Ethnographic Interview Reflection

After completing this project, I’ve realized how much I have learned during this experience. This is one of the main projects I completed this semester and I believe it helped me grow immensely as a teacher. I will always have to conduct parent interviews with the parents of my students. I know this is a sure fact and I will use these skills I learned all throughout my career. Along with this, I plan to eventually become a principal in the future, so I will definitely need ethnographic interviewing skills to be a good mentor, leader, and principal. I also believe that parents should be completely involved in their child’s education, so after doing this study, I can see how much parents can actually be involved and how beneficial it is. Before conducting this interview, I was very nervous about speaking to the parents of my students. I was especially worried because I’m not one of the lead teachers and I’m still learning how to be a teacher. Along with this, I also had some preconceptions about J’s home life. I had no idea why J and S are growing up with their aunt and uncle and although I’m still not 100% sure why, Mrs. T opened up to me more than I thought she would. I was very pleased with this.
My mentor teacher, assistant teacher, and I decided on some different strategies that would help J in the classroom. My mentor teacher decided to start a sticker chart, which is applied to all the children in the classroom. Although this is a reward system, it seems to be working a lot for J. Another thing we decided to do is offer the safe space to J when he is feeling like he can’t control his behavior. If J is feeling anxious he is allowed to go to the safe space and think. When doing this, he can either go alone or bring a teacher with him to