Teacher Interview

Teacher: Jessica Jenkot

Subject(s): Middle School English

Location: Walt Disney Magnet School (CPS)

I conducted my interview with a family friend, Ms. Jenkot. She currently is a Middle School English educator at the Disney magnet school in CPS and has been at that specific school for the past three years. Unlike myself, she has always wanted to be an English teacher and has pursued her field since graduating high school and swimming/studying at Truman State University. And after college she spent a few years teaching English in Spain, so while she is relatively young by teacher standards, I believe that her experience in different settings and populations would provide a good brain to pick for this interview. The interview was conducted over the phone, and the follow are my notes of the conversation and I will try to flesh them out as clearly as possible.

Questions:

How would you define/describe your classroom management philosophy? That is to say, what informs your decisions to make sure your class runs smoothly on a daily basis?

• Many factors/things
• While middle-schoolers, respect is the center of management, all ages want to feel respected and safe. So I try to establish a room where people feel safe and respected and WANT to respect each other because of that. This year she implemented a system instead of yelling at them, she handed out “reminder” token; 2 token loss of precipitation points, 3rd is a home contact. Worked well; no yelling, everyone knew what it was for, you're not yelling at the bad kids and robbing the good students of their attention, but overall you seem successful so far. Emphasis on establishing a good class environment, reminding the expectations, and holding firm on the rules. It hard to remain 100% consistent but overall effective in maintaining classroom environment.

How do you handle disruptive/misbehaving students who make it difficult for others to learn?

• Chip system is in place
• It's hard to have a “good system” 24/7 try to avoid sending me to the dean or out of the class
• Redirections, or removing from a specific group/setting
• Picking your battles is important, sometimes it's better to tolerate a “goofy” kid and pick your battles than try to constantly enforcing the rules to avoid bringing the class to a halt.
• Says knowing which battles to fight comes from experience and knowing your students/class

How does the organization of your room (student desk arrangements, teachers desk, furniture, proximity to students, etc.) affect your classroom management plan?

• Clear labels promotes responsibility / knowing where stuff is and being able to find it for themselves.
• No teacher desk, helps with organization, forces her to put things away correctly and not just pile on the desk
• Creates a calming environment so everyone knows where everything is and kids are responsible for turning in their work, no “I turned it in on your desk.” issues
• Less chaos
• Different areas to do work; such as “reading futon/rug”, flexible seating areas w/ 25 “traditional desks”, open areas allow fidgety students to go move around in the back freely without distracting other students.
• Lots of plants and natural lights to boost the mood for the teacher and the students alike
• Comfy area can be used as an incentive/ have to be caught up with class work to sit on the couch
• Easy ability to create small groups with group work

How do you “set the tone” the first day(s) of the school year to communicate your (discipline) expectations to students?

• Started off nice to kids attempting to get to know them, but now just one icebreaker to get to know, but then right away into the class to set the tone of using their brains right away
• Important to be nice, but also needing to show the need for mutual respect/getting work done
• Meeting in the middle between nice and kind and being a pushover
• Takes practice
• Important to create a welcoming environment to welcome students who may under-perform in reading etc.
• Established your own rule set THEN allowed the students add to the rules
• YOU set the bar and then allow for the addition, not on the same level, important to set boundaries and abide by them.
• Both parties benefit by having boundaries and structure, especially with younger kids.

A student is consistently late to your class. How do you handle the situation?

• Conversation about why they are late, seeing if there is an actual reason or if they're just choosing to be late. It is important to find the actual cause not just jump to the conclusion. Gotta see if it is in their control, and why they are making the choices, setting a clear expectation and punishment if the problem continues.

What is your administrations view of classroom management? Does it align with your own philosophy or does it differ in some way?

• It's a mx of combining school wide policies in your own classroom you may not agree with. Phones/etc. Wish there was a more formal detention/punishment system She has to enforce her own punishment which punishes herself as well as the student. Can't just “send them to the dean” you have to implement your own punishment systems and hold your own detentions, can't just sent them to in-school suspension or the dean's office.

• The kids write their own emails/letters to their parents explaining why they did something/ creating ownership. Having the students explain it to their parents and not allowing yourself to be the middleman. Forcing them to own up to their behavior creates responsibility and having the parents explaining themselves. Establish a line of communication between you and home and keeping it open and constant if the situation needs it

How do you feel about “non-traditional” classroom setups (groups of desks instead of rows,open seating etc.)? Do you think they are beneficial, or provide more opportunities for distractions and misbehavior?

• They can be both
• Kids are good but you need to provide structure especially depending on the age, their ability to make good choices is hard at many ages.
• Providing flexibility is a good option but depending on the age group, structure and enforcement is very dependant on the age and the group of kids
• Next year your looking to develop more concrete times and procedures when you can utilize the non-traditional aspects of your classroom.

In summary: I believe that this interview was extremely helpful in not only discussing classroom management itself, but also providing insight that a majority of a teacher’s style or habits come from experience and thus evolve over time. I think that is my main takeaway from the reading and activities of this module: that you can read about different techniques and management styles in the text or hear about them from other educators, but the only correct way to find out what works for YOU and your classrooms is to try them for yourself. I think this interview specifically reflected on the importance of chapter 13’s content of learning environment, boundaries, rules and how it can affect learning. And throughout our conversation, I could tell that Ms. Jenkot wasn’t implementing rules just for the sake of being in-charge, but instead laying the expectations for her class and how it must be conducted in order to be successful. I really enjoyed talking with her because you can tell that her classroom is based around respect and feeling safe, and I believe that those are two crucial emotions to not only base your classroom around, but also in all aspects of life.