Teacher Interview Assignment

The person I chose to interview was a friend from church, Jennifer Erickson. She was a

graduate of Chico State’s Liberal Studies and Credential program. Currently, she is on maternity

leave but is employed by Chico Unified School District. She teaches kindergarten at McManus

elementary school, she has also taught 2nd and 3rd grade prior. Of the schools in Chico,

McManus is an at-risk, title 1 school. A high majority of the students are eligible for free or

reduced lunch, the student population is high among colored students. The interview consisted of

her classroom management strategies for both kindergarten and the higher grades. Classroom

management for Jenn looked different for the different age levels. One thing that was consistent

was that students needed to be reminded of their behavior expectations daily.

She follows a nurtured heart approach and emphasizes praising the students and the

desired behavior she is expecting of them. An example of this for kindergarteners includes:

“Destinee you are doing such a great job following rules, you have your legs crossed and your

mouth is closed. Your eyes are focused on me and you are ready to learn. Wow, Jeremiah, you

are also displaying the correct things for us to learn”. This is a takeaway because praising

students can meet their emotional needs, it allows students to mimic the appropriate behavior and

also gives the teacher a chance to see what students need more praise to get their behavior in

check. She uses more a lovey tone when speaking to the younger students, for the older grades

the language she uses is more hip and relevant to that age. An example of this is, “Girl, you are

rocking this assignment”. The choice of language and tone is important because a 5 year old

would probably not understand what that compliment meant. This also goes back to knowing

your students.
 The next thing we discussed were classroom rules. She mentioned that these rules needed

to be repeated multiple times a day. 3-5 rules were the right amount for her class, they also were

similar to the school rules. For example: if you cannot run in the halls, you cannot run in the

classroom. The rules were to never contradict each other because that would result in conflicting

messages. Her rules differed by age group but all grade levels were given posters as a visual

aide. Instead of repeating the rules constantly, she followed a 1-2-3 example. This is described as

3 being on task and 1 being very poor. This is important because telling your students to just stop

will not work, this 1-2-3 example displays the levels of appropriateness.

The last thing that stood out to me was how she implemented seating charts. She had

students in pairs of two, they were paired based on their skill level. One with low-skills and the

other with higher, this allowed students to work together and even boost their partners skills

and/or habits. At the end of each month she had students write down who they wanted to sit by.

They had the option to write who they wanted to sit by, and who they would be more successful

sitting with. This was a concept I never heard about before but I think it allows students to have

an active role in their classroom environment.

I have learned so much from this interview and it is reassuring to hear what actually is

successful and what is not in the classroom. I am hopeful that when I volunteer at the local

schools that I can start forming my classroom management strategies. Leaving the interview, I

did not know what the nurtured heart approach was, but I would like to learn more. I think it

resembles an approach I would like to use. With the classroom rules, I think the 1-2-3 example is

great and would work well. You mentioned that you used a stoplight type object, that would go

hand-in-hand with this approach. What I would do to reinforce classroom rules is to add attention
getters to make students feel good about being on task. Something that I was unsure about was

her method on seating charts. Is it really good to move students each month? Or would it be

better after each unit ended? Overall, I think letting students write down who they want to sit by

gives them involvement in their learning process. I would like to meet with Mrs. Erickson again

to go in depth about these topics. I have learned new things that I can use and add my touch on.

This interview has allowed me to see a classroom through another perspective which I am

grateful for.