1. Tell me how do you handle a stressful situations?
I handle them mostly pretty well, stress is all around us and how we react to it determines how we will progress. Keeping it under control and now allowing it to consume you is the toughest part and is something I have struggled with before. If there are hard deadlines and multiple things that are just thrown at me it takes me some time to focus and strategize a plan to accomplish all the different tasks.
2. Explain in what ways do you encourage creativity in your classroom?
I encourage creativity in the classroom by teaching students new information or allowing them to find information on their and recreating the info or finding alternate solutions.
3. What types of personalities do you work with best?
In the past, I have found it difficult to work with others who see themselves as better than others, who can take criticism, and who refuse to work with others. I have found it challenging to work with them b/c I am a team oriented person who feels the importance of working together over the needs of the individual especially in a learning environment.
4. Which publications have had the most influence on you over the years?
Tomatsu Shibutani's ‘Improvised News' was very influential in my dissertation research, he said that when people experience ambiguity they improvise their own news as a way of understanding what's going on. Robert Bellah's ‘Habits of the Heart' is a wonderful study into what has happened to civil society in the US, from its inception to now, what are the key things that have broken down? ‘The People's Choice' by Lazarsfeld, Berelson, and Gaudet, is an early volume in the 40s, but elegant for its time.
5. Tell me how have you showed leadership within your school in the past?
Yes and no. I'm not uncomfortable in positions of leadership when I'm asked or expected to assume them; but I prefer working on a more level basis with coworkers. In the classroom, of course, there is a lot of give and take. Sometimes, I need to be a more authoritative figure. Sometimes a moderator or guide. Sometimes a peer. I'm constantly learning too and we're all still students together at a certain level. When We explore new ideas or concepts (and I've been known to veer off on tangents when the kids are excited about something): I get just as excited as they are and the line blurs a little bit.
6. Please explain how would your former employer describes you?
Hard working, dedicated to their job, strong role model for their peers, selfless of himself, reliable, dependable, man of integrity, funny, pleasure to work with.
Because social studies create an awareness about the planet we live in and also the incidents inventions etc so I want every students to like and love social studies as their favorite subject.
8. Tell me how would your students describe you as a teacher?
I would say my students describe me as a teacher that is passionate, compassionate, and rigorous. Many of them have told me that I make lessons relatable and engaging, all the while making the assessments connected to them difficult to ensure that they understand the importance of the topic all the more. Many of my students, especially during my time at LTHS, have thanked me for my lessons, saying that most teachers never attempted to make history something that was worthy of knowing,.. For I always go above and beyond to find something about a certain history that would be important or interesting to most of my students.
9. Which developments in your field do you think have been most important or influential?
The move away from a focus on social order that characterized functionalism; from ‘how do you maintain order?' to ‘how do you achieve more equality?' In the communication field, it's a major move away from mechanical models of communication. Now it's just far more complicated with much more emphasis on how people process messages and reconstruct them. So, one of the key ways to characterize the communications field is whether or not you think the media are ‘all powerful' or ‘not at all powerful'. My answer is: neither. Under some conditions they are all powerful; under other conditions, they're not.
A team teaching lesson in which we performed mock supreme court hearings. Students were broken into groups in order to argue one of 2 sides of an issue or be on the supreme court. Students then presented arguments with the justices asking questions about the arguments. I felt it was so successful because the lesson was different from many classroom activities and had great participation but it was also able to be differentiated with 2 teachers team teaching the lesson and providing multiple ways for students to show their understanding of the content.
11. Explain me your teaching style?
My teaching style is that anyone can learn everything. That you are never too old, dumb, athletic, popular, or outdoorsy to learn something new. I also work on trying to make everything relatable to their lives. Because if you can't relate the subject to their everyday lives what is the point of them retaining the information.
I think the big area is going to be around journalism – how will we recreate journalism in the service of civil society, not just as a commoditized product? I think journalism is going to become increasingly a concern for social science, not just communication studies. Journalism was supposed to provide a bridge between people, with a common core of observations that people can take and use as they will. But these days it's increasingly self-referential in terms of ideological positioning, even in the blogosphere, and the political right has really gained a lot of control over cable and print. The left is much more present now in the blogosphere.
13. Explain what is your greatest weakness and what are you doing to improve it?
Staying focused on the task at hand and not deviating from it or not finishing it fully. I am sometimes a sporadic thinker losing focus on the main objective which is a weakness of mine I see a new idea and before I fully finish the other I move on to the next sometimes. What I have done to work on this is improve my time management, create an action list of things to accomplish in an order that shows the most pressing things first. This has allowed me to be more on task while also lessening the stress level of the activities I have engaged in.
14. How do you encourage teamwork among your students?
Group work is something I am very fond of, one of the ways I like to do group work is by assigning roles to people within the group such as the writer, the speaker, etc. Each person in the group should contribute. For example we did a foreign policy group activity where students were assigned an imperialized country. After reviewing the background and jotting down notes they met with other members of their group from the other countries to share their responses, this allowed each member to contribute to the learning environment of the group while also keeping everyone involved. They then would give their responses as groups to the class to see if everyone had the same responses.
15. Tell me how do you make the curriculum relevant to the lives of your students?
It is easy when your subject is the world. I tell my students to look in their everyday lives and see the connections that can be made from what they learned in class that day.
16. Tell me what are your career goals as Social sciences teacher?
To develop student learning in order to make learning fun. Engage students daily about the lesson plan. Make the lesson plan pertinent in the everyday lives of students.
17. Tell me about the most challenging student you've taught so far?
I have to honestly that every student presents a different challenge in some respect or another. Sergio was probably my toughest. His 2 brothers were gang members. One is out on parole and the other is in jail for felony assault. His real dad was an alcoholic who occasionally beat his mom. He flunked 6 grade last year & was in for the second time. He seemed lost. Sergio was disruptive in class & put forth minimal effort in math class. I had tried one on one teacher & peer mentoring etc had conversations with Sergio mom.
18. What is your greatest strength? How does it help you as a teacher?
Sharing my experiences with others as well as relating things to others and breaking things down to their simplest form. I am a great hands on teacher and coach that knows how to take something complex and simplify it for everyone else to understand. This is a strength that has allowed me to become a good coach and a promising young teacher.
19. Why do you love to teach Social sciences?
It's my passion to explain topic in short stories.
20. Please explain how you develop your daily lesson plan and what do you include?
I go through the lesson and take the notes in my mind. Then explained the outer knowledge of related topic, get the awarness.
21. Suppose if you could only teach one topic out of social studies, what would it be?
If I could teach only one subject, I would teach psychology, history, economics or sociology.
22. Tell me the teaching techniques or strategies that are most effective for you?
The most effective strategies include teaching to all modalities, using a multi-sensory approach. I try to include a variety of assignments such as group projects, research and presentations.
23. Tell us why do you want to be an educator?
I want to make a different in someone's life by teaching and sharing tools and strategies to succeed in life.
24. How do you deal with difficult parents?
Well the subject matter itself, religion at a Catholic school, is not always the most motivating content for high school students especially if they are not Catholic and resent having to take a religion course. Although, I must admit the biggest challenge for myself was to not deviate from the Catechism, which I was being paid to teach and endorse, while also allowing my students to express their views respectfully and seriously in class discussions or Socratic seminars .
25. Tell us why do you want to work at this school?
I researched the school prior to submitting my resume and I immediately noticed that you focus on exellence for every student every day and that means students are familiar with having high expectations set by the school. That is my style.
