David's Interviews

Interview Questions

1. Please introduce yourself, how you identify, what you do, and where you do it.

2. How would you describe your student population?

3. Tell me about something that is going well this year for teaching, What Celebrations do you have?

4. Talk to me about student engagement with lessons.

a. What’s going well?

b. What’s not going well?

c. What have you tried so far?

5. Talk to me about social emotional learning.

a. What’s going well?

b. What’s not going well?

c. What have you tried so far?

6. As a teacher, what areas do you feel teachers need support right now?

7. What types of resources / activities do you feel would help teachers like you?

A red background with a table between two chairs. On the chairs are laptops with people people sticking out of the screens to show a virtual interview.

Interviewees

Interviewee #1

Personal: White, cisgendered, female (She/Her)

Rural, Public School, Kentucky
~ 800 students
94% white
100% Free and reduced lunch

This interviewee celebrated the building of relationships that was happening this year. Stated that she learned how to "waste time" by starting class through just chatting.

Overall engagement with her class is very high and she receives high marks from her principal consistently. Some struggles that the teacher faces is behaviors in older students who participate in "shenanigans" and their levels of students by class is very "stacked."

Socially and Emotionally her school has a strong support staff with 5 counselors and a school wide behavioral plan in place. Social emotional learning is modelled through walking through situations with students, however she feels there is very little time for there to be social emotional learning within the music classroom.

Content solutions that the teacher is looking for include teaching "kindergarten / 1st grade concepts" to older kids without it being childish.

Issues outside of her or my circle of control include politics making teaching the enemy, not being trusted as experts, and also wanting access to mental healthcare as a teacher.

Interviewee #2

Personal: White, intersex, goes by Mx.

Inner City, Public Charter School, New Jersey
~600 students
82% Black, 9% Hispanic
90% Free and reduced lunch

The interviewee celebrated an amazing project that their students did for Black History Month where they were rapping about influential black musicians, composers, and performers.

This teacher finds that student engagement is fairly high in the classes when they use content that relates to their interests (ie. TikTok). The school has a behavior plan in place that rewards students for being "on track" by having parties like a "paint and sip" with sparkling grape juice.

Socially and Emotionally, the school has students who struggle to express themselves especially in the older grades. The teacher even mentioned being punched in the arm themselves by students. The behavior management works for the younger grades but not the older grades. The school has provided training to the staff on social emotional learning and utilizes the "Move This World" curriculum, a series of videos that classroom and enrichment teachers use to teach students social emotional skills.

This teacher was searching for ways to help students process events in their personal lives, as well as the events in the world such as the invasion of Ukraine.

Issues outside of the circle of control included wanting opportunities to vent, more financial compensation, and access to mental health services.

Interviewee #3

Personal: White, gay, male (he/him)

Suburban Public School, Kentucky
~550 students82% White, 7% Hispanic
29% Free and reduced lunch

This teacher was very proud of the way that students are demonstrating flexibility with classroom procedures and things such as masks stating, "Kids are better examples than adults." The teacher is also proud that their classroom is a place where despite being behind, the students are willing to take risks and try.

In regards to student engagement, the teacher finds that students are fairly engaged and this is not an issue. The teacher believes this is a result of resetting expectations of their ability and being responsive to what the students can do.

Socially, the teacher is concerned about students ability to work in groups and learning how to accept when a group doesn't want to go with their decision. This is improved when the teacher models the SEL curriculum that is taught by counselors and teachers. The teacher cherishes the time in music class as music time because they only see the students for 50 minutes a week and believes it would be difficult to focus on teaching SEL during the class period.

The teacher is tired of politicians getting involved in the classroom and that teachers need nothing new, but allow teachers to explore the new tools they have received through the pandemic.

In sharing other thoughts, the teacher discussed free play, and wanting the students to have an organic way of working together to create and learn music. If only there were tools and processes to help students work together and have that freedom.

So... what's next?

- 1. What you learned about the needs of the community partner/target audience (social, musical, other)
    - A common theme throughout all three interviews was the need for active music lessons involving social emotional learning. All interviewees saw social emotional learning as something extra that was outside of the realm of music making however, the teachers did describe scenarios where social emotional learning could help their classrooms.
  2. Why this need is important to them/that community/that target audience;
    - This need is important through the responses from the community members. #1 through managing the "shenanigans", #2 through the behavior management needed in older grades, and #3 by wanting organic ways of fostering communication and teamwork through peer interactions.
  3. Your initial ideas for addressing these needs through an in person or virtual music activity
    - My initial ideas for addressing these needs include creating upper elementary lessons that give opportunities for students to work together through informal learning and addressing the social emotional needs.
  4. Possible products or tangible outcomes that could provide evidence to you that there is progress toward meeting the need;
    - I think creating a module through google slides / docs utilizing a Universal Design for Learning to allow multiple means of engagement, representation, and action.
  5. What types of resources you need to explore next that will help you develop depth of understanding about your target audience and their needs.
    - Resources for this will include delving into Scott Edgar's work on SEL and music ed. I also want to dive into some Orff resources, Lucy Green's Informal Music Learning, and Carol Wiggins Social Constructivist Learning models to help develop a project using UDL that creates opportunities for SEL and group work. By developing a project that develops autonomy in the students and how to negotiate peer interactions there could be some amazing products created.

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