Rosa Mejia's Inteview with a Third Grade Teacher

The teacher I am currently working with has taught for a total of 8 years. This year is her 9th year of teaching in a public school setting. She has taught elementary grade students throughout her career. Most of her experience centers in working with bilingual students following a 80:20 language model in Spanish and English. In addition, she has also taught in a dual-immersion program modeling a 90:10 language model in English and Spanish. The teacher has taught second grade, sixth grade and for the majority of her teaching career she has taught in a third grade bilingual classroom. The teacher has chosen to teach in a bilingual setting as one of her main goals as a teacher. She has a strong background in bi-literacy and bilingual language development.

Her current school serves grades K-6. The student ethnicity at this school is 98% Hispanic or Latino students. One hundred percent of the students participate in the free or reduced program and 79% of the students are English language learners. 95% of those have Spanish as their primary language.

The dedicated resourceful teacher is goal driven with a professional and solid commitment to student academic growth and the development of every student. She believes in the importance of employing unique teaching strategies to engage and motivate all students in a fascinated learning environment. She also believes that a teacher should be talented to inspire hands-on lessons and multicultural awareness to ensure that every student╒s learning style and abilities are addressed. The pedagogy used in this classroom includes mandatory state standard book editions through the use of direct instruction, differentiated instruction, curriculum design and development, and professional collaboration. The teacher is well skilled in subject matter. She plans weekly lessons plans according to grade level standards. She is a reflective educator that is consistently evolving to better serve the needs of her students. Her beliefs about public education is that by law every child is entitled to a fully developed education in which they can develop as prospective citizens of our community.

The classroom is well organized. I will first describe the physical environment. To begin, students are sitting in groups of 5-6 students. By students sitting in groups they are able to make stronger connections to the subject being taught, learn from each other and learn to work cooperatively. There is also a carpet area in the classroom where the reading language arts lesson is done. The carpet area is also used for small group intervention in which the teacher works with specific target students to meet their academic needs. In the back of the classroom there are two tables that are also used to differentiate instruction. Some of the activities that are done at these tables are guided reading, re-teach worksheets for those students who may need additional practice on a specific leaning concept, challenge activities for those students who are performing at grade level or for the advanced students. Other areas in the classroom are the computers, classroom library, phonics center, writing center, focus wall and math center. In terms of instruction, the teacher follows a district-wide pacing guide that indicates what should be taught at specific times throughout the year.

The instruction provided is based on the district pacing guide. The instruction is divide into categories such as reading language arts, math, math intervention, ELD (English Language Development), social studies and science. There are several instructional strategies that are being used while teaching in this classroom. The teacher uses GLAD (Guided Language Acquisition Development Strategies) strategies that include visuals, hand-on lessons, motivational cues, the use of technology to enhance student comprehension of standards and a lot pictorials. She also uses T.P.R. (Total physical Response) strategies to make language more comprehensive through the use of physical movement. The teacher follows a consistent lesson plan that includes an introduction, guided practice, student collaboration, and independent practice. The teacher used a variety of ways to meet the needs of diverse learners. She focuses on teaching to the state standards with an ultimate goal of meeting the needs of all her students. She delivers daily lessons that cover the mandatory state standards, but she also modifies lessons as needed. For instance, while delivering a lesson, if the majority of the students seem to not comprehend the concept being taught she will stop and modify the lesson in a way that will benefit her students. On the other hand, she groups her students based on their academic performance to fill in any academic gaps that might be developed with any concept previously taught. The students are grouped into guided reading, math, and English language development learners. The teacher and the students create academic goals for each student that are revised consistently to monitor their progress.

Some of the things that keep this teacher enthusiastic about teaching is that she focuses on the philosophy that every child can learn with appropriate support to meet their learning needs. She strongly believes that there are different levels of thinking, learning, and producing work and that every teacher should have the capacity and training to meet the diversity challenge being faced in public schools. Also, that teaching is a learning process and that consistent professional development is highly necessary to be able to successfully teach and motivate every single students. My teacher finds that the most rewarding thing about teacher is when her students demonstrate that they have acquire grade level skills, higher order thinking abilities and that the students have worked at their highest level of dedication.

Now that I completed the interview with the teacher there are so many things that I learned. First of all, the main thing that I learned is that there is a lot of work a teacher has to do. One might think that teaching can be an easy task. But in reality teaching is one of the hardest jobs that one can perform. It is very important to teach, but mostly to follow the standards to ensure the students are benefiting from their schooling. Also, understanding that there are students who learn at different levels is very important for a teacher to recognize so she/he can modify a lesson.

There could be occasions when there are students that do not understand a lesson therefore; the teacher should be to accommodate the lesson to the needs of the students. Finally, teaching could be seen as a learning process that teachers should start off with the skills needed and throughout they will be able to gain the experience needed to become an exemplary teacher.