Mrs.

Michelle James TEACHER INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

GENERAL BACKGROUND INFORMATION 1. What is your current teaching assignment? A: 5th Grade Teacher 2. How long have you worked at this school, and has this been your only teaching assignment? If not, tell me about your other teaching experiences. What schools? How many years? What grade level and what subjects? A: 3 years at Marshall Elementary and last year I work in a self contained special ed classroom. 3. What is the demographic make-up of your class? Performance level? A: There are 23 fifth graders: , 20 African American, 3 Asian. The majority are either at and one grade below reading level. 4. Why did you choose the teaching profession? A: I have a passion for children

TEACHER PREPARATION 5. Do you feel that your courses/student teaching preparation prepared you adequately for your own classroom? Please explain your answer. A: No, because my courses didnt teach me about all the challenges I would encounter. 6. How do you teach to meet the diverse needs of your students? A: By differentiated instruction 7. What would you recommend for a beginning teacher that might help me not to see lesson planning as a chore? A: Try to plan ahead.

CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT 8. Describe your strategies that comprise your classroom management system? Are your strategies effective, in your opinion? Please explain. A: Strategies consist of being form, fair, and consistent. Meaning a teacher has to be consistent with expectations. Ensure you have those expectations procedures and academics. INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES 9. Explain how you use technology to enhance your teaching. How is technology used to enhance your students learning? A: Uses technology wheater its document camera to read, different online activates, it imperative. 10. What advice would you give me, as a beginning teacher, that would help me to adjust to having my own classroom and students that would help me to be an effective teacher? A: Pray a lot daily. Being knowledgeable of content not being afraid to ask for help, and staying up to speed with the current best practices.

11. Please summarize the Teaching and Learning Framework that drives the instruction in your classroom. A: The teaching and learning is guided by 5 domains instruct, inform, intervene, improve, and include. Using these will help me to build a relationship with her students additionally it helps to create a student centered classroom. ASSESSMENT/EVALUATION 12. Describe your grading procedures and the methods that you use to assess your students achievement. A: District office has assigned a grading scale and procedures. 60 percent class work/participation 40 percent quizzes and test. REFLECTIONS 13. What has been your biggest challenge this year with meeting the needs of your students? A: The biggest challenge with one group of students is overcoming the behavior issues and the second group biggest challenge would be to strengthen study skills. 14. If you had it to do over again, would you choose teaching as a profession? Why or Why not? A: If I had to start over again I would choose the teaching profession but not at the elementary level. I would choose higher education simply because of the financial factor at that level. The level of seriousness is different.