Blog 21 : Interview 4 Reflection

1. What is the most important thing I learned from the interview?  
• The most important thing that I learned from the interview was how the behaviors can affect the students' way of thinking and the way they learn. Also I learned how the teachers really try hard to make sure that each child is learning and to have lots of patience because each student learns differently and at different paces. 
2. How will what I learned affect my final lesson?
• The information that I learned will affect my final lesson because the information that I got from my mentor would really help when explaining my first and second answer. 

Blog 20 : Fourth Interview Questions

1. Who do you plan to interview? What is this person's area of expertise?
• I plan on interviewing my mentor, Jenna Baumann. She's an expert because she has worked with special needs children for many years. She has been my brother's teacher for the last two years and the improvement in him is astonishing. Therefore, I knew Mrs. Jenna would be a great person for my interview four, because of the impact she has on her students. I also love my interviews with her because she gives me so much information and I learn a lot from her. 
2. Post 20 open-ended questions you want to ask an expert in the field concerning your senior project. Your focus should be finding answers to your EQ.
1. How is a decision made about a child's eligibility for special education?
2. What happens if a child is not eligible for services?
3. What should parents do before a IEP meeting?
4. Can a child's IEP be changed?
5. How do I know if a classroom can accommodate a student with special needs?
6. How do you regularly assess the progress of the students?
7. What are schools legally required to do when it comes to special education programs?
8. How do you teach and encourage socially acceptable behavior from the students? 
9. Are there any suggestions you made that implemented in the special education field?
10. How do you manage a very disruptive student?
11. How do you collaborate general education teachers to benefit the students?
12. What special education strategies and techniques have you used to help with the students?
13. What methods do you use to encourage students to explore learning opportunities?
14. How do you motivate the students to persevere with challenging assignments and tasks?
15. How do you teach and encourage socially acceptable behavior from the students? 
16. What role do advocates play in implementing special education programs?
17. How have you encouraged parental involvement in student learning?
18. Should students with special needs be mainstreamed as far as possible?
19. How do you stay current with special education best practices?
20. How have you managed to keep up with the paperwork required of a special education teacher?
21. How have you ensured that each student receives the right type of support?
22. Can a student's placement in a special education program be challenged?

*Note*The interview itself is not due until Friday, April 15th to turnitin.com. However, we want to give you as much time as possible, so we are asking you to complete the blog now. Remember that in addition to turning in the interview to turnitin.com, you also need to turn in the verification sheet to your House teacher and post an audio excerpt of no less than 5 minutes on your senior project blog.

Blog 17 : Interview 3 Reflection

1. What is the most important thing I learned from the interview?  
• The most important thing I learned from my interview, was a possible answer to my EQ. My interviewer gave me a possible answer and also gave me lots of background information so I can do more research and have more information to support the answer. 
2. How has your approach to interviewing changed over the course of your senior project?
• My approach to interviewing has changed a lot. I feel a lot more confident when it comes to interviewing anyone. It has also become a lot easier for me to come up with follow up questions, and it has also helped me in my other classes, such as in Yearbook. In Yearbook we do lots of interviews in order to create a story, and now I can say that I'm a lot more confident and feel comfortable with giving interviews. (I still feel nervous when getting interviewed though, especially for a job)

Blog 14 : Third Interview Preparation

1. Who do you plan to interview?  What is this person's area of expertise?
• I plan to interview my mentor, Jenna Baumann. She has been teaching special education for plenty of years and has been rewarded a higher position in the school, vice principal, because of all the great work she has done for the school and students. 
2. Verify that you have called your interviewee to schedule an interview.  What is the date and time of the interview? 
• Friday, February 12, 2016 at 1:30 PM. 
3. Phrase an open-ended question that will help you find research resources that would help to answer the EQ.
• What is the technique that really captures the students attention and help them learn?
4. Phrase an open-ended question that will help you think about other useful activities you might do to help you answer the EQ (IC2, possible experts to talk to, etc).
• Who / What do you believe helped you learn the most about teaching special education?
5. Phrase two open-ended questions that help you to understand your interviewee's perspective on an aspect of your EQ. 
• What helps with the students focus on their work and keep them from keeping distracted?
• Do you believe that my EQ is a open ended question? Do you believe that I can get more than one answer for this question?
• Since my mentor is easy to talk to, it is quite easy to keep the conversation going. I'm also very close with her to the point where I feel comfortable to be straight up with her and ask what she thinks of my EQ. 

