Interview With Teacher

Interview with the Teacher, Mr. Sameulson
About Stallings Island Middle School
Shaniel Haney
Augusta State University

ABSTRACT
I interviewed a teacher, Mr. Sameulson, from Stallings Island Middle School. He taught me a lot about his field through our interview in which we covered in the following: his background that prepared him to be the teacher he is today, how he educates students with disabilities, how common instructional accommodations help students, the goals that develop student academic independence and self-advocacy, the research-validated interventions Stallings Island Middle School offers, and how he feels about being adequately prepared for his teaching program.

I interviewed my mentor teacher Beau Samuelson, who is the resource room teacher for Math, Science, and Social Studies at Stallings Island Middle School. During my interview with Mr. Samuelson, I found out that he had a passion to educate children about sail boating that he wanted to educate other children with their academics. I learned a lot about Mr. Samuelson and his field through our interview in which we covered in the following: his background that prepared him to be the teacher he is today, how he educates students with disabilities, how common instructional accommodations help students, the goals that develop student academic independence and self-advocacy, the research-validated interventions Stallings Island Middle School offers, and how he feels about being adequately prepared for his teaching program.
Mr. Samuelson currently is 33 years old. He went to school for engineering but later realized that this career was not the life for him. He went to Augusta State University to get his Bachelor’s Degree in special education. On his degree he told me he got to pick certain disabilities to be qualified in. He said, “I picked inter-related. I do not work with severe special education kids but I am certified to.” Mr. Samuelson informed me he is also certified in mind-set-training, which is a nonviolent crisis intervention, to restrain children. He is allowed to work with children with Crisis Prevention Intervention (CPI). CPI is a safe environment for children with disruptive and bad behavior. He also works with children with severe Emotional Behavior Disorder (EBD). Children with EBD may cause harm to themselves and others. His aunt noticed that he enjoyed youth sailboat racing. He found out he wanted to work with children when he was a part of a sailboat racing company and he helped educate children about sailing. He had a passion for teaching kids. He said, “I love helping educate these kid. I am happy to help a child in a learning process with sailboats or academics.” His passion for racing sailboats helped him decide to go to school for special education. His aunt got him a paraprofessional job. This helped him get hands-on experience with children with disabilities. He went to school for a total of nine years. He also has a teaching degree in Social Studies and Math. Mr. Samuelson said, “I am highly qualified for high school Math. I taught enough course work, so I got certified in it.” He has taught a total of 15 years: three-years at Westside High school, one-year at Murphy Middle School, six-years at Riverside Middle School, and five-years at Stallings Middle School.
Educating students with disabilities is different from their typical peers, because they fall in the cracks. Mr. Samuelson said, “They usually are not on grade level so teachers have to have these kids on grade level by eight grades.” These kids typically fall in the gaps. These children need a lot of one-on-one time together. Mr. Samuelson said, “Intervention programs are appropriate here.” Also there are extra accommodations that help children in the special education program. There are many extra accommodations to help special education students. Mr. Samuelson teaches a class in the morning called Achievement Period Offered (AO). There are also Academic Electives (AE) during the middle of the day. In Academic Elective Mr. Samuelson told me that in the intervention programs that take place organized teaching occurs; teachers teach study skills, how to prepare for assessments, and give a copy of the notes with blanks. Mr. Samuelson said, “There is one-on-one time and tests read to students.” These accommodations help students so they do not fail the classes they are behind in. There is a plan of a range of goals to help develop student academic independence and self-advocacy. The school looks at every student three years process. Mr. Samuelson said, “Resource classrooms goal is to get these students into co-taught classes.” These students seemed too developed on their weaknesses. Mr. Samuelson, “It is a struggle to get kids over learned helplessness, because they will fight that they need help.” This academic independence will gradually reduce overtime. These students get time-in-half to take a test. Mr. Samuelson said, "In reality these kids will not get a time in a half to do their work outside of school.” He feels like this is such a disadvantage with these children. Research has proven that children with disabilities struggle in many academic fields and need a different way to learn the material. There is reading and math research-validated interventions used with struggling students and with disabilities. The reading intervention helps students learn to read naturally. Mr. Samuelson said, “This is all done by research.” The program where students read naturally works on fluency, compression, and spelling. The Math intervention focuses on number world, transition mathematics, and elevation of mathematics. Mr. Samuelson said, “These are great intervention programs to help these struggling children with disabilities.” These programs and Mr. Samuelson have helped these students with disabilities accomplish through their struggles with set goals. Mr. Samuelson believes his educational background has prepared him adequately in his teacher education program to adequately meet the demands of the classroom on a daily basis. Mr. Samuelson said, “Every county is different by helping teachers with their procedures to teaching.” It is important to know how to accommodate children with disabilities. He believes he is blessed working under a good principle, because his principle helps teachers that need it. The principle is not scared to ask teachers for advice, and he has a great bond with his teachers as well. Mr. Samuelson said, “He has resources from other teachers if he needs them and he has a good foundation. Augusta State University cannot prepare you for this in a four-year period to be an individual teacher.” He believes his paraprofessional job helped him with hands on learning with children with or without disabilities. Observing in the schools throughout college helped him become the teacher he is today. Mr. Samuelson said, “Augusta State taught me how to be flexible and roll with changes kind of teacher.” For instance, he has to be able to be a co-teacher or teach a resource room as well as a full-time Math teacher for the semester. He informed me when a teacher signs a contract this is what it entitles a special education teacher, too. I have learned a lot about Mr. Samuelson’s life and how Stalling Island Middle school is a welcoming environment for children with or without disabilities. It has a lot of advantages for children with disabilities because it offers a lot of co-teaching, resource rooms, one-on-one time, and it has specific classrooms for students with severe disabilities. The curriculum for students with disabilities has to be flexible and meet the needs for children with disabilities and children without.