Field Experience:
Interviewing a Resource Teacher at a Local Middle School
In order to protect the privacy of the school and teacher, I have omitted the respective names of the school and teacher. The teacher I interviewed will be referred to as AB
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs indicates that we all have 5 levels of need that must be met: Physiological, Safety, Love / Belonging, Esteem and Self-Actualization. As the teacher you interview the following questions.
In your professional opinion:
1. How important it is for students to have their basic needs met in order to be successful in School? Why do you think so?AB: "Having some student needs met is absolutely vital. No teacher would be able to meet every child’s needs all the time. But, there are some things that children simply are not able to get at home. That’s why we always encourage students to participate in our free breakfast program, whether or not they are enrolled in lunch or other programs. We want them to always feel like they can go get a hot breakfast, and then come into class to learn."
2. Which needs are most important to have satisfied so students can thrive in school? Why?AB explained to me that often she will notice students taking care of each other when they are in the right circumstances. For example, her group of students often help each other out and offer support and fellowship without being prompted. I myself observed this when I filled in for her as a substitute. She explained that physiological safety is important—especially at that age, students need to know they won’t have a teacher yelling in their faces or bullies at school being physically violent. I thought about the big iron fences around the school—surely they also provided some reassurance of safe barriers too, and I had never thought of this effect on the students before. AB also explained to me that students need emotional safety as well. An example she used was a student in the Resource program who was also included into general classrooms. Sometimes teachers in those classrooms lose patience with students who are not able to respond right away to questions, and scoff at them or belittle them if the need the information repeated several times. Those teachers often have an entire lesson plan to get through in one hour, but they might realize that some students actually do need a few more seconds of processing time—it’s just how their brains work.
3. Who is responsible for ensuring that students have their needs met? Why do you think so?
AB is a big encourager for this to happen at home first, as often as possible, for her students. She told me about meetings with many parents, with whom she will share her observations and make recommendations for ways that parent might help their students’ learning at home. Some parents are receptive. Some are not. Some of her students are in caretaker positions at home—sometimes of younger siblings, and sometimes even of parents. In those cases, AB says all she can do is her best to give that student the tools to stay successful and motivated.
4. What is one thing a teacher might do for a student who has physiological or safety needs? Why would this be useful?
There’s really no magic bullet, AB says. There’s no one solution. However, a teacher might remember that a C-grade is actually the average. “C” students are often shamed and/or punished, but that’s the average! It can be very un-motivating to a student who is struggling to succeed. She might not be able to get a student to reach to an “A” grade, but if she connects getting a “C” with now being able to participate on the basketball team, for example, then that student has something of value that is actually within his or her reach.
Reflection Paragraph:
AB and I spoke extensively about the things students go through, especially at the junior high level. She suggested that perhaps it is easier for elementary school teachers to meet the needs of their students, since they get to be with the same students for 6+ hours every day. Junior high level teachers are often very pressed for time, getting an entirely new group of students every hour. They may not be able to address many student needs, if any. This is unfortunate, because the needs are more and more pressing as the students in this age group transition from children to teenagers—a process that makes their needs more sophisticated, and the consequences of not meeting them pose more and more risks, academically and otherwise. To compound matters, most students in the area are from homes far below the poverty level. Some of them use little to no English at home, and many of them do not have regular food, shelter, or family members around. Many of these pre-teen students are also caretakers within their own families, if they have remained with their original families and not been transplanted to others. I asked AB, “What is a teacher to do?” Essentially, she gave me this piece of advice: There is no one solution that a teacher can present towards the needs of his or her students. However, that teacher can always consider, and re-consider what things are like for his or her students. A teacher who can put him- or herself in their students’ shoes for only a moment could gain huge insight into what those students really need and what a teacher can do to meet those needs.
Conclusion:
AB gave me a huge amount of information to think about, which I did for several days. As I reflected, I thought about the fact that society in general often values public school less than homeschooling and other options. For the students I met, however, without these public programs, and without educators like AB, these students would most assuredly miss out on vital things they need to grow up well, much less maintain very much well-being. I think the best way to sum up my view of this type of education is by saying that any type of social schooling also inherently requires an amount of social work. As a future teacher, I will definitely be taking AB's advice—I won’t have one single way of meeting the needs of my students, but I can always and continuously try to put myself in their shoes and understand what things are like for them where they are.
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