Teacher+Interview-+Mentor


 * Assignment: Teacher (Mentor) Interview **

Teacher Interview: For this assignment I ask you to interview a teacher for at least one hour. It might be helpful to interview the classroom teacher with whom you will be working during your student teaching, but that is not a requirement.

There are four areas around which you should focus the interview and three central questions within each area. These are as follows:

1. Find out as much about the teacher’s life history as possible up until he or she came to be a teacher. 2. Find out about the contemporary experience of classroom management and maintaining classroom discipline: What is managing a classroom like for the person you are interviewing? What discipline problems has he or she had and how have these been managed? What are the major classroom management complexities he or she is facing now? 3. What does it mean to your participant to manage a classroom? How does it make sense for him or her?
 * Life History: ** You are interested in finding out how he or she came to be a teacher.

1. What is it like to teach on a day-to-day basis? 2. What range of methods, other than lecture, does he or she use? What methods does he or she feel are most successful and why? 3. What meaning does teaching have for him or her?
 * Classroom Methodology: **

1.What is the experience of integrating curriculum frameworks and MCAS into today’s classroom? 2. What have teachers had to do to respond to the Frameworks and MCAS? Have the students noticed a change in their classroom experiences? 3. What does working with the curriculum frameworks and MCAS mean to the teacher?
 * Curriculum Frameworks and MCAS: **

1. How have prospective teachers adjusted to teacher testing? 2. What does it mean to the novice teacher? The seasoned teacher? 3. Has this had any effect on how teachers view their own assessments of their students?
 * MTEL or teacher testing: **

Remember to try to elicit stories from your interviewee. Be sure to:


 * Make sure that the person you are interviewing understands the nature of the interview and that aspects of it will be shared in class.
 * Take extensive notes on what the person is saying to you (or tape record the interview and take working notes). Try to capture the essence and detail of what your interviewee is saying in his or her own words.
 * Construct a report on the interview in the first person voice of your teacher. This can be done if you have paid attention to the detail above. Review your extensive notes and underline those parts of the interview that are of compelling interest to you. Weave these together into a narrative that you will read to the class, in the words of your interviewee. You should be able to read the paper in approximately 10 minutes.

The material you select for your report must be fair to the larger interview and must be consistent with the dignity of your interviewee. (Evidence-based Practice) CR