Teacher Interview

I had the pleasure of interviewing John Kentner, a physical education teacher at Eisenhower Cooperative in Crestwood, IL. John has been teaching physical education for approximately 30 years and has mainly worked with special need students. I really had a great time interviewing John and was able to obtain a lot of great tips about classroom management with the P.E. setting. I chose to interview John because he is a very respected teacher at his school and has a lot of experience, which made him think of him right away.

Here is the list of questions I asked John during the interview:
1)What is your classroom management philosophy?
2)What are your administrative boundaries?  
3) What have you tried that worked,  didn’t work in your classroom
4) What are some failures that you may have encountered and how did you work through them?
5) What are some specific successes you have had in the area of classroom management? 
6) How do you encourage your students to take an active role in their education?

John's classroom is managed very well and he incorporates many different types of techniques and management strategies into his curriculum. He is constantly trying new things with his students to make sure that they are engaged throughout the time that they spend in his class. One thing that John does successfully with his students is he tries not to overstimulate them. He has found that if he tries to speed up a game the kids tend to lose focus and become disinterested with the game. This is a trial and error system because each and every student is different.This can be seen in Woolfolk chapter 13; she states that "movement management means keeping lessons and the group, moving at appropriate (and flexible) pace, with smooth transitions and variety (p.503). One thing that John talked about was planning his day in advance. Like any other teacher he creates a lesson plan in advance, but as he is driving to each and every day he goes through his mind as to what he wants to teach to his students. John said that as a P.E. you must be willing to change your plans because it is not going to go as planned, also things might work one day but the next day it won't. He encourages his students to enjoy physical education because it is important for their overall health.

In chapter 13, Woolfolk states "  Effective teachers maintain their management systems by preventing problems and keeping students engaged in productive learning activities" (p.501); I believe that John does this very well he is always changing to make sure that each and every one of his students are having fun and learning at the same time.  I really learned a lot from John and hope that I can be as half of a physical education teacher as he is. 

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