Student Interview
Aly Baxter and Stephanie Remier
Aly Baxter and Stephanie Remier
Teacher Interview Transcript:
Elizabeth Toth, February 22, 2017
Mackenzie Steer: Hi, thank you for doing this interview. Before we begin, is it alright with you if I record the interview session?
Elizabeth Toth: Recording? I wasn’t expecting this to be recorded.
Steer: I can send you the recording afterwards to confirm if you are alright with the recording.
Toth: Alright, that sounds good.
Steer: Secondly, is it alright with you if I make a transcript of the interview and post, with your approval, the recording and transcript.
Toth: Ok.
Steer: Alright. Let’s get started then. My first question is: What drew you to teaching?
Toth: Well I’ve always had a passion for learning and for sharing knowledge. In university I ended up taking education because I wanted to share that knowledge and foster students’ curiosity. I’ve always loved discovering why something works the ways it does. In the classroom I thought it was important to foster that curiosity by bringing in real life into the class whenever I could; making kids curious about the world around them. I tried to bring examples that could cross curriculum. Of course I also tried to keep it fun; but practical was important too.
Steer: What are some of the examples of how you brought everyday life into the classroom?
Toth: One example would be math (algebra) class: I developed real-life examples by, for example, going to different cell phone companies and asking about their plans. If you do the math for those plans you can calculate which plans will bring the most benefit to you, for the least cost, depending on the way you use a phone (for example, mostly talking, mostly texting, one half-hour phone call a day to an aging mom, etc). Another example was when a student in my Grade 5 class brought a cow’s heart. Her father was a butcher; the heart had been cut up for testing so I had to sew it back together and then dissected it for the kids, to demonstrate the anatomy of the heard, and how the heart actually works. This was an effective demonstration for both biology and health: I talked to the students about how the cardiopulmonary system works and how lifestyle choices can affect that. We expanded on that in subsequent years to include the heart and lungs, which I obtained from a slaughterhouse; and which I could supply so that the students themselves could experiment with them. This was popular enough that teachers in other classes asked me to do it with their students as well (though they didn’t volunteer to do the demonstrations themselves!)
Mostly I focused on looking for things I can bring to the classroom, giving the students a reason to be in the classroom, Yes they are there to learn, but if they are not learning practical information that could potentially benefit them in the future; then it is less meaningful to the students and thus less interesting.
By looking at the syllabus and thinking of your examples you can see things that have the possibility of relating across the curriculum. Health and biology are closely related, likewise math and physics, and even chemistry. Sometimes it is difficult to find these relations for all aspects within the curriculum, but it is important to try and bring them all together. No subject is truly independent of other subjects.
Steer: In your quest to find examples across curriculum did you find the syllabus restricting you at all?
Toth: No, the idea was to find examples relevant to the curriculum, and when I found things illustrative of things we had talked about I shared them with the students.
Steer: You taught a variety of different ages; did you have any difficult finding this kind of relevant information for different age groups of students?
Toth: I did select examples according to the students’ level of understanding, of course. In my Grade 5 or 6 classes I picked examples geared toward that age group, focusing on the process of discovery, helping kids become curious of the world around them and preparing them for the grades ahead.
I also taught adults continuing education for math and physics, and for them it was important to select examples that treated them as adults studying in school. I tried to focus on examples that dealt with understanding and the problem-solving processes and those which would be relevant to them in real life and in a post-secondary setting.
Steer: That hits the twenty minute mark. Thank you for the interview! I will send you the transcripts and recordings within a few days.
Elizabeth Toth, February 22, 2017
Mackenzie Steer: Hi, thank you for doing this interview. Before we begin, is it alright with you if I record the interview session?
Elizabeth Toth: Recording? I wasn’t expecting this to be recorded.
Steer: I can send you the recording afterwards to confirm if you are alright with the recording.
Toth: Alright, that sounds good.
Steer: Secondly, is it alright with you if I make a transcript of the interview and post, with your approval, the recording and transcript.
Toth: Ok.
Steer: Alright. Let’s get started then. My first question is: What drew you to teaching?
Toth: Well I’ve always had a passion for learning and for sharing knowledge. In university I ended up taking education because I wanted to share that knowledge and foster students’ curiosity. I’ve always loved discovering why something works the ways it does. In the classroom I thought it was important to foster that curiosity by bringing in real life into the class whenever I could; making kids curious about the world around them. I tried to bring examples that could cross curriculum. Of course I also tried to keep it fun; but practical was important too.
Steer: What are some of the examples of how you brought everyday life into the classroom?
Toth: One example would be math (algebra) class: I developed real-life examples by, for example, going to different cell phone companies and asking about their plans. If you do the math for those plans you can calculate which plans will bring the most benefit to you, for the least cost, depending on the way you use a phone (for example, mostly talking, mostly texting, one half-hour phone call a day to an aging mom, etc). Another example was when a student in my Grade 5 class brought a cow’s heart. Her father was a butcher; the heart had been cut up for testing so I had to sew it back together and then dissected it for the kids, to demonstrate the anatomy of the heard, and how the heart actually works. This was an effective demonstration for both biology and health: I talked to the students about how the cardiopulmonary system works and how lifestyle choices can affect that. We expanded on that in subsequent years to include the heart and lungs, which I obtained from a slaughterhouse; and which I could supply so that the students themselves could experiment with them. This was popular enough that teachers in other classes asked me to do it with their students as well (though they didn’t volunteer to do the demonstrations themselves!)
Mostly I focused on looking for things I can bring to the classroom, giving the students a reason to be in the classroom, Yes they are there to learn, but if they are not learning practical information that could potentially benefit them in the future; then it is less meaningful to the students and thus less interesting.
By looking at the syllabus and thinking of your examples you can see things that have the possibility of relating across the curriculum. Health and biology are closely related, likewise math and physics, and even chemistry. Sometimes it is difficult to find these relations for all aspects within the curriculum, but it is important to try and bring them all together. No subject is truly independent of other subjects.
Steer: In your quest to find examples across curriculum did you find the syllabus restricting you at all?
Toth: No, the idea was to find examples relevant to the curriculum, and when I found things illustrative of things we had talked about I shared them with the students.
Steer: You taught a variety of different ages; did you have any difficult finding this kind of relevant information for different age groups of students?
Toth: I did select examples according to the students’ level of understanding, of course. In my Grade 5 or 6 classes I picked examples geared toward that age group, focusing on the process of discovery, helping kids become curious of the world around them and preparing them for the grades ahead.
I also taught adults continuing education for math and physics, and for them it was important to select examples that treated them as adults studying in school. I tried to focus on examples that dealt with understanding and the problem-solving processes and those which would be relevant to them in real life and in a post-secondary setting.
Steer: That hits the twenty minute mark. Thank you for the interview! I will send you the transcripts and recordings within a few days.