Mrs.

Peggie Bloomquist
Chanel Cain
William Jamison
ELED 3223

Teacher Interview
October 31, 2016

Overview
Mrs. Bloomquist has been a teacher for 20+ years and is a veteran when it comes to teaching a
diverse group of young learners. She has taught every elementary school grade at least once, and
says that she enjoyed them all. This year Mrs. B is a 2nd grade teacher at Parkside Elementary.
She has a classroom filled with at least 21 students from all over the globe. Now some students
are from the Carolinas, but quite a few are from either Sudan, Brazil, and India. It was amazing
to see not only the cultural diversity, but the educational diversity as well. At Parkside, classes
are divided by math and literacy levels. Mrs. B has the highest reading group for the first portion
of the day, and the middle math group at the end of the day. Below, are a number of strategies
and skills that Mrs. Bloomquist uses to ensure her students success.

Writing Workshop
1. Do you have Writing Workshop? If so, how do you manage yours within

your classroom? How much time is allotted for writing workshop? How many days
a week? There is a specified writing workshop time which encompasses grammar as well
as the creative side of writing. This is the time allotted also for our science/social studies
so sometimes if we are introducing a new unit then the writing will be embedded in
readers workshop. Fairly soon we will begin our nonfiction research project and a great
deal of time will be dedicated to writing for a nonfiction topic.
2. What strategies do you use with students that are having difficulty with
certain strategies and skills? Workshop time is when students are pulled either group by
group for practicing a skill or students (small group or individual) are pulled to reinforce
or push on a strategy or skill that has been taught.

3. How do you choose topics for students to write about? We move back and
forth between self-selected writing and the writing expected from the cycles given to us
by CMS.

Conclusion
It is clear from the interview and my own observations that there is no real time set aside for
Writers Workshop, which is unfortunate. I did, however, observe many science and social
studies lessons where they were given time to free write in their journals as a prior knowledge or
closure activity. As I time went on in Mrs. B classroom, I decided to ask her why there was no
designated Writers Workshop time. She said that is unfortunate that there is no time for it, but
she embeds it in as many lessons as she can. I believe that time constraints can be a big issue for
lots of teachers not only in Parkside Elementary, but around the country as well.

Instructional Questions
1. What are some instructional challenges as a teacher? The month of September
was mostly devoted to assessments. I have a higher student absentee rate and there are
always holidays or programs which disrupt consistency in the classroom. All of this
interrupts the flow of teaching units.

2. What do you consider essential characteristics for successful teaching? In

order to be successful you need to be consistent in your expectations, behavior, classroom
management and routines. You need to set high expectations for all students. You also
have to connect to your students. They need to know that you are interested in them, care
about them and believe in them.

3. How often do your students receive social studies/science instruction? Are you satisfied
with the amount of time given? Students receive social studies every morning right now with
the bully and socialization lessons. Science comes 2-4 times a week with the literacy block. No
I dont think its enough time especially because the science is now tested in fifth grade.

Conclusion
Mrs. Bloomquists expectations are based on consistency. In order to be an effective teacher,
we must clearly state and model the expectations and goals that we have for students from the
start. Also, the expectations have to be set for each individual child without limiting any childs
growth. I feel that teaching is much more than just teaching, it is connecting. Every child is
gifted.
It is important for teachers to find what works best for each and every students, and employ that
to fit their needs. For this line of questioning it is important to also acknowledge that with
expectations, there will be hiccups along the way. Mrs. B says that she doesnt feel like she gets a
lot of time to complete assessments and science/social studies lesson plan. I understand now that
as a teacher, I will not be able to accomplish everything that I would like to, but it is important to
do what I can.

Classroom Management Questions

1. What motivation tactics do you use to ensure a desire to learn? You need to
establish routines that students can predict. I am famous for asking the students What
should you do? How would you solve that? I dont know, someone look that up for us
What do you think I am going to say or suggest? I want them to realize that we are a
team, I am teaching, but they can be a part of that. They can bring their ideas, knowledge
and teach us as well.

2. Tell me about your classroom community, What are the class rules? How is student
behavior monitored? We create a class constitution. I teach them how everything must be
written in the positive tell me what to do, NOT what not to do - Walk in the hallways, keep
your hands by your side, sit quietly and eat in the cafeteria. The rules are consistent throughout
the entire school which is very helpful because that means the consequences are also consistent
everywhere. We have the clip charts from Leader In Me and all students know what is expected
everywhere. They also know that the teachers communicate about behavior.

3. Tell me about the pacing of lessons and interaction in the classroom- use of time- and
other aspects of timewait time, and time using teacher talk and student talk. What
works well with your students? The literacy class is quite bright so I give them a little more
leeway in staying on task. We have dialog and its a little bit looser about raising hands and
calling out. But they do understand that when I give a direction, it is expected. There are
rewards for those who follow immediately (clipping up) and there are consequences (clipping
down) for those that dont. Math needs to be a bit stricter because these students get off task
much faster and get much noisier much faster. Work doesnt get accomplished without a tighter
routine.

Conclusion
With the new use of the Common Core standards, students are encouraged to take a few steps
back and let students be the leader of their learning. A child-centred teacher tries to create an
environment that will motivate the children to discover new skills and knowledge. Achieving this
goal means understanding what the participants value, and engaging them in those areas.
Students bring much to the table that would engage and deepen their learning journey.