Summary Of A Sit-Down Interview

A sit-down interview, in the interviewee’s classroom, on April 22, 2016, resulted in responses from Rachel Koplin, a female Elementary Education teacher at Deerfield Elementary School, in Deerfield, Wisconsin. The purpose of the interview was to gain information and insight for an individual considering entering the field of Elementary Education including areas such as expectations, requirements, frustrations, and advice. The interview contained ten initial questions, with four additional inquiries as follow-up to responses, representing the 4-year Kindergarten grade level, and utilizing ten years of teaching experience.
Koplin reports a variance regarding the standard starting salary, ranging from $27,000 to $32,000, primarily dependent on the employing school district and person’s level of education. Also, she asserted the importance of understanding when entering the field that it isn’t a Monday through Friday, 7:30 to 3:30, summers off type of job, since there exists an unwritten expectation of remaining after hours, taking work home, and purchasing supplies needed for the classroom out of the teacher’s own money, plus written rules regarding career advancement through Professional Development and parent outreach obligations. Recognizing other experienced teachers on staff, such as mentors and team members, as the best source of help when starting out in the field, and beyond, she extols their ability to aid “growth and improved ability to be successful”. Additionally, she notes that while a Bachelor’s Degree in education as the prerequisite for an Elementary Education there remain potential areas of vital supplementary supports. Believing no class can adequately prepare a person for teaching in the classroom, only first-hand experience could provide that, she encourages “tutoring, professional development, and working with children in other capacities, such as couching, to develop a whole child perspective to develop additional experiences to draw from. Moreover, having a huge heart, extreme levels of patience, and an open mind are among the most critical pieces needed. Furthermore, she acknowledges that the ultimate level of disgruntlement was due to …show more content…
Frustrations with the reduction of playtime, critical to her philosophy regarding the 4-year-old classroom learning environment, generate issues in her theme selections and lesson plan creating. Relying on her own creative talents, she strives to find ways to incorporate the required curriculum into play experiences, such as adding clipboards and pencils to dramatic play areas to “encourage practice with writing and literacy skills”, an important area of focus with her student age group. She also expresses her struggles with current focus on standardized testing, an aspect only introduced in her 4-K classroom a couple of years ago. While she believes in the benefit receiving the data provides, especially in assisting in individualized Responses to Intervention (R.T.I.) development, there remains concern regarding the likelihood of external components affecting the “one-day snapshot” of student abilities. Due to this she stresses the importance on focusing on more than just test scores to better assist assessing the “whole picture of the …show more content…
Answering questions, including how to become a teacher, best and worst aspects of the job, biggest changes, and words of advice she opened up freely, providing great insight into what it means to be a teacher in today’s environment. However, since the interview is based on her personal experiences and perspective she is a biased source. Additionally, it overall provides a snapshot of the teaching experience in one school environment, and a small-town one at that, which means it only truly gives insight into what is like to teach in that specific