Teacher Interview

Kyle Rayfield

InTASC Standards, Description, and Rationale

Standard #2: Learning Differences

The teacher uses understanding of individual differences and diverse cultures and communities to ensure inclusive learning environments that enable each learner to meet high standards.

• Name of Artifact: Teacher Interview

• Date: March 10, 2014

• Course: EDUC 101

Description: For this assignment I was required to conduct interviews for 2 teachers of my choice. I chose Jake Dewitt, and Amanda Krga. This assignment was an eye opener because it taught me that there isn’t just one way of teaching and every teacher is effective in a their own way.

Rationale: I chose standard #2: Learning Differences because its obvious that between 2 teachers they were not going to have the same outlook on how teaching is supposed to be done. I shoes this standard because there are differences in how a teacher is effective, and this exactly what this standard stands for.

Introduction & Background

Jake DeWitt • 4th Grade teacher

• 2nd year teacher

• IUPUI, 2012

Amanda Krga • 6th grade teacher

• 3rd year teacher

• IUPUI, 2011

Traits of an Effective Teacher

Jake DeWitt • Flexibility

• Caring

• Diversity in their beliefs

• Setting high expectations

• Reflective

Amanda Krga • Patience

• Understanding

• Flexibility

• Reflective

• The ability to reset

Philosophies, Values and Beliefs

Jake DeWitt • “My philosophy drives my teaching.

The arts have always had a special place in my life, so I try to integrate the arts into my classroom as much as possible. I take my students interests and collect various data across all subjects to build my curriculum around their needs and interests. I want to put the fun back into teaching, after all, learning is supposed to be fun.”

Amanda Krga • “My philosophy when it comes to

teaching is not only to help my students succeed academically but also to help them develop as a person. I want my students to see me as more than just a teacher, but also as someone they can confide in, learn from, and trust.”

Most Important Quality of a Good Teacher

Jake DeWitt Amanda Krga • Flexibility

• “If you’re not flexible, it would be difficult to not get frustrated by the many disruptions you encounter throughout the school day. There is no way to predict student behaviors or disturbances that happen in the classroom.”

• Being student centered• “Because you’re building the

curriculum around your students based on their needs. At the end of the day, its about them and what they learned.”

My Beliefs, Traits and the Behavior I Possess

• I believe that ever teacher should have multiple philosophies. Teaching is climbing a mountain. It’s a constant process of ascending an incline. You stop, take a deep breath, make sure everyone is ok, and you keep going.

• I believe I posses an unconditional love for children. Whether I know them personally or not. That’s why I decided to become a teacher. Because I want to be in a career where I can laugh everyday, smile at everyone, and spread the love that I have to the kids that I teach.

Conclusion

• This interview was eye opening. Hearing the teachers that I interviewed philosophies, it made have a more wide spread view of what it is like to be a teacher. There are great qualities of a teacher and there are bad ones. I believe this project helped me realize the good ones, and made want to strive to be the best teacher I can be.

References

• DeWitt, J. (2014, Feb 24). Interview by K Rayfield.

• Krga, A. (2014, Feb 24). Interview by K Rayfield.