Fixing a qualitative study
Interview 1
1. Tell me about your first-year experience
-Maybe back at home it's more like you've got the respect for teachers and older
students. You see a lot of behavioral problems [here]. Because of that it was harder
2. What was the best thing about first-year experience?
- I am most grateful for the support that experienced teachers gave me in my first years of teaching. Whenever I needed to feel inspired, I dropped in on an experienced teacher’s classroom to watch him or her in action. Whenever I had an issue, I asked them for their ideas.
3. What was your number one challenge?
- It was quite difficult for me because the students, they were not well behaved. So I usually
spent much time with the behavior management, and especially for my language difficulties, I couldn’t actually give very clear instruction. Or when the students tried to negotiate, I felt really hard to negotiate with them
4. What did you do when you experienced this challenge?
- I learned from my mistakes. I'm trying to be a reflective teacher…just trying to be the best teacher I can. I observed the experienced teachers’ class and Whenever I had an issue, I asked them for their ideas. Also, I discussed my problems with the administrator.
5. Tell me about your school administrator.
-Her job was just to organize the new teachers and just see how they do. She was really
supportive. She was always asking how you were going, was everything fine for you. She was perfect.
6. What would you recommend to the school to improve your first-year experience?
-Observe the new teacher. At first, I had this idea in my head that my observers expected me to be perfect. The observers never expect that of you, they simply want to help you become better. Although the observations scared me at first, you leave your post-observation meetings with tangible solutions to improve your teaching.
7. What would you recommend to new teachers to improve their first-year experience?
Interview 2
1. Tell me about your first-year experience
-My first year…was completely different. I was just doing the police thing. Here it’s
just teaching content and teaching strategies
2. What was the best thing about first-year experience?
-My school could have run sessions for teachers, like have different
topics each week. The teachers who wanted to participate could join. The first week was behavior management and the second was how to deal with adolescents and so on. The sessions were very helpful for my first year of teaching.
3. What was your number one challenge?
- I didn't know enough with American culture. So sometimes I found the difficulty during the conversation, when we talked about cultural things. In terms of culture, in you also want to joke around, this is really hard for international person because we have a different culture. Sometimes I think my supervisor jokes are… very funny, but it’s really hard for me to tell a joke in English
I feel like the worst part for me was just coming in there and not knowing anybody
and being stuck with the teacher. You had to make it work. You might not always get along with them or you might not always see their views…I ended up talking it out with my teacher and figuring it out myself because I wanted to see if I could handle it first, and I ended up doing
that
4. What did you do when you experienced this challenge?
5. Tell me about your school administrator.
-I really like my administrator. He's very warm and kind and He's helped me out just being
in USA too. He makes me feel comfortable in class and He shows what I've done in first year teaching and kind of goes over what she did.
6. What would you recommend to schools to improve your first-year experience?
-I really needed was curriculum in a box, a set of high quality assessments, unit plans, lesson plans, and in-class materials that were created and curated by a teacher who taught the same grade level and subject using the same state standards. This curriculum could be stored. School leaders should make it a top priority to hand this curriculum in a box to their first-year teachers as soon as they are hired and first-year teachers who do not have this should ask for it.
7. What would you recommend to new teachers to improve their first-year experience?
-Time management. Teachers don’t only work during school hours but also lesson plan, prepare their physical classrooms, give feedback on student work, call students and parents, go to professional development, and collaborate with other teachers. Building systems for managing everything is so important.
Inteview 3
1.Tell me about your first-year experience
During my first year teaching, everything was so hard, classroom management, giving grades, pronouncing students’ name. The students here are completely different than my own country. In my country every classroom has the same rules and All students knows those. But When I was a new teacher here, I didn't know how important it was to go over good rules and procedures at the beginning of the school year and all year I tried to establish the rules. Right now I can handle these problems thanks to my first year experiences. I learned so many things from my first year and it lead
2. What was the best thing about first-year experience?
working internationally as a school teacher provides you with so many opportunities to grow and develop as a person. It teaches you many things about yourself, what you are capable of, and gives you a unique perspective on teaching that those who have never done it simply cannot appreciate.
3. What was your number one challenge?
- It was really hard for me and you know, the way they talk to each other and also because
It was not just the language problem. Instead of planning lessons, giving lessons,
teaching strategies, you need to also know things outside around school
4. What did you do when you experienced this challenge?
- I was really confused and I was feeling very anxious about it. I was able to go to the
deputy principal and talk to her. She was always giving information about outside around school and she was putting me at ease. So in that instance, I did feel I had somewhere to go.
5. Tell me about your school administrator.
We've definitely forged a personal as well as a professional relationship. I do feel
comfortable in talking to her just about anything, because I trust her and I know that
she has the experience.
6. What would you recommend to schools to improve your first-year experience?
7. What would you recommend to new teachers to improve their first-year experience?
I want to suggest that for international teachers, maybe could we have a lesson about
how to give instruction to American students? To get to know the characteristics and
the personality of students. So it would be good if there is one lesson about how you
talk to them as a teacher, to show your respect