TASK 8: Interview your mentor on the roles and responsibilities of a teacher

Roles &responsibilities	Questions to ask mentor	Comments
Planning	- How do you plan your lessons? - Do you differentiate your plans? - Do you plan weekly or daily? - Do you plan individually or in a group?	Each month we have a different theme. The AMTs and EMTs get together and plan for the theme; we choose activities, objectives, create child-friendly objectives and resources for the theme. Weekly from then each individual teacher plans their lessons. As I teach two classes I integrate Numeracy, Literacy, and Science into 1 2 hour block each day. For Literacy, I plan using the Song of Sounds resource – which is the currently literacy program we are using. For numeracy I use the outcomes we have chosen and create hands-on activities for the children. Science is the same hands-on activities with teacher guided experiments. All lessons are differentiated, as is each activity, there are 3 leveled options at each center and then an open choice activity. Any child can choose to do any activity at a center, but there is differentiation. Some lessons are set up as a whole group, some small group and some (like focus group is individual), the grouping depends on what learning the children will have during the lesson – if I think they need people to discuss with then whole group will work best for example.
Pastoral	- How often do you meet parents? - What does your pastoral work involve?	We meet most parents at the start of the year; we then have the chance to invite them into our classrooms once a month to learn new strategies to use with their children. Each day I send to the parent WhatsApp group photos of what the children have done each day, ways they can help them at home and I tell them what sound the children have learnt.
Professional Development	- What PD do you do? -  How often do you have PD?	We have PD every Sunday and Monday from 1 pm till 2pm run by the school. The PDs are ADEC requirements that cover a range of topics that ADEC feels we need to know about. Every now and again there are workshops that teachers can attend especially when new resources are being bought out.
Class Management	- What do you need to manage your class? - How do you manage your class?  - Do you have any problems with class management?   - Which classroom rules do you use? Why?	I use lots of clapping patterns for classroom management. We have mandatory behavior charts in our classrooms that must be used during every lesson to display children who have worked well and children who need to work harder. I like to use a lot of praise for the children who are working well instead of negative comments for the children who are not. In my classes this year I have children who have personalities that clash and, therefore, they fight often in the classroom; some ways I have to try to stop this is by giving the children a self-assessment form which they use to monitor each other’s behavior and also a form that has individual goals on it and if they accomplish them at the given times throughout the day then they get a sticker on the behavior chart. Our classroom rules are use walking feet, use kind words, raise your hand and listen to your teachers. These rules are school wide and they link directly to the Approaches to Learning that we teach the children year wide.
Teaching Strategies	- What is your favorite teaching strategy? - What important strategies should we follow?	I like to use a student-centered approach - While teachers are an authority figure in this model, teachers and students play an equally active role in the learning process. The teacher’s primary role is to coach and facilitate student learning and overall comprehension of the material. Student learning is measured through both formal and informal forms of assessment, including group projects, student portfolios, and class participation. Teaching and assessment are connected; student learning is continuously measured during teacher instruction. I like the children to learn through play, and discovery using hands on activities.