Danielle

Vachon
Educ 861
Interview Paper
29 September 2014


For my paper I interviewed a classroom teacher, a special education teacher,
paraprofessional, and a Speech Pathologist. Some of the questions that I asked these
professionals were: What is your level of experience (how long have you been
teaching), what are you successes in the field, what are some of your biggest
challenges and how have you overcome them, how do you communicate with the
family, and what modifications or support strategies do you use for the learner? All
of these professionals were very helpful and gave me lots of information.

The first person I interviewed was a Kindergarten classroom teacher. She

taught Preschool for over 20 years but this is her 2nd official year in Kindergarten.
She said that she has always had a passion for teaching young children so she
considers herself very experienced in the early childhood field. Her successes have
been connecting with each and every one of the learners in her classroom over the
years. She said she has a special way of building a relationship with the children and
their families so that they feel completely comfortable coming to her classroom. One
of her biggest challenges was moving from Preschool to Kindergarten. She had
taught Preschool for as long as she can remember and then one day decided that she
needed a change. She saw that there was a job opening in a Kindergarten classroom
and decided to apply. When she got the job she had mixed emotions (happy and
scared). She wasnt sure if she was going to be able to follow a new curriculum and
meet different guidelines than she was used to. This came about another one of her
successes: surviving her first year! She overcame her first year as a teacher in a

public school by taking advantage of the resources around her. She bonded with
many fellow teachers and got ideas from them. Her biggest lesson was, Dont
reinvent the wheel, use the resources in the school and then build on them with
your own ideas. I then asked her about how she communicates with the families of
the children in her classroom. She responded by saying she has Friday Folders.
She sends the folders home every Friday with a note on how the child did that past
week and 3 things that they can be working on at home. She then asks the parents to
either sign below her message or leave a comment and return the folders on
Monday. At the beginning of the year she gave all of the families her email address
too. The final question I asked her was about how she makes modifications and
supports a learner in her classroom. She said that after the first week of school she
can tell how much a child knows and what skills they need to work on. She said that
she individualizes all of the learners work. Every 2 weeks she stays after school and
makes folders for the personalized learning goals of every child. In this case, the
child that I interviewed her for has a delay and can only say a few words. During
literacy blocks when the other children are doing their jobs, she will take this child
for 15 minute periods and work with him on letter identification and sounds using
picture cue cards. She said that if a child needs extra help, she will make sure that
she sees them at least twice a day for one on one instruction time.

The second person I interviewed was the special education case manager for

Kindergarten. Her job is to oversee any children in the grade that have IEPs and
support classroom teachers. She has been working in the early childhood field for
about 10 years. This is her first year as the Kindergarten case manager so she said

that she is constantly learning each and every day. Her successes in the field would
be her communication skills. She talks a lot with classroom teachers, paras, other
case managers, and most of all, families. Her biggest challenge is trying to make her
schedule. Her day is very hectic and she has to meet with every child a certain
amount of time each day while also trying to schedule time to meet with
professionals at the school and families. She said her schedule is constantly a work
in progress because it is apt to change at any time. She overcomes this by using her
amazing communication skills and just staying on top of things. She said that she
always needs to be flexible and understanding when working in early childhood. She
communicates with families by scheduling home visits, meetings, through email, by
phone, etc. She is always in constant contact with families no matter what. She said
that the, Families are the professionals on their child, I am just there to guide them
through the school system and help them along their journey. She modifies almost
every lesson she has for learners. Her job is to come up with things that will
challenge the children in her caseload but also reinforce their learning. She helps the
classroom teachers come up with teaching strategies to use for the students in their
room that are in need of extra supports. She will push in to classrooms most of the
time to support the learner in an environment where they are comfortable. She is a
big believer in inclusive classrooms.

The third person I interviewed was the childs paraprofessional. She has

always worked with children growing up but decided to take a break from working
when she had children of her own. She then started working 3 years ago as a
paraprofessional at the school. She said her experience changes each year because

she is assigned a new learner every school year. I really have to get to know the
child and find out what their personality is and get a background on their learning
before I can really step in and make a difference. Her success and challenge go hand
in hand. She said that bonding with the child can be the biggest challenge at the
beginning of the year but then by the end of the year it feels like one of the biggest
successes knowing that you made a difference. She said each year varies on how she
communicates with families. She has found that one of the most successful ways is
through a communication log. She will buy a cheap notebook at the beginning of the
year and write a note or two about how the child did that day, what some of the
successes were, and challenges. She then will put the notebook in the childs
backpack at the end of each day and hope for a response from parents (she said that
this way has been very positive for her). For modifications and supports she usually
meets with the classroom teacher and special education teacher to find out how she
can motivate and help the learner. At the beginning of each year they will all sit
down and go over to IEP and talk about different ways that they can achieve each
goal. She said this has been very helpful to her because then she knows exactly how
she needs to say to the learner and use for tools to help in the process. She said each
month a team of people will get together and see if the IEP needs to be changed or
altered in any way and each member of the team can give their input on how the
child is learning.

The last person I interviewed was the Speech Pathologist. She has been at the

school for 11 years. She went to college knowing she wanted to go for speech
because she has a little brother who developed a lisp growing up. Her biggest

success is seeing childrens speech change from the littlest bit to a dramatic change.
Her biggest challenge is getting through to some children. Some of them pick up on
sounds and cues when others will one day but then the next will not remember a
thing. She said that speech is one of the hardest things for some children to pick up.
Another challenge for her is the process. She wants the children to make the big
dramatic change right off the bat but she has to remind herself that it takes time and
patience. She overcomes this by remembering all of her past children and seeing the
difference she made in their lives that they came to her for speech. She
communicates with the family by typing up weekly reports and giving them to the
classroom teacher so they can be sent home in the childs backpack. She also has
open communication with family through email and phone anytime they need to
talk with her. At the beginning of the year she sits down with the family and gets an
idea from them where they see their child in the future and what gains they want
them to make. She meets with children based on what their IEP says. She said that
she could see a child once a week for speech or up to 10 times a week. She pulls
them out of their room so they can get one on one instruction time. She said that it is
key to have the childs full attention on you so they dont have any distractions when
practicing speech. She also meets with the special education teacher, classroom
teacher, and para to give them directions on different techniques they can use when
working with the child to boost their skills in speech and language.

After interviewing these 4 professionals I learned a lot. A child receives so

much support from so many different people in just one day. That can be very
overwhelming to a 5 or 6 year old. One thing that they all said to me in their

interviews was that the child comes first. They all said they want to make the child
and their family as comfortable as possible. This means introducing themselves,
having multiple meetings about goals and expectations, and following through with
communication. Each of their roles is very different but also similar at the same
time. They are all with the child at different times during the day, doing different
things with the child. They each serve a purpose in the childs learning so
communication is key to making this whole process successful. I enjoyed talking
with each of these professionals and getting their viewpoint on learning. It definitely
helped me learn what hard work each of them puts into their jobs and making the
childs time with them a success. It also helped me learn and build on what kind of
teacher I want to be. I want to be open and willing to learn someone elses idea
about something. Overall, this interview was useful to me taking the next step to
becoming an even better teacher and learning about the process of helping 1 child
out of many.