Using them as reflective questions on my own teaching doesn't hurt either. Got it from A Passion for Teaching
1. Teaching assignments, how long? Wait a minute, is this questions asking how long assignments given by the teacher should be, or how long each of my teaching experiences have been? I'm guessing the later. If it was the former, then it would be "student assignments." I've been providing private tutoring off and on since high school. More formally, my teaching experiences run like this:
St. Paul's College/HKU after-school Conversational English Program. 8 weeks or so.
Foreign English Teacher, SMBS. 1 year.
Young Rembrandts art instructor. 1.5 years.
1st grade student teaching placement, WB. 1 semester.
5th grade student teaching placement, EIB. 7 long weeks and counting.
2. Favorite Class Taught and Why? Most of my "good teaching days" occurred in 1st grade. Teaching English as a foreign language rocks. And not only because Engrish is hilarious.
3. Worst Class Taught and Why? Most of my "bad teaching days" have occurred in 5th grade so far. If I survive in this career long enough, I'll look forward to having a class even more difficult than this one behavior-wise.
4. Favorite Class Taken? The History of Mathematics, Probability Theory, Euclidean Geometry, Intro to Proofs (with Sallee, NOT that other dude), and all my Chinese classes at UCD. Chinese Music at HKU. Mr. Griley's English Comp and Ms. Landucci's AP Calculus at LHS.
5. Favorite Education Book? Technically, all books are about being educated in one way or another. I really enjoyed Kaleidoscope: Readings in Education by Ryan and Cooper. It's full of stories from the trenches.
6. Best Teacher Buddy? It's amazing how many people I know who are in the education field - a dozen from just a five second head count! Not including the people I met after I got into UTEC. Everyone in UTEC with me are awesome. Shout outs to AL and JMC as well.
7. Best Administrator? My experiences with administrators are little to nonexistent. I suppose an ideal administrator to work with, IMO, is one that balances being hands-on-hands-off well. Approachable and supportive of what goes on in the classroom, but also allows teachers breathing space for creativity. I'll be more specific with this as I develop a better understanding of the administrator's role.
8. Most Disappointing Experience? Haha, I'm living through it right now. It's so frustrating to know this class is manageable. Just not by me apparently.
9. Most Thrilling Moment? This is a tie between the moment a kid almost tossed his cookies at my feet before I rushed him outside with a hall pass and the order not to come back until he gets his business done in the bathroom and the moment a kid threw a golf ball up at the ceiling and broke a florescent light.
10. Funniest Incident in Your Classroom? Oh my goodness, there are so many! The time I kept walking into a class when it wasn't time for me to teach it yet. The time I kept knocking this portable whiteboard over until it finally broke. This adorable first grader who got so excited about getting his words right that he fell out of his chair. The kid who wrote, "My tears fall like rain on dry cement," and he WOULD NOT STOP TALKING ABOUT IT. Thank God my sense of humor is still intact throughout this horrendous phase III.
11. Most memorable student? I have a lot for this one too. The kid who looks like a girl but is really a boy. But he REALLY looks like a girl. The first grader who says, "Uh-oh," in this most endearing way. The fifth grader who loves Anne of Green Gables. This other fifth grader who has serious ADHD issues but is the sweetest, brightest, most observant kid and who reminds me of a first grader in a good way. That is if he isn't bouncing off the walls and dancing to the soundtrack in his head.
12. What about unions? Um, they send you magazines a lot? It's nice to have liability and life insurance for $30 a year though. I don't know, this is another facet of the field that I'm not very knowledgeable in.
13. What about charter schools? Like every other school, it just depends. There are serious craptastic charter schools. And then there are charters schools light years ahead of everyone else.
14. What about merit pay? I'm all for it. Teachers deserve a little extrinsic reward for working in a field that seems to only provide intrinsic ones. What I'm not for is penalizing schools and teachers for poor student performance on high stakes tests by taking funding and salaries away. THAT is so not cool. And if it comes to the point of decreasing a teacher's salary for poor performance, then honey, it's time to fire that teacher and get a new, improved one.
15. What does "21st century learning" mean? I've never heard of it. But then I've never heard of a lot of things. It seems like another one of those catchy, trendy educational terms that people change the name of every ten years or so but it really means the same thing as before.
16. What makes a teacher "effective?" The ability to engage students in a positive social and academic atmosphere of learning and respect for all.
17. Most overrated "reform?" High stakes testing. Although technically, this subject has gotten pretty low ratings across the board. Unless you're a politician that is.
18. Best professional development? Observing other teachers and self-reflection.
19. Personal education hero? Maria Montessori. Tiny chairs rock!
20. Priorities, if you could spend $5 billion on education? In this order: teacher training including instructional/content/pedagogy/etc development, providing teachers with lesson study cycle opportunities, more teachers (lower student:teacher ratio), reinstating arts, sciences, and physical education to a higher status, updating facilities and buildings. All of these at high-needs schools first. Maybe only, since non-high-needs schools probably already have these things in place.
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