The teacher being interviewed is a thirty-seven-year-old man who has been teaching in a private institution for ten years. He has a degree in education, and after his completion, the teacher immediately was employed in the high school system. At first, he started with teacher’s practice and eventually was absorbed as a teacher in the school. Due to the teacher's request, we will use an alias name known as Mr. Robert.
Mr. Robert is a teacher that prefers heterogeneous grouping because it contains students of different characters. According to him, different characters tend to help each other learn faster in a variety of things as compared to homogeneous groupings. A student who interacts with people of different characters tends to learn a lot and are broad-minded in their thinking due to their exposure. Individualized teaching in Mr. Benson’s perspective is where the mode of instruction used according to an individual learner. He can assess if the students are learning through the quizzes he gives and the revision questions that he asks in class. If the students answer them confidently, then it means that they have understood the topic. Mr. Benson individualizes lessons by assessing each of his students on how much they have read the topic, through that he can see where each of the student understanding is and will know whether to explain it more or have a personal tutoring session. If the majority have understood, he will have individual coaching sessions but if most have not then he repeats the topic again until it is understood. He can tell that a student has learned by the way they answer the question he asks in class after a topic. His strong curriculum is mainly sciences which are biology, chemistry, and physics. In a case where called for an in-service experience, Mr. Benson would choose biology as his curriculum. The teacher tends to present teachings to his students practically through experience for they tend to understand better rather than theoretically although some teachings cannot be done practically. Technology has been integrated into his teaching through the use of power point presentation in his theory classes. He has also encouraged the students to perform most of their presentation through power point or typed homework. According to Mr. Benson, it is paramount that a teacher understands the curriculum and the students to be taught as they plan for their teaching for the day. There are key components that a teacher should know when they are planning for a lesson. They include; lesson objective, student standards, develop ways to present the experience and finally conclude the lesson.
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Mr. Benson’s primary experience that has prepared him for the full-time teaching is the education he acquired in university and the practice of instruction he did in the institution he is working. The teacher has been involved in various projects such as the creation of the science project club where they have been involved in science fairs and have won thrice since his entry into the school. Cooperative learning is one of his strategies in teaching and mainly uses group work during experiments to ensure that the understanding is uniform. As discussed earlier, he uses group work as his strategy and therefore through that he can cater to all learning styles of his different students because they can now explain to each other and where he is needed he steps in. The main strategies used by Mr. Benson is group work and practical experiments which help them understand quite fast and uniformly.
Mr. Bensons is a friendly teacher, and therefore that makes the students feel comfortable asking questions and even presenting anything in class, therefore, it is easier to have class management. Many of the students tend to listen to him due to his approachable character, and he gives targets to each of his students according to their ability. Monitoring their progress is also a strategy he uses to ensure that the student is coming up to meet the required standards of a pass. According to him, the person responsible for discipline in school are the teachers, and it is done by how they train their students. Individual punishment is much better than whole class punishment according to Mr. Benson, and it is because it gives room to understand each student’s behavior. Negative reinforcement is not productive while positive reinforcement is productive and has a better impact on a student. There is a student in one of his classes where the student is slow in understanding in class and sometimes may require special attention. The student has undergone issues at home and therefore psychologically is not motivated in his education. He tends to find himself in problems both disciplinary and academic wise. According to Mr. Benson, the school physical environment is conducive to learning and is filled with trees and silence, therefore, giving the student an ample time in their classes.
Mr. Benson finds it paramount to communicate with parents and ensure that they are involved in their children’s academic life and progress. He can often communicate with them during academic days and through letters where necessary. If the teacher realizes that a student is not performing well, he calls the parents in for a talk to discuss the reasons and a way forward on the matter. Academic parents’ conferences are very useful for the student for the parents are involved and can know the progress of each of their children academically. A parent complaining about homework would be advised to monitor the child because each lesson must have an assignment unless the child is not doing it or someone is doing it for them which happens often. During open conferences, the main presentation done is on a general basis on what the school is suggesting to do to improve some things in the institution.
Mr. Bensons was always interested in teaching sciences but as said before his best was always biology. To him, an ideal teacher is patient and enjoys their profession especially dealing with children. He enjoys teaching in the institution in that district because it has been his home town and he was born in the same region, so it always feels like home. Education today has become broader unlike back in the day, but despite that, it has become easier to teach thanks to technology. The school has a psychiatrist who deals with the children and since it is a high school many of the students are in their adolescence and need care psychologically. Mr. Benson thinks that most of his colleagues would agree that he is very friendly with both the colleagues and students. His strengths are that he is social and approachable unlike many sciences teachers while his weakness is that he is slow in his teaching which he does to ensure that everyone understands before he moves on. According to him, he does not intend to overcome it because that means leaving other students behind.
Mr. Benson would not choose specific students to work with because at the end of the day he is a teacher because he wants to help instill education without being selective. A student who ridicules an absolute assignment is because they do not understand it and therefore he would change their perspective by helping them understand it and loving it. Through this, it will be easier to differentiate instructions for students for they already know it and love it. A test is one of the ways he assesses if students have learned a lesson and if the student keeps improving that means they are working hard and their rate of improvement can tell if one is a slow of the fast learner. It is critical to know one's students both personally and academically to make an impact in their lives. Firstly is to be aware of their childhood background, academic history, and psychological status. Mr. Benson would like to influence them both academically and personally to ensure that they are morally upright and bright academically.
In conclusion, Mr. Benson is an excellent teacher who is dedicated to helping as many students as possible achieve their dreams through positive means. He loves his job, and because of that, it is easier for his students to love him and listen to his teachings.
