Teacher Interview: Classroom Management

Teacher Interview

Watch my interview with Kathy Dennis: https://youtu.be/KQmg8dVHFG8

For my teacher interview, I chose to interview Kathy Dennis who has been working at Worthwoods Elementary School for many years as a second-grade teacher, and whom Nicole aided during her field experience. I have been able to communicate with her a bit whenever I ate lunch in the same school I am aiding in with my cooperating teacher. Kathy Dennis is high spirited and is easy to speak with. She enjoys what she does with all the students she has taught and still learns over the years when it comes to classroom management. After the interview, I have learned much more about how she goes about classroom management and was able to find connections with her experience that align with chapter 7 and 13 of Educational Psychology by Anita Woolfolk.

First, in chapter 7 I saw a connection with what Kathy Dennis said about a specific reinforcement that she used with one of her students. She briefly talked about how eccentric rewards hasn’t really worked out in her past and she tries not to use them. In one case, a student would only respond to receiving stickers after they completed their work. Having this reward helped the student make progress in school and eventually she stopped asking for stickers and did the work without asking. I saw a connection here on page 258 where it talked about reinforcement schedules. The two reinforcement the connection was made was continuous reinforcement schedules where, “individuals are learning a new behavior, they will learn it faster if they are reinforced for every correct response (258).” With the specific student, this reinforcement was used every time the student finished her work and would get a sticker from Kathy Dennis’ desk. Eventually, intermittent reinforcement schedule which “helps students to maintain skills without expecting constant reinforcements (258).” The teacher wouldn’t remind the student to get a sticker and occasionally the student will get one if they asked but the reward slowly wasn’t needed any longer.

Something else I learned went along with the token reinforcement system that helps with problems academically and behaviorally by giving the students a chance to earn tokens. In the interview, the teacher had trouble using her previous behavioral chart that involved three strikes. Because of the difficulties from the make up of her class, she had to change how she worked with the behavior. The new system she made involves students being in pods, also known as groups, and are given a team name. Each time the students were well behaved, they would get a clip for the group. At the end of the week, the pod that had the most clips would have a chance to win a prize for good behavior. This is very similar to the token reinforcement system by allow the students to have a chance to win a prize by getting the most clips as a pod. On page 268, it says token reinforcement systems “should be used in only three situations: (1) to motivate students who are completely uninterested in their work and have not responded to other approaches; (2) to encourage students who have consistently failed to make academic progress; and (3) to deal with a class that is out of control.” The teacher had to use this because of the behavioral issues in the class which distracted them from getting work done and taking time out of their learning.

One last connection I made was in chapter 13 about rules which I briefly explained in my Module 3 post. Kathy Dennis had help from the students to make the rules of the class in the beginning of the year. She posts them in the room, so the students can look back and them and will be reminded over and over what they are to create a positive learning environment. “Students should understand that rules are developed so that everyone can work and learn together (497).” The students and her develop rules for the class that they must follow throughout the year. What I enjoyed about this section in the chapter was when it said, “Developing rights and responsibilities rather than rules make an important point to students (497).” Even though this class had rules instead of rights, they did have a responsibility to do the correct thing and follow the rules. Along with this, the students gained ownership of the rules, as said in the video, which helps the students understand they helped make the rules, so they have a higher priority to execute the rules throughout the year.

Overall, this interview with Kathy Dennis was eye opening to how teachers can create different classroom management systems together or individually. Something I took away from this interview was how we, as future teachers, need to create a “team” with the parents of our students. Without that “team”, it will be difficult to have a relationship with the parents and student to show them how we want to help and create an environment that is safe, positive, and uplifting for everyone. With the relationship with the parents, it can help the teachers understand why their child acts a specific way, what might trigger negative behaviors, and how to better go about helping the student. I learned that I should try to have parents come in and watch their child interact with the entire class and how it can be beneficial in the end. Lastly, I will take what she said about having pods in the classroom. Pods can help manage my class and even help relationships thrive from them. The students will even look to their peers in their groups for help on an assignment or to borrow a supply they don't have. I will find the positives in my students and not look at them with all the negatives they might have.