Interview: Day 4

Today's interview question leaves me with a responsibility.  If I believe that I would benefit from this knowledge, then it's my responsibility to pursue it.

Interview Question:

In what areas have you improved as a teacher over the course of your career?  In what areas would you like to gain more expertise or develop more skills?  How do you think gaining this expertise or developing these skills would benefit your students’ learning?

My Answer:

So far, I can honestly say that I have improved in all areas as a teacher since I began.  But I believe that the most significant improvements I have made are in the area of classroom management.  When I first started the year, I had never really been exposed to Harry Wong. I didn’t understand the importance of establishing procedures for EVERYTHING.  I had no idea that not having a set method of all classroom activities (such as sharpening pencils, handing in homework, and asking to go to the bathroom) would limit the effectiveness of my teaching.  Thankfully, I learned of these facts prior to the last semester of the year.   Not implementing them in the beginning of the year, however, made my year much less effective than it could have been. 

I feel that I would benefit now from a more in depth study of cognitive neuroscience.  The processes of cognition, and the obstacles that impair its fluency, are not only fascinating to me, but I believe that a deeper level of understanding these processes would help me in effectively presenting information to all students, especially those who have difficulty learning in the whole group setting.