Oral History Project

The Teachers Life and Career

Activity Description:

 -In this project you are asked to interview your teachers from your school or another school. You should ask them about experiences in their life and career related to teaching and growing as teachers.

 -You should focus basically on the impact on career and personal growth as teachers. Following is a list of focus and corresponding suggested question for you to choose from for your interview. You need to select some question from this list related to the focus of what you wanted to know from them.

-Arrange the interview information in an interesting and well written three paragraph essay/story/narrative, giving it an interesting title.

-Once your story is complete, you are required to post it in the Kindred-Family and Third Generation Projects forum, found under the category Culture and Society.

  

Oral History Questions

The Teachers Life and Career

 

Do early experiences influence the decision to become a teacher?

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• Tell me about your first memory of school.
• Was it in a city, small town, or country school? What was it like?
• What did you do at recess?
• Tell me about your favorite games.
• What’s your favorite memory?
• What was your high school like?
• Did you admire any one teacher? Why?
• What were your favorite subjects? Why? What did you do for fun?
• Tell me about any special achievement or awards you can remember.

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How do people respond to training? Does it affect their work?

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• Did you work at another job before becoming a teacher? Why did you change?
• What do you remember most about teacher training?
• What subjects did you take during training?
• Do you recall any topics or subjects that were especially valuable later or of remarkably little value?
• Did you have a practicum? Was it at a model school? What was different between your practicum and your first teaching position?
• Did you learn how to manage a multi-grade class?
• Were there any especially memorable instructors or friends? What were they like?

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 New experiences often make vivid memories.

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• Was it hard to find your first teaching position? Did you send out a lot of applications?
• Where was your new school? How did you get there? What was the community like?
• Tell me about the school building and the supplies you found when you got there.
• What were the grounds like?
• Tell me about your first students. What was the age range? Was it a mix of ethnic groups?
• Did anyone in the school give you special support or help? How?
• What did you learn in later years that would have helped you at your first school?
• What was the best part of your work day? What was the worst?

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Does teaching develop a feeling of personal and professional growth?

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• Is there one principal you admired more than others? How would sum up her or his philosophy?
• How did your work situation change with changes in administration?
• Tell me about your favorite resources, textbooks, or activities.
• How did you learn new ways to do things?
• Did you belong to professional associations? Were they helpful?
• Did you attend summer school? Take on summer jobs? What determined your choice?
• Did you have student teachers or teaching assistants? What was it like to share your classroom?
• What would you include in a scrapbook under "The Most Useful Thing I Did"?
• What are your happiest memories of teaching?
• What would you change if you could?

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What are the practical and idealistic reasons for specialization?

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• What made you decide to specialize?
• How did you find your new job?
• What goals did you have when went into the new position? Did these change with time?
• Think back to your daily activities. What tasks did you find interesting? Boring?
• What were the rewards and punishments of "the system"?

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How does the outside world affect teaching?

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• What major social or political events occurred during your career? Did this affect your teaching in any way?
• Did you ever have to deal with any physical disasters in the community?
• What was your homelife like when you were teaching? Did you ever find yourself with conflicting priorities?

 

  

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