Note for me 

(The interview transcript  is due to turnitin.com with the 5-minute audio excerpt and entry to the blog on Friday, February 19th. In addition, you need to turn in the verification sheet to your house teacher)

Blog 10 : Interview 2 Reflection

1. Please explain how you are spending your mentor-ship time (Is it at a workplace or somewhere else?  Are you shadowing?  Are you able to do tasks that are meaningfully related to the topic?  If so, what?  Are there other people who are experts in the location?  Etc...)
• What I'm doing at my mentor-ship is observing what the teacher does and also helping the students complete their work. I help them finish their work by doing hand-over-hand in order to trace the worksheet and to show them how to complete and how to do the worksheet. I also clean the classroom when the students are out and I prepare their backpacks with take home notes for their parents and preparing them to go home. Yes, I'm surround by lots of experts. There are four teacher aids in the classroom alone and there are other teachers and staff that are experts in what they do as well. 
2. How did you find your mentor?  How did you convince this person to help you?  
• I found my mentor because she's my little brother's teacher. I didn't really have to convince her because she already me and knew how interested I was in the topic and was always happy to answer any questions that I may have and always happy when I went over to visit and help her around the classroom and students. 
3. How would you rate your comfort level with your mentor at this point in your relationship?  How does this relate to the time you've spent so far at mentor-ship/with this person?
• My comfort level is very strong with my mentor only because I would always volunteering before I actually asked her to become my mentor. We kinda already knew on another because of my brother. This relates to the time that I've spent with my mentor because when I go to do my mentor-ship hours I already feel apart of the staff because I was and still am there so often, so that I can have a normal everyday conversation with any staff person and even some students. 
4. What went well in this interview?  Why do you think so?  What do you still need to improve?  How do you know?  How will you go about it?
• A lot things went well in my interview. My mentor gave me so much information that I can use for research and the conversation would never have an awkward pause or moment. I think it went well because we already somewhat know one another so it was easy to have a conversation with one another. I need to improve with more interesting and more in depth questions. I know this because I feel like I could have gotten more information out of my mentor. I will go about it by starting to develop good questions as I go along when doing my research. Also I can ask other staff members for more information on things that I may be researching on. 

Blog 7 : Second Interview Preparation

• Who is your mentor and where do they work?  If their workplace does not reflect their expertise, what makes them an expert?

• My mentor is Jenna Baumann, and she is a teacher at Anderson Elementary School. She's considered an expert to me because she works and teaches children with special needs. Therefore, she has plenty of experience with children who struggle in learning because of certain disabilities. 

• What five questions will you ask them about their background?

• What type of college courses did you need in order to work with special education?

• What made you want to work with special education?

• What type of degree did you graduate with from college?

• With that same degree, what other jobs could you get?

• What skills does one need in order to be a good teacher for special education?

• How long did it take you to become a special education teacher?

• What is the process of becoming a special education teacher?

• Has this been your dream job since you were young?

Note to self

(The interview is due 10/31 by 8AM in numbered Q&A format to turnitin.com.  Additionally, a reflection of the experience as well as a 5 minute audio/video clip should be posted on the blog by that time.)

Blog 5 : Interview 1 Reflection

1. What is the most important thing I learned from the interview?  Is there anything I would do differently for other interviews?
• The most important thing I learned in this interview is the that teacher aids in a special education classroom play a very important role next to the teachers. Something that I would do differently for my next interview is to have prepared more questions. 
2. Did I get additional resources and contacts?  What is the most useful?  Why?
• Yes, I did get more resources because now I can get research on RBT and try to get more detailed facts about their role in a classroom. The most useful was the RBT because now I have more things to do my research check on. 
3. What makes my interviewee qualified to help me? 
• My interviewee is qualified to help me because she has been working with special education since 2001 and is a certified person RBT and is still working with students and their behavior. 

Blog 3 : First Interview Preparation

1. Who do you plan to interview?  Why?
• I plan on interviewing Adrienne Campos. I would like to interview Ms. Campos because she is the teacher's aid. She has been working with special education for many years now, therefore I believe she has plenty of experience with the different types of special needs students. I'm also interested in asking the difference between a teacher's aid and the teacher. I understand that she is the aid and is always with the students, but I still wonder what her main role is in a classroom. 
2. What additional questions do you plan to ask?  
• What special education techniques have you used to help the students learn?
• What inspired you to be a special education teacher/aid?
• How do you handle a student when he/she misbehaves? 
• How would you explain the classroom atmosphere the teacher provides for the students? 
• Do you think it's a better learning atmosphere when special needs children are combined with other students?