Jennifer Pena's Interview with a third grade teacher

Nestled amidst a large stretch of lettuce fields of this small city, lies a charming new elementary school. The school, which services students from kindergarten through fifth grade, has a 74 percent Hispanic student population; 40 percent of the 445 students enrolled are ELL students with Spanish as their first language. The Asian population comprises the next highest percentage of students, at 12 percent (2/3 of which are Filipino). 10 percent of the students are White, 3 percent are African-American, and 1 percent describe themselves as “other.” Nearly half of the students enrolled receive reduced cost, or free, meal plans.

The school has a generally collaborative spirit; the principal has set up a culture of community and allows the staff a wide range of freedom in their teaching strategies. The teachers are supportive of, and connected to, their colleagues, students, and colleagues’ students. The school atmosphere is positive, supportive, and personalized, as is evidenced by the morning announcements that enthusiastically remind students, “to always be the best you can be.”

Sue is a thirty-six year veteran teacher whom often heads committees to improve school programs. She has an excellent reputation among her colleagues as a committed and caring educator. On a warm autumn morning, I observed Sue’s third grade language arts class and noted a wide array of teaching strategies aimed at building safety and support in the classroom. Later, I sat down with her to discuss her philosophy regarding the importance of structure and flexibility, choosing common sense over state mandates, holding high standards for all students, and to discuss the rewarding adventure that still keeps her enthusiastic after all these years.

As I entered the classroom, I immediately felt a sense of structure and order. The classroom felt inviting and safe. Sue’s class only hosted eighteen children (sixteen of whom were present on this day). Because there were so few desks, and they were organized in groups (“island” formations) throughout the room, the room felt spacious and uncluttered. “I always start the year with groups of four to six so they can do cooperative learning, so they won’t be alone. The groups may change. It depends on the personality of the class.” Student artwork lined the walls, along with various nutrition posters and collages. A large map of the world prominently hung at the front of the room and was accompanied by a banner that read, “The best preparation for tomorrow is doing your best today.” Shelves of neatly stacked games and puzzles sat adjacent to bookshelves of varied children’s literature. Posters depicting respect, cooperation, and friendship encircled the room. In the corner, the teacher desk blocked out an area that clearly separated Sue’s space from the group space. Sue’s manner of dress and appearance were pulled together and professional (as always), commanding a certain level of respect from her students. As students quietly took their seats the room was filled with a serene, calm energy.

As I witnessed the class go over their language arts homework from the previous night, I couldn’t help but take note of Sue’s choral answering technique; students would answer a question out loud, all together, while their teacher snapped rhythmically. They seemed excited and engaged. After the homework had been discussed, the class moved on to new spelling lists. Through a process of scaffolding, Sue modeled her desired mode of student participation, then allowed for group practice, before finally asking individuals to attempt tasks unaided. As I discussed with her later, cooperative learning in her classroom is used as a means to create safety. Numbers are written on each desk of an “island” and are used in group-jigsaw activities. There is safety in group-support while, at the same time, each individual is held responsible for knowledge and participation. Math class is run in a similar fashion; all students are given individual slates on which they are expected to write an answer and hold it up. Everyone is expected to participate. Students are permitted to call on their peers for answers. “The peer influence encourages many more volunteers than if I just call on them. They want to be chosen by their friends.”

As the students finished their language arts lesson and began to select books for sustained silent reading, Sue joined me at the back of the room for a candid and thoughtful interview. From the age of twelve, Sue knew she wanted to become a teacher after being inspired by an amazing sixth grade teacher. For the past thirty-six years she has taught first through fourth grades in multiple classroom settings: team teaching, looping, combination classes, and an “open classroom” (a trend during the 1970’s in which two master teachers and five student teachers ran a first, second, and third grade combination class with sixty-three students). “It was insane. It lacked structure. I think that’s why I like things structured. Kids need structure. It makes them feel safe.” Yet if this tendency toward a highly structured classroom begins to feel too strict, she balances it out with humor. “We love to laugh.”

Despite her need for an organized, structured environment (she tries to stick to the schedule, although it doesn’t always work), Sue bases her teaching philosophy on flexibility. The purpose of public school “is to educate future good citizens; to enrich the lives of students and families in order for students to be the best they can be, so they can have good lives.” Yet, as the face of education changes, and students become more diverse, her methods of instruction have to roll with the tide. “You have to try everything you can to reach different children at different levels. If something doesn’t work, don’t use it, even if the district has adopted it. Do whatever works.”

Nearly four decades of teaching has taught Sue that educating children is a process of trial and error. Luckily, she feels the freedom to practice differentiated instruction and test various teaching strategies in order to adopt the ones that work best for her, without the pressure many contemporary teachers feel to standardize (much of this is due to the flexibility of the Principal). Math lessons are tailored to fit the needs of three distinct achievement-level groups. Reading lessons range from full group sessions, with stories being read three times and discussed paragraph by paragraph, to partner reads with the lowest readers reading aloud to her and then listening to the story on CD. The cloze technique works well for Sue. She is also a firm believer of extended vocabulary development and, above all else, she views scaffolding as a necessity. “After thirty-six years you don’t really think about this stuff anymore; you just do it.”

In response to Sue’s emphasis on changing demographics and the need to alter instruction techniques accordingly, I was curious to know how changing family dynamics affected her methods of teaching. The seasoned professional looked at me solemnly and described the “brokenness of children.” “Schools aren’t failing,” she said. “Families are failing. Some kids, you just have to love them. But you still hold them to very high standards, both behaviorally and academically. You try stuff until you get them there.” She then handed me a weekly progress report that is given to each child every Friday to be signed and returned the following Monday. Her high standards and emphasis on work ethic were clear. “This takes care of a lot of problems before they start.” As Sue’s main contact with parents, careful documentation and organization of these reports is crucial. “Parents are the hardest part of this job. Document everything.”

In the midst of pressures from the state, pressures from parents, and increasingly difficult home lives for children that affect their ability to learn, Sue is more enthusiastic about teaching now than she ever has been. “I love it more now than I did when I started. I feel like I’m just now getting good at it. There’s always an adventure in it.” She had planned on retiring several years ago, but just can’t seem to give it up. She still loves teaching too much. Sue described how the day-to-day challenges of teaching can feel exhausting and disheartening at times, but there are those “Ah-hah” moments that make it all worthwhile; the moments when a child finally “gets” something that has, until that point, eluded them. The excitement of understanding something is contagious. Sue told me the story of a problem student she had had and how, twenty years later, he came to find her and tell her how much she had changed his life for the better, and to ask her opinion on a career choice as an adult. “When you see the progress they make, and you think you had some hand in it, that’s very rewarding. Few and far between, but very rewarding.”

As I thanked Sue for her time and walked away, I began to reflect back on several of her comments. I realized that teaching is like an ever-changing jigsaw puzzle. One piece may fit one day, but not necessarily the next. Teachers must attempt to fit a number of puzzle pieces into a given location until something works, and state-prescribed puzzle pieces do not necessarily fit in every puzzle; one must use common sense in developing teaching practices. Even then, the pieces must be constantly monitored and adjusted. Teaching is the art of finding a balance between structure and flexibility, and requires constant problem solving. Education is an exciting, and cognitively demanding, profession; there is a direct ratio to the amount of effort you exert and the rewards you experience. The enthusiasm and excitement of teaching, along with the challenges and frustrations, are par for the course of an adventure in education.