Teacher Interview

I currently work at Neuqua Vally High School as a paraprofessional. A lot of what we read in both seven and thirteen I could relate to. I see every day at my workplace. It was interesting in getting a different perspective on these ideas. Especially getting these ideas from someone who is teaching in my certification area. Michael Schuller has been teaching for two years in district 203. Currently, he is a general music teacher at Joliet district 86. He has been in this district for three years. The music program is three years old. In his first year in Joliet, he had to create the curriculum because the district did not have a curriculum for music. To this day he is still, with his other colleagues, is still building this program. For this reason, and the fact he is one of the best teachers I know, I thought it would be a great idea to interview him.

One of the first questions I asked was about his style of classroom management. He talked about how thinks positively with his student. Only having positive behavior and never bring a kid down. He also talked about CHAMPS. Champs, for the teacher, means not ever bring a student down. Giving them positive praise. Woolfolk states, "Many psychologists advise teachers to 'accentuate the positive'-praise students for good behavior, while ignoring misbehavior" (P. 273). She also states, "Students respect teachers who maintain their authority without being rigid or harsh [...]" (P. 524). I do believe in the fact of positive praise can go a long way. If we are always bringing students down all the time, what good are we doing as teachers? If we always give positive feedback to our students. we are sure to make an impact on their lives. Michael did say how they, in district 86, always are giving the students positive praise so the students are aware this is how they are supposed to act in the classroom. He also talks about his classroom rules which are also seeing the positive in the student than the negative. He wants his students to work their hardest. Michael did also talk about how the other teachers and he have withitness. As Woolfolk has defined, "Withitness means communicating to students that you are aware of everything that is happening in the classroom" (p. 523). You never want to have a student think you are not paying any attention to them. This will lead to disorganization. This disorganization could lead to behaviors showing up. Schuller and Woolfolk both talk about how you are trying to avoid students from getting mad or even escalating. 

Which leads to me the question I had for him on his classroom rules. For Schuller, his classroom rules were mostly the same as everyone else's: have a quiet mouth, be listening to what he is saying, and also have eyes on him. He also added a few different rules. He tells his students about respecting themselves and others, always participate, try your best, and also be kind to themselves and their peers. During chapter thirteen in Woolfolk talks about the different rules for the different grade levels. For elementary the rules are being polite and respectful to your peers, having correct materials for the class and being on time, do not talk while others are talking, and lastly, the students have to do all of the rules (p. 516). Michael does have all of the rules that are typical for the elementary level. The only really two added ones are being kind to others and doing their best. At the elementary level, depending on how young they are, they are still learning what rules are. They might not be aware even at school there are rules to follow. One of the rules he did say he had was the students must try their best. He also gave the example of having students decide what good music is, without them having any knowledge of good music. They just knew their musical concepts. Music or really any subject can be very difficult if the student is not used to it. Not every school has music within its walls. There could be a time where a student moves from a school, which never had music class, to a school with a music class twice a week. Even going beyond that music, math, science, art, or even history can be hard subjects within themselves. If a student does not feel like they are prepared or feel like it might be too hard, they might not want to put the work in.

During Schuller's interview, he talked about a time where there was a student who was getting mad at another student. He then explained the steps he ended up taking to de-escalate the situation. During chapter seven Woolfolk says, "At the classroom level, teachers are encouraged to use such preventive strategies as precorrection, which involves identifying the context for  a student's misbehavior, clearly specifying the alternative expected behavior, modifying the situation to make the problem behavior less likely [...], then rehearsing the expected positive behaviors in the new context and providing powerful reinforcers when the positive behaviors occur" (P. 286). He did do just that. Schuller first figured out what the problem was and then changing it in a way to lessen the behavior. He then had to come up with a new strategy to lessen the behavior. This is when he was able to talk to the student. He first, of course, waited until all of the other students were engaged in the activity. One becoming a teacher, you do need to know these steps. You need to know what has caused the student to misbehave. During this part, you need to look around the classroom and identify where this behavior is coming from. Their reason I do bring this part of his interview up is because of the fact of the steps he did end up taking to be able to de-escalate the situation after some of the techniques they used before did not work. Woolfolk did also talks about this strategy. She, though, did call is a precorrection. He was able to change the student's behavior by simply talking to the said student.

One of the key concepts he did talk about is CHAMPS. The second to last question I asked him was about the behavior plan in place at his school. He talked about CHAMPS. C is for conversation (what is my voice doing and what volume is it at), H being for help (am I able to ask for help and can I ask for help), A is for activity (what is the teacher looking for), M is for movement, P is for participation, and S is for successful. This behavior policy does really intrigued me because for the students it is something easy they can remember. Once the can remember what each letter represents, they will be able to remember what they are supposed to do. The school district is trying to make this positive environment. They want their students to succeed and using this strategy will surely help with this.

I had a really good experience learning about the different strategies Michael Schuller had to share about his district and his own experience. I love the fact of the teachers teaching the students skills that not even music-related. Teaching them about what kindness is and teaching them what it does mean to respect someone. How does this interview relate to me as a teacher? It related to me because Schuller gave me examples of what he is doing in the music classroom. For me, being a future music educator, showed me music class is not all about learning how to sing or learning about how to read music. It is about teaching the students to believe in themselves. It is about teaching them what respect is. It is most importantly about teaching them how fair kindness can go. The big take away I had to this interview was the more positive you are with students, the more the student will succeed. The more the student does understand you are there for them, the more likely they will listen to you. Even the students who are doing bad, you do not yell at them. You create a positive classroom. You show your students they can do anything. You show them no matter how hard a topic might be, they are able to do it. They are able to succeed.

Youtube Video Link: https://youtu.be/fufLCDWQnH4