Teacher Interview
School: Dana Hills High School /City or Town: Dana Point Teacher’s Name Mme. Abir Hussein Date 11/15/2018 [x] General Education [ ] Special Education Designation / Grade Level(s) 9-12 The observation really fueled my understanding of needs in the classroom. Considering the needs of students in addition to the academic needs the district puts in place gives each educator a bit to juggle. In terms of the needs diagram I am realizing more and more the necessity to approach the occupation of teaching with seriousness and maturity. Families entrust teachers to protect and guide their children all day long. This means ensuring that all of their fundamental needs are met. The teacher I had the pleasure of observing today made that very evident to me, that students have needs at school that are not academic. Understanding that the best learning takes place when each of the 5 sub levels is accounted for is the most important consideration for these young minds. Mme. Abir Hussein was very well versed in what we are studying in this class and had made significant strides in her classroom to ensure safety, belonging and nutritional needs were met. I was able to see first hand the quality of learning that takes place when all of these fundamental needs are met, and students are not preoccupied with thinking about things other than class time. The biggest takeaway for me with this observation was how much focused learning and teaching can take place if the educator takes time to eliminate exterior pressures on the mind. Both Mme. Hussein and her students were actively participating on the work at hand. This was the first group of high schoolers that I had seen who were passionate about the subject. Granted, language is only required for two years, but I sat in on AP French IV and French II, so I was able to see mandatory and compulsory students, and they both had the same mentality: they were there to learn French. Employing active listening skills and taking part in the various UDL aspects of her class made each of the classes engage with the subject and ask thoughtful questions. Pre-considering student needs before going into a classroom session made worlds of difference, and even when I was her student, I had not thought of how impacting that may be.This will inspire me to understand teaching in a whole new light. We, as educators are charged with student success, this includes ensuring their needs are met each day. Being an inspired educator has become more to me than just teaching, it is living each day knowing the duties we adopt as we enter the classroom, and I plan to take this into consideration each day. Just as a short aside, during break she was writing a letter of recommendation for a student for college, and as the student left, the meeting Mme. Hussein said she remembered writing my letter of recommendation for college, and how she had been proud that I asked her. It warmed my heart how thoughtful some teachers can be, feeling very inspired! Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs indicates that we all have 5 levels of need that must be met: Physiological, Safety, Love / Belonging, Esteem and Self-Actualization. In your professional opinion: 1. How important it is for students to have their basic needs met in order to be successful in School? Why do you think so? She noted that it was very important, because if basic needs are not met then learning cannot take place. 2. Which needs are most important to have satisfied so students can thrive in school? Why? She made special note of the role of nutrition in the classroom. She was very open to students eating in class and she actually had a fridge full of snacks that students could grab from. This ensures that students are not focused on the next time they can eat, and instead have their focus on the classroom discussion. She also discussed how in language studies students need to feel welcomed to speak with their peers and practice their language skills, which goes 3. Who is responsible for ensuring that students have their needs met? Why do you think so? “Everyone” she said. “Everyone has to play their part in order to make the environment work for students, it’s all about teamwork.” She emphasized how each person is integral in this scenario: parents, teachers, proctors, administrators etc. 4. What is one thing a teacher might do for a student who has physiological or safety needs? Why would this be useful? “Have this conversation with them”. Madame Hussein is an advocate for students feeling comfortable speaking with the teacher, and sharing their concerns. In this way, she suggests that having a conversation with the student and/or parent may allow for more clarity with what would be most beneficial rather than just “assuming what the child needs”. 5. Ensuring Safety needs are met and making sure students are ready to learn involves classroom management. What are three things you do to manage your classroom? First and foremost it depends on the group of students, if there is a student with a condition that all of the students need to be aware of Mme. Hussein mentioned (1) “keeping the classmates aware of what the student will need in an emergency” is a useful tool. Second, ensuring that (2) students know safety routines and precautions for the classroom, and that they understand the seriousness of drills. And finally (3), making sure she knows were students are at all times by asking them to write where they are going on a sign out sheet if they leave the classroom for any reason. 6. How do you decide what rules and routines to employ? It depends on the “age and maturity levels of the students”. She teaches freshmen through seniors and employs different rules for the age groups. Although she stresses they three main classroom management tactics above. 7. Do these fit for students who have a Behavior Intervention Plan? How do you assess progress? What do you do for students from a different culture? She had not had students with the prior listed speciality but she often gets students from a different culture. She says that her classroom becomes more fulfilling when other cultures enter because her class is culture based. She makes sure they “understand my [Mme. Hussein] rules and regulations” 8. How do you organize your classroom / educational environment to support classroom management? “Group work is essential for language studies … I seat the students in little ‘pods’ so that they can conversate and practice their language skills.” She noted that for tests she asks them to rearrange so that they are all facing the front this ensures no cheating and more direct focus to what is in front of them. 9. With classroom management in mind, what advice would you give me regarding how to establish good classroom management in my first class? She entreated me to be good to my students in the sense that students are impressionable and if you treat them with respect and you are fun yet regulated with them, they will mirror this and behave accordingly. 10. Ask one of these 2 questions: When you know that a student has a specific need that most of the other students do not have, what do you do to address that need? Or How do you incorporate UDL into your classroom? First and foremost, I was very impressed with the UDL in her classroom. She noted “Well this all stems back to the Multiple Intelligence Theory”, she walked me through how students need different outlets to show how much they are learning. For these reasons she structures her lesson plans to everyday contain: a text, a listening exercise, a song, a ppt and some sort of vocabulary discussion game. This allows each of her students to engage with the topics in various ways.
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May 2020
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