Teacher Mentor Interview
Why did you become a teacher?
Annie Samuels, English Teacher: Honestly, I didn’t even think I was going to become a teacher until college. It’s been the most rewarding experience of my life; other than raising my own children obviously! It made sense to me because I always had a passion for writing while I was growing up, then I ended up here and stayed because I love being here at this school with these kids.
Levy Jones, English Teacher: I think it made sense to me after I had begun coaching baseball. I had attended school here at Santa Rosa High and when I realized I could teach here I jumped at the opportunity. Helping people to ultimately help themselves is a big reason I decided to become an educator.
What qualities or traits have you found to be particularly effective for teaching?
AS: I have always believed in providing students with a caring presence. I think it’s certainly always kind of been a major part of my teaching style to provide sort of a safe and secure presence for all of my students; they can feel that and they know when it’s legitimate or not.
LJ: Well for any new teacher my recommendation is always authenticity. You can’t walk into the room and try to act like some other teacher that you may know really well and respect and admire, but it’s not you. You have to be yourself and you have to find the bits and pieces you like from other teachers to make them your own.
How do you approach discipline in the classroom?
AS: I typically don’t have to go beyond asking a student to step outside if they are really being obnoxious or distracting. Obviously, I have horror stories like any teacher does but after my first few years I figured out my style and now I’ve rarely had to take serious action for student misbehavior. I typically step outside once the student has a sec to cool off and I’ll engage in a conversation and try to figure out what’s going on; Ninety-nine percent of the time the kids will tell me what’s going on or just come clean that they are having a bad day. Sometimes they need a second more and then they come back in and I’m fine with that; the student is cooling off and the class is maintained.
LJ: Discipline is important to me as a teacher and I try to reflect that back to my students. A few times a year I might have to send a student to the office but that really doesn’t change much so I try my best to avoid that. We have detention but again I don’t find those create any shift in attitude if a student is chronically misbehaving. Typically, I try to keep things in house; I will ask students to leave the room so I can talk with them in the hallway if they are causing a major distraction.
Any methods you can recommend for engaging students?
AS: I’ve always appreciated the way that I am able to apply plenty of artistic opportunities in my English curriculum. The school is flexible with us as a staff when it comes to giving students opportunities to create because we understand it’s a part of engaging students. Another big thing I use is creating multiple options for larger projects. It’s kind of a trick, but you create two or three tough options and then one easy option, the easy option isn’t necessarily meant to actually be easier, only appear easier, but it’s the option that you would want the majority of your students to complete. You get some surprises from students going for the tougher options and then you’re happy with the results from the “easy” option.
LJ: Any time you’re trying to engage students with course material I think it’s important to be aware of the class that you are working with. The honors class isn’t going to take on a lesson the same way a regular class will; even two regular classes can have two completely different preps necessary for creating a truly engaging lesson plan.
Do you apply much technology inside of the classroom?
AS: I do use the projector when I went to model some type of writing or share some of my own writing. We actually got a bunch of Google Chrome Books last year and those have been great for putting technology right in students’ hands. We have a large number of FRL students so being able to make sure you can bring in a classroom set of Chrome Books is really fantastic.
LJ: Ah I have always been a firm believer in pen and paper. Final Drafts are typed more often than not but I always accept it when students turn in a clean hand-written copy on time because you don’t know what’s going on at home. My regular classes definitely participate in more pencil to paper activities and I think that is extremely valuable for getting them to engage with writing.
How do you deal with difficult parents?
AS: Difficult parents are another aspect that I fortunately haven’t had to deal with much. Staying on top of emails is really important. An easy way to upset a parent is to lose track of their email voicing concerns or something and leave them with no response. If a parent does get upset with you via email make sure to step away from your response if you feel yourself getting upset; you can always come back and respond later.
LJ: Whenever I’m emailing with a parent, regardless of their inquisition, on my first email response I offer them as much information as I possibly can. It serves multiple purposes: For starters, almost all of the parent emails you get are about grades, so I give them the full list of assignments and grades so they know exactly why their child has that grade. Second, I rarely end up getting a follow up email because they have all the info they could need and I can keep my inbox from overflowing with parent emails.
Do you participate in other activities in relation to SRHS?
AS: Yeah absolutely, the Art Quest program has become a huge focus for me, it honestly takes up just as much if not more of my school time than English does at this point in my teaching career. We always have things to coordinate and plan out for the kids so the program really keeps me on my toes but I love creating these big themes because the kids manage to wow us and surprise us every single year with all of their pieces and performances.
LJ: I was the coaching baseball here for a few years but now I’m coaching the women’s tennis team. Golf certainly brings on a different set of challenges compared to coaching varsity baseball and we don’t always compete with some of the bigger schools, but it’s a great sport for working on focus and that’s certainly one of my major points of emphasis with both on the green and in the class room.
What is the most difficult aspect of teaching today?
AS: Well the effects of the election and the current administration in the white house has really taken a toll on our kids here; From LGBTQ students to students with undocumented parents, we have a large portion of our students’ body that feels unsafe with legitimate concern regarding the direction of this country. The kids went out and protested last year and we encouraged that as a staff. It’s a part of why I have stayed here at SRHS; we have always been leaders in social advocacy for human rights and social justice all the way back to the seventies. I constantly show the kids that social justice has always been important to this school and I really think it helps establish our school as a safe space for the students.
LJ: Cell phones are going to become an increasingly larger problem. It seems over the years that students struggle more and more to simply stay off of them at appropriate times. We can’t take phones away anymore. I try to establish clear times in class where phones are away and then transition into more flexible moments when phones can be accessed. It’s just become something you have to be prepared to work around and remain firm in the way you levy the consequences on students for using them.
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- School, Community & Context James Pennington
