Teacher Interview Reflection

I found this assignment very enjoyable and educational. The hardest part for me was coming up with profound questions to ask my influential teacher. There were so many things I wanted to ask her, but I knew I needed to head towards a reflective mindset as opposed to me learning new things about her.

I think Beth’s answers were different from most of the other interviewed teachers because she teaches public school and therefore is not just teaching music, but rather a mix of almost every subject. I do think however, that this provided me with more pedagogy analysis as opposed to musical background.

When Beth said “I became a teacher because it seemed like it was the best opportunity for a job that was both professional and compatible with my family life”, it struck me. I didn’t realize that ultimately that would be the reason that I too pursue education as a career. Honestly, it makes me feel kind of bad saying that, as I know education is often a life long goal that generally is just being fulfilled. I feel like if everyone knew that at Western in the education stream, they might be ashamed of me. 

Teaching would be a job I would do, I would do it relatively well, but I know that I would not be happy working in an education facility for the rest of my life. I’m glad Beth reminded me of this idea, and has really pushed me to look into my other passions to see if I could find a career that I would be happy and productive in.

I found it interesting that Beth did not have a very positive education experience. This may be why she never saw herself as an educator. She may be afraid of impacting students the way she was impacted; but something tells me she uses her negative experience to drive the passion to create a positive education experience for her students. It’s interesting how our education experiences define our ideal careers.

There was a lot of information about the layout of the education system that I learned during this interview. I had no idea that there were sessions that were conducted board wide to train teachers and give them new lesson ideas. 

Overall it was a positive experience, and I’m glad I got a taste of qualitative research. I really enjoyed this, and it has made me think of what I actually am interested in. It’s pushing my life plans to look further than I have for a lifetime job.