Facilitator Interview #2

Facilitator Interview #2 - BREN

My conververstion with Bren went very well. I got him to open up a little bit, and that's an accomplishment! I informed him of the ideas that our group has compiled, and talked a little bit about how I was interested in his ideas and views of student voice and his own voice. He started by saying that he was very interested in what people have to say, and would like to hear more about student needs. He said he likes when people to come to him and he does his best to help people. I asked him about his views on staff members being uncomftable about allowing students too much voice, as they may take advantage or not see it as a responsibility. He could relate to that. He said he likes to know the opinions and ideas of participants, and when it comes to the amount of authority associated with that voice then there is some question about how much voice should be allowed. He said it was the concept of who has the final say, really. I talked about the notion of having a committ that collectively agreed on decisions, and if you had issues on any given situation than you could raise it and have a fair say in what happens. He liked that idea, and agreed that if someone was to go ahead and do something that he didn't want that he would like to voice his opinion about it and have a fair say.
Bren felt strongly about people's voices around attendance. The issue of attendance itself does frusterate Bren, but he is more interested in hearing about peoples issues with attendance and trying to find a solution that way. I agreed that it would be interesting to talk to participants about their attendance. He would like to have a discussion with individual people on why attendance is bad, and try to address the issue according to the person's unique situation. I think this is a very wonderful quality, as people are so diverse and unique that their education needs to be as well. I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to regard it on an individual basis. Perhaps it seems like a large-scaled task right now in this day in age- SO many students, such big educational facilities. However, if teachers were trained in the complexity of addressing students individual needs (some, like Bren and Trudy, don't need to be trained hehe ) than the education system would be so much better.
Our conversation about attendance led to us talking about Bren, as a teacher, being aware of a person's progress in their academics. I suggested that a more organized advisory process might be a step in the right direction and perhaps proove a good solution. Bren then agreed that he finds the advisory process isn't doing what it needs to be doing. I talked about advisers needed to keep their own personal style, but maybe getting together to collaborate on a unified advisory process. He agreed and told me he would like to see a generel or even specific outline on how to do it. He said he feels like he doesn't do a good job even though he emphasized that he always tries to ask people how their doing whenever he sees them. I asked him what would make help him to do a better job, and he said he'd feel better if there was a general outline to follow to remind you the things you need to ask.
I then brought up the idea of alternative curriculum. I asked Bren how he makes his current curriculum as alternative as possible. Bren replied that he wouldn't consider what he does alternative, but as we continued talking it came to light that a lot of his methods are very alternative. He seemed pleased by this and that made me happy. Bren explained to me that he has to get a lot of work done in a small amount of time, so what we learn compared to what high schools learn is condensed into what's on the exam and the public. I continued with that to talk about how that is suitable for a majority of people who don't care for the course and want to get it done and move on, and for another majority it's a downpoint because they are actually interested in biology and would like to learn more than what's offered. Either way, his methods of giving you all the notes in worksheets and then with that corrosponding review questions, is very hard to do bad if you put the time into it. This is very alternative to the high school program where you are expected to use books and search for the information yourself. This quality itself has it's positive and negative sides, but it is efficient for getting the grade and graduating. Bren chooses to hand out worksheets and review questions to people pre-typed instead of giving notes because he wants to have all the material for every even if they are absent. This is his method of ensuring that you get every single note, definition, graph and diagram you need. This is a pro in the sense that you have the information and given that you study you can do good. It's a con in the sense that a lot of people need to be forced into reading by taking notes and some people may just fill out the answers once and then never look at them again and therefore do poorly.
I wanted to move on as time was running short, so I quickly got Bren to list a few other changes, enhancements or improvements that he'd like to see. He said that time was limited to getting through the basic essentials, but if he were to get some new lab equipment he could find the time to use them. He was interested in new microscopes, and he talked about a computer software program that apparently has virtual labs and stuff on it that could assit in his teaching! He knows about a program that you can run on the new computers (becuase they're good enough) and it has physics experiments on it and different tools he could use to make up for a real lab.

I also interviewed Jeff today. I'll be posting that later.
Peace and Love.