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Take Two: questions for our Alum Teachers

2/16/2021

20 Comments

 
Hopefully, even if your group didn't come up with many questions for our alums, you've had some time to think about this and have perhaps come up with questions on your own. It's important that folks are asking at least some common questions across our class, thus, on Thursday, in class, we will need to finalize our list of questions. And before we do that, we need a robust set of questions to start with that we can combine, narrow, focus, edit, tweak into a list of 5 to 7 questions you can email your alums and then, either via email or zoom or FaceTime or what have you, get some answers for. 

To begin, let me remind you of what you came up with in class on Tuesday: 
Draft/possible questions for alums
  • How do you differentiate within the same class? 
  • How do you manage behavior?
  • What are some challenges when transitioning from student to teacher? (LT: I think this is a really powerful question)
  • Suggestions for classroom management?
  • Tactics for handling individual needs?
  • What do you do when students are clearly uninterested/bored in the lesson?
  • How do you motivate a student who does not care/is not motivated?
  • How would you assess the first day of school/teaching and then beyond?
  • How to get the students AND other faculty to take you seriously as a new/young teacher?

There is a lot of repetition here and I think that when all is said and done there are really one or two questions that will come out of it. 

Here is a question that I always include in this assignment and will again this time. I post it here to give you a sense of of how you might shape your questions in order to elicit more than a few sentences and/or yes/no answers--which will not be helpful to you as you write your paper. Good questions are at the heart of all research, and, in particular, qualitative research (which an interview is). 

"if you had to tell one story that summed up your teaching career--one story about a student, about a class, about a year, about a professional experience--what would that one story be and why does it sum up your career?"

WHAT TO POST: Please post one question you want to ask an alum. If you think someone else has posted a good question, you can simply post whose question you think is a good one. Remember, we want roughly 5 to 7 questions to begin with. No need to do anything else and there is no word count. Simply post your question. We'll review and make final selections, word-smithing decisions in class on Thursday. 

20 Comments
Stasia Wing
2/16/2021 02:44:13 pm

This wasn't a question that I discussed with my group, however, I think it could be an important questions for others. How did you decide what kind of school you wanted to teach in? ex. public, private, charter, etc.

Reply
Sara McNaughton
2/17/2021 07:56:39 am

Have you ever had an experience with a student that changed the way you thought about your teaching style/methods?

Reply
Catie Mullen
2/17/2021 09:21:20 am

If you could go back to school and start all over, what is something that you would do differently? How do you think that would've affected who you are as a teacher?

Reply
Patricia Diaz
2/17/2021 09:39:06 am

I have been doing a lot of reflection about what is currently thinking in the world and in this country, especially with topics such a racial justice. This is one of the questions that I would love to ask my teacher:

How do you talk and/or approach hard topics, like racism, in the classroom?

Reply
LT
2/18/2021 06:48:14 am

I would love to see this question or a version of this question in our list of 5, Patricia. It's super relevant and important. Having difficult discussions with students is how we move closer to justice

Reply
Olivia Halpin
2/17/2021 09:57:26 am

What is the most important advice for a (hopefully) smooth transition from being an undergraduate student to working in the classroom in the first year of teaching?

Reply
Rachael Sweeney
2/17/2021 04:01:01 pm

What is the hardest part of your job and how do you overcome it?

Reply
Angel Walsh
2/17/2021 04:30:42 pm

What is one thing you wish you knew before becoming a teacher?

Reply
Danielle Delaroca
2/17/2021 07:12:32 pm

This is one I discussed with my group because we talked about the statistic that many teachers burnout within their first few years of teaching. So a question I would like to ask is:
"What do you do to relieve your stress/avoid burnout?"

Reply
Djenifer Goncalves
2/17/2021 07:32:38 pm

How do you deal with students that don't want to be taught?

Reply
John Cronin
2/17/2021 09:47:03 pm

What was the hardest challenge you had to overcome during your first year of teaching?

Reply
Maria Pestilli
2/18/2021 05:24:35 am

What are some good methods to keep students engaged in class?

Reply
Courtney Beale
2/18/2021 06:05:36 am

Do you ever set goals for yourself? Yearly, monthly, weekly, or in regard to a student? If so, what are some of them and how to you deal with occasionally missing those goals?

Reply
Vanessa Semeraro
2/18/2021 06:29:45 am

How do you control the entire class when one student is acting up? I have a tough time with that at my current job.

