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 Holly Winter Living The Life Of Holly June 29, 2003 “Hi. I’m Holly Winter…..here to interview for the third grade position.” I said brightly as I approached the interview table. “I’m Sharon, the Principal-in-Training for summer school, and Steve will be supervising and watching my every move.” She laughed. “Great.” I lied. I’ve trained many a PIT in my teaching days, and frankly they don’t pay teachers enough. Darn it. Not great. PIT? Yeah. That means that she doesn’t have her mean stare figured out for the bad kids yet. Ok. Yeah. I know. This means that I have to give short-little nice-little pretty-little answers to their questions. You know the kind. I’ll have to prove that I know my stuff, without insinuating over-qualification. I watched as she started searching for her eyeglasses. I pretended to be reviewing my resume. Her glasses were in her hand. Oh. I know. I didn’t really want this job. I wanted to go back to flying, but was waiting for a schedule. I don’t really need the job. Not yet. I still had some savings left. And. This kind of teaching wasn’t fun. You know. The dog days of summer school. Hey. Everyone knows that the kids only show up for the dating possibilities and the free food. Um. No. They wouldn’t be there to learn. “Is there anything we should know about you?” She started. I know. I don’t think that she wants to know that I love vanilla pudding. This is where you are supposed to mention felonies and drug addictions and your tendency to teach by stabbing the kid with the worst answers. “I never activated my elementary certification in Colorado. I only have my Special Education certification here. Will that be a problem?” Her eyes grew big. “You’re Special Ed certified?” She turned to Steve. “Special Ed certified.” He smiled and nodded. “What’s your philosophy of education?” She continued. “I believe that every child can learn, and in my classroom every child will learn.” There. Pat. Easy. Not over the top. Of course I could write a series of books on my philosophy. But. But. “How do you teach reading? What does your literacy program look like?” Oh. Give me a break. For a one month program where there’s a reading series that we have to follow? “I teach reading every minute of every day, through increasing self-esteem. I teach whole class lessons.” Ok. Good. Pat. Not over the top. Simple. I could write volumes about my strategies for teaching reading. She looked at me. “How do you teach whole class lessons? I’ve never understood that.” Ok. Time for a good non-answer. “Well. It depends on the age and ability of the students I’m working with.” She nodded and would have released it. He pushed it farther. “I had a class of thirty fifth graders last year. Twenty five read below grade level. I used reading groups. The kids learned, is there a faster way to teach them?” I know. Sounds like a math puzzler where the real answer has something to do with how tall the guy is. But. I know how to answer these questions with both hands tied behind my back. But. But. But. “I don’t know. I am sure that you did what was right for your students in your class. Only you can know that.” I hesitated for a moment. If I told him what I knew, I probably wouldn’t get the job, but it might help his kids learn next year. Darn it. I took a deep breath. ”Ok. I subscribe to the triangle theory of education. Even when a student is behind in learning, he can always grasp concepts that are above his ability level. So. By teaching step by step, one level at a time, you may be slowing down the learning potential of that student.” She looked at Steve and stifled a laugh. “What do you mean?” She challenged. “Give me specific examples.” Steve prompted, leaning back in his chair ready to take notes. I wondered if I could charge for giving a teacher in-service during my interview? Ha. Wouldn’t that be cool? “Well. Let’s see. I would look over the next story in the basal reader and figure out the subject. If the story was about a bear hunt, I would build background knowledge about bears.” “I would tell them about the time I was camping and my dog kept sneaking away to play with some bear cubs that lived near our campsite. I would talk about the bears that come down from the mountains here in Colorado during draughts to search for food in the dumpsters. Might even have a newspaper clipping or two. I would let kids tell about their experiences with bears. In a class of thirty, I guarantee at least three kids have a good bear story.” He nodded encouragingly. She copied his move, but it didn’t look as convincing on her. I smiled. “Next you have to introduce the vocabulary, being as creative as you can. Don’t ever breeze over the vocab. They need to add new words to their levels of understanding if they are to become better readers. That’s day one. Then you stop. You give their brains time to think about everything.” “The next day, you go over the vocabulary again and you have them journal about bears. Anything. At this point, they all feel like they have personal knowledge about bears, which they need before they read the story. “Next you take out the basal and you read through the story, out loud, together, chorally, as a group. Your voice leads the class. You have to watch them to make sure that all the kids are reading.” She interrupted. “But. Don’t you have to make individual kids read, one at a time while the class listens?” “Um. No. You let everyone read at the same time. That gives them a chance to get more reading time in. And they can see what they are reading, and hear what they are reading at the same time. When you are done with the story, you let them talk about their favorite parts. You do extension activities from the workbook.” “The next day you have the students work with a partner and read that same story aloud, chorally, with the partner. You go around the room and listen as the groups of two students are reading. You will be able to tell if a student is struggling and can work with that student later.” Steve was impressed. “That would totally work.” I smiled. “It really does. I’ve done it for years.” She wasn’t smiling. She had developed a twitch in her right eye. Poor PIT. So many people new to the management field don’t understand that you want to hire good people to work under you, maybe even people who understand the process you are leading better than you do. She cleared her throat. “How would you address learning for students who speak English as a second language?” I felt like apologizing. Because. Ding, ding, ding. I knew that answer backwards and forwards as well. I did get a message from her the week after school had started. It sounded like there was a mutiny going on. “Hey. Holly. We do have an opening for you, after all. If you want in, please call 555-5...” She was cut off by a chorus of Hallelujah curses from a group of taunting students. Yeah. I know. But I like a good challenge. I did. I really did try to call her back. But her number came up unlisted and the district office had no record of a PIT with her name. Poor dear. But. Maybe the experience will toughen her up a bit. Or. Maybe she can take the opportunity to learn some good curse words. Cause. They might have learned a thing or two from my interview, but I heard three new words during that phone call that I can’t find anywhere in my dictionary. (I’m waiting now for Ralph’s call so I can try them out.) ------------ About the author: Holly Winter is a teacher and a writer and a flight attendant living in Denver, Colorado, USA. She can be reached at her website or email: Holly@livingthelifeofholly.com Comment on this column in the forum. ------------ |
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