Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Claire Daniel
Grayson College
April 9, 2017
INTERVIEW 2
Amy Thompson teaches a life skills class at Sory Elementary in Sherman, Texas. Mrs.
Thompson has been teaching for twenty years and has a great deal of experience in the Special
Education field. In the life skills class that she teaches currently, there is a mixture of third and
fourth graders. Mrs. Thompson gave honorable advice related to many different questions
The first questions asked focused on Mrs. Thompsons journey into teaching. She became
a special education teacher mostly due to the influence from her mother, who was an assistant in
a classroom with many medically challenged children. Mrs. Thompson loved what her mother
did and wanted to pursue a similar career. One thing she wishes she would have known before
beginning to teach is the importance of behavior management and procedures. She went on to
explain that if the children do not know the procedures and understand behavior expectations, it
can be very time consuming trying to teach those concepts along with the curriculum the
children should be learning. Having both children with AU disabilities and ID in the same
classroom, creating a large spectrum of needs and accommodations was said to be Mrs.
Thompsons biggest challenge as a first-year teacher mainly because it was largely time
consuming. Mrs. Thompsons advice to a first year teacher is to not sweat the small stuff and
accept that you cannot save every child, meaning there are limitations concerning what you can
do to help improve their overall life and well-being. As a teacher, you can only control what their
school day consists of, and not any of the other areas of their life so much. She also emphasized
the importance of rest. Her advice is to work until 5:00 p.m. and then go home, making sure not
Her opinion on the ARD process is that it is a necessary evil, but mostly beneficial in that
it insures each child receives the appropriate services they need. The downfall is that it is very
INTERVIEW 3
time consuming. Regarding paperwork in special education, Mrs. Thompson says that it is
getting better due to the transition to mostly digital input for information. Although she says the
programming can be difficult and confusing to navigate, a big advantage is that with some
programs teachers are able to work from home as well for doing paperwork.
The diversity of Mrs. Thompsons students consists of most every nationality including
Indian, Asian, Hispanic, Black, and White., and within those also includes students from every
socioeconomic class. She has taught many children that suffer from the result of drug abusive
parents, and some live with their grandparents. An example of being culturally educated
regarding her students, was once instance when an Indian student came to school with her hair
seeming to smell foul everyday. After further research, Mrs. Thompson realized that the smell
was actually from the food that her culture eats and the ability for it to linger in the skin and
pores. Mrs. Thompson desires to promote cultural acceptance and and traditions in the
classroom, for example she had a parent ask her about having a Cinco de Mayo party and she
delightfully obliged. She also has attended previous students quinceaneras, which are a cultural
celebration for girls turning fifteen. Mrs. Thompson supports the families of the children she
works with by promoting a more personal relationship. She goes by Amy, her first name, to all of
the parents and likewise if the parent wishes, she calls them by their first name as well. To her,
the most important thing is to create a less-intimidating relationship so that parents feel
comfortable approaching her with questions or concerns. She also sends home daily schedules of
what the children completed each day for the parents to review.
Mrs. Thompson has experienced a range of support from administrators over the years.
She has had some that fully support and back her eagerly, and those that seem to not care or fully
understand the needs of some children. She explained that one administrator had previously
INTERVIEW 4
taught and was next door to a life skills class, so they understood a lot of the ins and outs of the
life skills classroom better. Mrs. Thompson fully supports inclusion whenever it is possible. She
believes that inclusion benefits both children with special needs and general education students.
It promotes empathy and the understanding that people are different, but all have the same
Mrs. Thompsons worst teaching moment was when she student-taught a second grade
class and a student snuck out of the classroom and the school under her supervision and walked
home to his grandma. She was very distraught and thought for sure she would never get a
teaching job after that incident. One of her best teaching moments was when she taught a student
with Autism who was not verbal at all, and progressed to the student being able to read and speak
on his own. One thing that Mrs. Thompson would change if she could go back would be to pick
her battles with administration and parents more wisely. One things she learned after becoming a
foster parent to a child with special needs herself, that her expectations of parents and what they
should be doing at home were too high and her perspective and empathy for parents changed
after her own personal experience. Finally, Mrs. Thompsons motto is to keep going and keep
moving. She believes that God is in control and that as a teacher she should use 100% of what
God have her to be able to help children, and after that everything else is in Gods hands. She
knows that everything happens for a reason and finds hope and motivation in that.