Teacher Interview

Teacher Interview with Kathy Mescino, third-grade teacher at Fairview Elementary School in Mount Prospect, IL.

Video Link: https://youtu.be/O92EuUTmTmA

I had the pleasure of interviewing Kathy Mescino, a third-grade teacher at Fairview Elementary School in Mount Prospect, IL.  Kathy has been an elementary school teacher for 15 years.  I had a great time asking Kathy my questions and learned a lot from her in just a short amount of time during the interview.  Kathy is a well-respected teacher with a very creative approach.  She is inclusive and is always motivating and giving her students the tools they need to succeed.  She is adored by her students and her colleagues look to her for advice and ideas.

Right after question #5, my phone’s storage filled up and unfortunately, I was unable to record her response to the last question, so at the end of this blog post, I’ll let everyone know what Kathy’s response entailed for question #5.

Here’s a list of the questions that I asked Kathy during the interview:

1. What are some of the management strategies and techniques you use to maintain an effective classroom environment?

2.  In what ways do you keep students on task and well behaved during collaborative group activities?

3.  This year, you had a new student join your class who was an ELL student, what were some of the ways you managed this situation to make this student feel welcomed, comfortable and open to learning?

4. If you noticed a child being bullied in your class, how would you deal with the situation?

5. How do you engage your reluctant to learn students?

6. What is your favorite part of the day with your students?  And why?

Kathy’s classroom is well managed and she does a really nice job with different management strategies and techniques.  She uses positive reinforcement all of the time and her students respond well to positive reinforcement.  She has come across students that may not respond well to positive reinforcement so she will change her approach with that particular student.  A class favorite for Kathy’s third-grade class is the oodles of noodles jar that gets filled with little foam noodles when the class is staying on task or working well together.  The only time they can earn these noodles is when the class does something together to better the class.  Once the jar is filled, they can have an extra recess or a class party or a movie day.  Her students LOVE the oodles of noodles jar and they work together to fill the jar in a positive and collaborative way.  As it states in the Woolfolk text, in Chapter 13, teachers prevent behavior problems whenever they make an effort to motivate students.  Any plan for motivating students are steps toward preventing problems (Woolfolk, Chapter 13, p. 493).  Kathy’s way of motivating her students is seen on a daily basis through their successes.    

If some of her students exemplify poor behavior there is a card change system in place that moves a student from various colors throughout the day which represents all different consequences.  Kathy does give her students a verbal warning first before a card is changed.  Some of the consequences could result in missing recess or a visit to the principal’s office.  The card change consequence always meets the poor behavior that was exhibited.  In the Woolfolk text, it states that a behavior followed by a punisher is less likely to be repeated in similar situations in the future.  When Kathy takes away recess for a student because of poor behavior, she is applying removal punishment (Woolfolk, Chapter 7, page 258).  Kathy has found that this kind of strategy works well and her students usually do not find themselves in the same predicament like losing a recess. 

Collaborative work is done a lot during the day in Kathy’s class and her students look forward to working with their peers.  Before they start the groups, Kathy has to explain the idea around the collaborative work and the expected and unexpected behaviors.  The collaborative process is kept at short intervals because these kids are eight and nine-year old’s and about 10 minutes at a different station in group work is long enough for each student to stay on task.  Kathy likes her students to move around the room so they’re not just sitting at their desks for these group projects.  They can also choose to stand as long as the student is not being disruptive.  She assigns facilitator roles so the students can have leadership ability throughout the day which can help build their confidence.  Self-pacing is an important component in Kathy’s class during group work.  She may have prompts on the overhead so students can move on to the next task at their own pace which eliminates boredom or the possibility of disruption.  Manipulatives are always a part of Kathy’s class, too.  She likes her students to be able to keep their hands busy and active in positive and meaningful ways when learning.  With Kathy’s teaching style, there is a lot of cueing and prompting that takes place for her students.  Her students know exactly where to go or where to be and what to do because of her effective instruction delivery.  According to the Woolfolk text, Chapter 7, effective instructions that are concise, clear, specific and that communicate expected results are more effective than vague directions (Woolfolk, page 261).  I’ve been in Kathy’s class and seen first-hand what a great communicator she is for her students.  She incorporates cueing and prompting through checklist sheets or reminder sheets on the overhead.   

This year Kathy had a new ELL student that was added to her class about two weeks into the school year who spoke no English.  This was the first time Kathy had experienced having a student with absolutely no English-speaking ability.  She leaned on some of her polish speaking students to help make her new student feel comfortable and assist with interpreting.  She was grateful for her students that really helped her out while this student and Kathy were getting acquainted.  Kathy has a little bit of polish in her background so she was able to understand a small amount, but the help came in immensely from the ELL team at school.  Kathy relied on this team and they really worked hard with this student.  It’s been amazing to see how far this student has come in only four short months.  Kathy was able to connect with her student by finding out some of her interests.  She discovered that this student loved animals so Kathy would collect picture books and magazines for her student and in return, this student would bring some stuffed animals in to share with Kathy.  They were connecting and communicating without even speaking each other’s language.  It was a beautiful story to hear.  Within the Woolfolk book, caring relationships are highlighted.  Building positive relationships with students and creating a classroom community are important steps toward management problems.  Kathy does a wonderful job of doing this.  Students respect teachers who maintain their authority without being too harsh, who are fair and honest and who make sure they are connected with each of their students (Woolfolk, Chapter 13, page 505).  It could be something so simple as asking if something is wrong today or are you feeling frustrated.  And figuring out what can be done to alter a lesson or conveying an idea in a different way so the student understands.  Good teachers make learning fun and search for students’ strengths (Woolfolk, Chapter 13, page 504).

We talked about what happens if there are signs of bullying in her classroom.  She has been fortunate enough to not have really experienced a student bully another student in her class.  She has seen it elsewhere in the school.  Kathy started the Make a Difference Club at Fairview Elementary where kids that are part of this club spread kindness throughout the building and into the community with various activities, such as, nice notes on people’s windshields, words of encouragement written on paper and placed within books in the library for students to fumble upon and homeless care kits to be passed out to a homeless person if a student comes across someone in need.  Kathy does a really nice job of creating a classroom environment where respect is a key component and bullying is not tolerated.   

The last question that I asked, as stated above, did not get recorded, but Kathy’s favorite part of the day is when her students arrive and they’re getting settled into their classroom, hanging up their backpacks and all socializing.  She loves to hear how their night was or perhaps what they did over the weekend.  She loves to connect with her students on a personal level too.  I can imagine when I have my own classroom and students that this will be a favorite time of the day for me and I’ll look forward to seeing their faces every day!