Teacher Interview Reflection Paper

I interviewed _______, a nine-year math teacher at my former high school in Maryland.

She has taught many different math courses in both middle and high schools. She taught me
both Algebra II and Pre-calculus when I was in high school and she is the teacher who
influenced me to seriously consider teaching math as a career.

She inspired me in many ways,

so interviewing her was an amazing opportunity to learn more about her teaching philosophy and
the ideas behind how she runs her classroom so smoothly and effectively.
I developed questions based on both personal interest/curiosity and various themes we
learned throughout the semester. These include research-based discipline models and
instructional methods, authority of the teacher and mutual respect between teacher and students,
motivation methods, teaching to vast learning styles, making lessons meaningful/memorable, and
the importance of self-reflection.
As for research-based discipline models and instructional methods, _______ says she
does not use any specific research-based discipline models, but she does describe how she
maintains control of the classroom and establishes clear boundaries from the very beginning of
the year. I strongly agreed with her statement regarding making boundaries in the very
beginning of the year because students learn very quickly which teachers they can take
advantage of versus those that demand the students hard work and respect. She then goes on to
explain just how to set those boundaries even on the first day of school. What really stood out to
me was her emphasis on making a good impression, because it is so important to overall success
in the classroom environment. I also liked that she emphasizes rules that elucidate exactly what
is expected of the students in a positive way, versus the overbearing list of you shall nots. She
also emphasizes a kind but firm attitude as a way to maintain order in the classroom. That will

help gain the respect of the student because they will not feel threatened; yet, the teacher remains
firm in rules and standards and calls the students on to do their very best. This also encourages
the idea of holding ones students up to high standards, according to their zones of proximal
development. When the teacher believes that his/her students can meet high standards, the
students will ideally come to believe that too, thus maximizing the students learning and
capabilities. Finally, _______ points out that it is crucial for the teacher to model, as Bandura
emphasizes, the behavior that she expects of her students. If she does not act according to
equally high standards, the students will quickly lose respect for her. Setting clear boundaries
and remaining a solid example in the classroom are key ways to take command over the
classroom and set up an ideal learning environment. As for research-based instructional
methods, she mainly uses direct instruction through notes and examples, which we studied as a
very effective means to convey lesson material. She also utilizes the exploratory method, in
which she allows students to figure some main ideas out for themselves through activities, which
can also be helpful in the understanding and retaining of new material.
When it comes to motivating students who appear to lack the internal motivations to
succeed merely for the sake of success, _______ takes an individualized approach. Rather than
rely primarily on external motivations for the entire class, she says she would talk to that student
individually, getting to know him/her better and attempting to see why the student lacks the
motivation to succeed. This could also help her discover the interests of the student, which
_______ says she could then incorporate those interests into her lessons. This is important
because teaching to student interests makes the lesson more meaningful for the struggling
student. Additionally, she specifies that she would tell the student what she expects, so that the
student has a goal in mind. In class, we emphasized the importance of presenting a goal so that

the student knows what to work for, so it was very interesting to me that _______ would include
that as a means to deal with an unmotivated student. Further, I would add that a student needs to
play a crucial role in setting this goal, so that he/she makes learning and classroom success
his/her own.
I asked _______ about teaching to many different learning styles and the challenges that
that entails. Often times a classroom is full of students with different abilities who learn in
different ways, and _______ chooses to practice both homogeneous and heterogeneous grouping.
I thought this was interesting because often times only one is used, and that is usually
heterogeneous, so that those further along can help those a little behind without being too bored
with the material. I think it can make sense to use both types though, because in homogeneous
groups, the teacher can meet the groups of students where they are by assigning easier or more
challenging problems accordingly. She can build those students up who need the extra help
while allowing the more advanced students a greater challenge. Then, with heterogeneous
grouping, the students are able to help each other out: the advanced students understand the
material more concretely by explaining and clarifying things with their other classmates, and the
students having more trouble with the material gain insights from their peers.
Furthermore, I asked _______ how she creates meaningful and memorable lessons. I
found it interesting that she said some things in high school math just cannot be directly related
to real-life situations, which is a key way to make a lesson meaningful. This makes much of the
information abstract and thus hard for the students to find significant. However, one thing I do
remember about her class was that she did make real-life applications when relevant and
developed engaging activities related to the subject matter. One day we applied our lesson to
bungee-jumping Barbies off the back porch of the school. The goal was to get the Barbies

closest to the ground without hitting the ground based on our knowledge of geometry, etc.
Another day we used M&Ms to learn about probability. I also remember two songs she wrote
to help us remember end behavior (sung to the tune of YMCA) and the quadratic formula (sung
to the tune of Yellow Submarine). I still remember most of the words from those songs, which
show _______s ability to make her lessons effective and memorable, especially through
activities and creative songs.
Self-reflection is another key aspect of intentional instruction, which _______ agrees is
very important. _______ agrees that self-reflection should be done after every lesson to review
what went well, what did not, and what can be done to improve. _______ says self-reflection is
essential to good teaching, which goes hand-in-hand with intentional teaching. Where there is
no self-reflection, there is no improvement. It is the responsibility of the teacher to do the very
best she can for her students and evaluating her own teaching is an essential element to the
quality of teaching.
The other questions I asked revolved around why she wanted to be a teacher and general
questions about teaching high school students, her interactions with them, and any advice she has
for someone going into the field of math education. I was not expecting _______ to say that one
of the hardest things about teaching high school is combating stressed-out students. That
would be very difficult to have to teach to because so much is on the students minds, especially
as midterms, finals, or AP tests approach. From what I remember from being in her class,
though, she handled days when we students were all stressed-out really well. Some days when
she had already covered what she needed to, we would do math puzzles or other fun activities
still relating to the subject, but much less cognitively demanding. I thought that was an
appropriate way to deal with those days. Additionally, I liked that _______ referred to the

developmental differences between middle schoolers and high schoolers when talking about
interest in the teachers life and the egocentricism that still exists in middle schoolers that tapers
off gradually by the high school years. Finally, as a math-education major, a few things she said
were especially useful to me for my future career. Her comment about how a students math
grade can directly affect his/her confidence and how he/she feels about math potentially
permanently shocked me. Thinking about it now, though, I can see how it is true, albeit from the
more positive side. My two years as _______s student transformed my ideas of math and my
confidence drastically and helped me decide to study math education at the collegiate level. She
also adds that it is not realistic to hope that everyone will love math as much as she would as the
teacher, but that a reasonable goal to have is to convince students not to fear math anymore and
to give them the confidence they need to conquer the subject.
The interview with _______ was full of enlightening ideas and anchored many of the
thoughts and lessons we went over in Educational Psychology throughout the semester. She was
very down-to-earth in her answers and gave great examples on how to be the very best teacher
one can, especially in terms of setting up a positive classroom environment rooted in trust and
respect. She brought many new ideas and thoughts to light and I really appreciated her insights.
It was so helpful to hear from a person who has been where I am, yet also knows through
experience both the failures and the successes in the realm of math education.