Reflection on Teacher and Student Interviews

My group, also consisting of Amelia Landon and Sam Douglas, took on the task of asking a teacher and a student five burning questions in an effort to discover teaching styles and methods that will work well for us. We were able to set up an interview with John Yamamoto, the Secondary Practicum Program Coordinator for the Education Faculty at the University of British Columbia. While he is not currently a secondary teacher, he taught for many years in Trail and Burnaby, in the regular, correctional and special needs school systems. Our current high school student was Sam’s younger sister who attends grade ten.
The interview with Mr. Yamamoto was very interesting as he has seen many different teaching environments over his career.
Our first question for him was, “what did you find to be your biggest challenges with your early teaching experiences?” He discussed his early issues with classroom management and working around the noise of the classroom as opposed to controlling it. He discussed his solution was to make the expectations of his classroom as clear as possible.
Another good question was, “what accommodations have you made to help students with learning difficulties?” This question struck a chord considering his diverse previous experience. While working with the deaf, he was forced to consider the pace at which he spoke, especially when working with a translator. Although, he said with practice this was not an issue at all. Working in the correctional system, he was forced to deal with many personality issues and said in all school systems, “their problems usually have nothing do with you (as the teacher)”.
Our final question asked Mr. Yamamoto what he enjoyed most and least about teaching. He said he loved the interactions with the kids and enjoyed watching them grow, but it was always tough to see them move on to new phases in their lives beyond high school. He also indicated poor balance in the curricula and teaching large class sizes as things that made teaching difficult, but he said overwhelmingly that the good outweighed the bad.
The interview with our grade ten student also provided some interesting responses. She was asked how her first impressions of a teacher are formed. Her answer listed a good sense of humour and a healthy level of classroom organization as being important for making a decision.
Our grade ten student was also asked how she felt about incorporating more group activities in Math class. She was not fond of the idea saying that she prefers to work alone and that group work can lead to confusion. While some students do like group work, it is good to note that there will be many who will feel uncomfortable.
Finally she was asked about a memorable way that a teacher has helped you to understand a tricky concept. She relayed a funny story used to help the understanding of solving an equation. It is nice to hear that sometimes a little ingenuity and humour can go a long way with adolescents.
There will never be a universal agreement on which is the best teaching style from either the teacher or student perspective, but it is very helpful to note things that tend to work and be well liked. While only interviewing one teacher and one student, this was a great exercise to find what some perspectives are on both ends.