Reply
Marie-Elizabeth Sholes
2/18/2021 06:39:40 am

what's one thing you wish someone had told you before you even chose your major?

Reply
Rowan Kelley
2/18/2021 06:39:51 am

What is your approach to classroom management? Do you have any advice for when a student misbehaves or is uninterested? What about a student who is ahead of their peers and appears bored during class?

Reply
Andrew Mortarelli
2/18/2021 06:45:33 am

What is one thing that surprised you the most when doing your student teaching?

Reply
Sydney Silverman
2/18/2021 05:08:07 pm

If you could give me one piece of advice for when I begin student teaching, what would it be?

Reply
Nathan Weebly
2/19/2021 11:23:16 am

Support team verifying the commenting system for blogs.

Reply
Cedes
2/23/2021 06:29:23 am

How do you support your fellow teachers and how do they support you?

How do you deal with it when you have to teach things outside of your belief system? (One of my friends who teaches 4th grade was forced to teach Columbus... the lie of Columbus, and she did it, but then she worked the truth into a future lesson plan, but I was upset she had to lie.) What lies are “okay” to tell in the classroom?

Reply



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  • Home
  • ENGL 489 Advanced Portfolio
    • ENGL 489 AUTHOR BIOS
    • ENGL 489 CLASS DISCUSSION BOARD
    • ENGL 489 SYLLABUS >
      • GUIDELINES FOR BEING PRESENT ONLINE
    • ENGL 489 WRITER'S NOTEBOOK (ASSIGNMENTS)
    • ENGL 489 ICRN (ASSIGNMENTS)
    • ENGL 489 RETHINK/REVISE (ASSIGNMENTS)
    • ENGL 489 Interview with An Author (ASSIGNMENTS)
    • ENGL 489 MENTOR TEXT MEMOIR (ASSIGNMENTS)
  • ENGL 301 Writing & Teaching
    • ENGL 301 CLASS UPDATES
    • ENGL301 CLASS PROFILE PAGE
    • ENGL301 CLASS DISCUSSION BOARD
    • ENGL 301 SYLLABUS DAY
    • ENGL 301 PORTFOLIOS
    • ENGL 301 READING JOURNALS (assignment) >
      • ENGL 301 LT WRITING AND STUFF
    • ENGL 301 INTERVIEW WITH A TEACHER (assignment)
    • ENGL 301 FLASH MENTOR TEXT MEMOIR (assignment)
    • ENGL 301 BOOK CLUB (assignment)
    • ENGL 301 RESEARCH IN TEACHING DIVERSE POPULATIONS (assignment)
  • ENGL344 YA LIT
    • ENGL 344 CLASS PROFILE PAGE
    • ENGL344 CLASS UPDATE
    • ENGL 344 SPRING 2021 CLASS DISCUSSION BOARD
    • ENGL344 YA LIT SYLLABUS >
      • GUIDELINES FOR BEING PRESENT ONLINE IN ENGL101
    • ENGL344 YA LIT assignment: Flash Memoir YA Edit
  • Previously Taught Classes
    • ENGL101 Writing Rhetorically >
      • 101 SYLLABUS
      • BOOK CLUB >
        • How to do virtual BOOK CLUB
        • BOOK CLUB OPTIONS
      • PARTNER INTERVIEW MINI-PAPER
      • 101READER'S NOTES
      • THE BIG DEAL: Archival Ethnography of Bridgewater State
      • THE BIG TALK: Alumni Interview Project
      • THE BIG IDEA: WE ARE BRIDGEWATER: FINAL PROJECT & PRESENTATION
    • ENGL 202 BIZ Com >
      • ENGL 202 Business Writing SYLLABUS
    • 226 Writing & Writing Studies
    • ENGL 227 INTRO TO CNF WORKSHOP
    • ENGL 298 Second Year Seminar: This Bridgewater Life
    • ENGL406 RESEARCH IN WRITING STUDIES
    • ENGL 493 THE PERSONAL ESSAY
    • ENGL 493 Seminar in Writing & Writing Studies: The History of First Year Composition >
      • ENGL 493 Assignments: Annotated Bibliography & Presentation
    • ENGL 513 COMP THEORY & PEDAGOGY >
      • CLASS PROFILE ENGL 513 COMP T&P
    • ENGL 511 Reading & Writing Memoir
    • DURFEE Engl101
  • BSU Homepage