
Q: How diverse do you think this school is? By most normal measures of diversity, this school really isn’t very diverse. Gender diversity is about 50/ 50 like you’d expect, maybe a few more girls than boys in the 9th grade, maybe 60/40, but still around that even split. The socio-economic is pretty middle class, a few upper, a few lower, but a pretty middle class white protestant community.
Q: How do think in the language arts department we should integrate diversity? What benefits are there to that? Well, if you’re talking American literature, which most literature in high schools is centered around, you can’t ignore diversity, because American literature and history is all about the melting pot. If you ignore African American writers, Native American writers, etc… well, you’re missing the boat, your missing American literature and what it really is. It’s not a stretch at all to say it’s absolutely necessary to include diverse authors in a literature course, otherwise you will miss some of the greatest American writers.
Although the school I will be teaching at is not very diverse in regards to the demographics of the school, I am really looking forward to introducing diverse issues and discussions.
Q: How are different learning styles incorporated into classroom activities and instruction? Well, you got to make sure that not all of the assignments are the same. Different kids learn in all different ways so you want to make sure you’re building on all kid’s strengths and weaknesses. Kids sometimes just need to work in their strengths, where they’re comfortable and other days they’re more ready to do the stretch, so you provide that variety and choices too.
Q: How far do you go in offering differentiated instruction? As much as time allows, and what you can manage. The reality is that we are all limited in our time. Ideally, you would tailor instruction to each person, but there is just not enough time.
Q: How important is assessment? Are we teaching to standardized testing? and what do you think about that? Ah… so first we need to ask “what do you mean by assessment?” Teach to the test is great if the test is good. Even though we have a lot of standardized testing we’re doing right now, it’s really not that much. It’s not like we’re doing a standardized test every month, there are really only a few a year. We are to a point that many teachers are asking, “Are we testing too much… you know the ‘no child left untested’”, but “teach to the test” are not dirty words to me. That’s just reality. The tests we have are not bad tests. The tests measure certain things and it’s not bad to teach to those things. Besides, we are still not to the point of overload… I can teach to the test AND still have time to teach other things. So… that’s’ ok. I think people can get kind of wound up about assessment, especially if they think “assessment equals standardized testing”. Assessment is all the different ways to check if the children are learning and that’s something you’re doing all the time, in both formal and informal ways.
Q: What advice would you give to a brand new teacher? Well, 3 things: First, pace yourself… including saying no, especially the first year. You just want to get through the year and focus on the teaching. Be realistic about what you can and can’t get done. Take it one day at a time. Number 2, keep the big picture in mind, remember what you are here for. There are going to be things every day that will annoy you, but just try to let that roll off your back. You’re there to help the kids and be a positive role model, so keep that in mind. And 3… always have 3 things to say, even if you really only have two J.
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