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Jackson Anderson

Ms. Teuscher

English 2010

10 May 2019

Interview Assignment

To start off my reflection, I interviewed my 12 year old sister’s 6th grade teacher Miss

Juliana Wilcox. Miss Wilcox is 35 years old, and been teaching in the elementary age range for

the last nine years. I was first able to find out about her because of my sister, and through her we

were able to email her and set up a quick time that I could come in and ask her a few questions. I

was able to briefly explain the basic subject of my interview, and later explain the reasoning for

doing so. When I arrived, I soon realized she may have seemed to be a particularly quiet person,

but that she was very personable and sarcastic at times. Her sense of humor was able to lighten

the mood at times. The beginning of the interview consisted of the questions that are more

personally related to her, such as comparisons between when she was a child. Most of her

answers were fairly consistent to what I had imagined, that classroom settings and learning

curricula were very different and seemed more difficult in the past. Then I was able to proceed

to the questions involving herself as a teacher. For example, “Do you feel that you personally

are teaching these kids the things necessary to succeed in life?”. She proceeded to answer in the

way that - having spoken to many other teachers about this - I predicted. She basically said that

with limited time per student and an confusing ways of teaching simple subject, she is “doing the

best I can with the time that we have together”. Her goal is to teach these kids, and to educate

them as much as possible. And when personally asking her students, they say that something
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new is learned everyday because of their teacher. Afterwards she informed me of a meeting she

was to attend, so I wrapped it up with the conclusion question of “Overall, do you feel teens are

where they need to be in order to advance on into college or the workforce?”, and said

“Unfortunately, things aren’t what they used to be and society isn’t what it used to be…”
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1. What is your background in education?

2. What were personal reasons for becoming an elementary school teacher?

3. Do you feel that you personally are teaching these kids the things necessary to succeed in

life?

4. How exactly do you feel about the current education standards?

5. Do you feel the standards are hard enough? Too hard?

6. If so, how would you change them?

7. How would you compare schooling when you were a child, compared to what it is now?

8. Do you feel kids are properly prepared to move on to higher schooling?

9. Overall, do you feel teens are where they need to be in order to advance on into college

or the workforce?

10. How do you view America’s current ability compared to “competition”?

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Works Cited

Anderson, Jackson. “Wilcox Interview On Education.” 13 May 2019.