Interviewing A Student

I did not feel like I should be asking a younge student many of the questions that I wanted answered. So I went to my sistr and got one of her friends to voluntere for the job. She is a Sophmore at Upland High School were she marches in the band. I asked her if she was in any advanced placement? She said "yes, I am in honors and college prep classes". That led me to ask if she could tell the difference bettween the two classes when it came to curriculum and the students in the class? In response she stated "The work in honors is way more time consuming and is alot harder than the college prep. Ther is a different atmosphere because some kids in the college prep class do not care and it makes it hard to learn. Sometimes when the students do not care the teachers do not care". I replied with do you get special treatment being in an honors corse? In responce "Yes we get to talk alot more in the honors class and they say honors students understand in stead of haveing a blank look on ther face". This really stood out to me becaue I had discussed this in my liberal studies class and concluded that honors students are treated more like an adult than a child. maybe that is why they mature much faster than regular students.

I really wanted to know if she got any special treatment from other teachers because she was in the band for the school. I asked if she got any special treatment, and she replied with "Yes, we get to miss school. But teachers are not leanient on grades. We half to make up all of the work which can very hard during compitition season but we make it work". I then asked do any of your teachers play favoritism in their classroom? She replied with, "Yes, one of our teachers would change a lesson to make sure that the band students understood. somtimes even for the other students". This to me did not sound like favoritism but a true teacher doing his job. Thats what I like to hear. It lead m to ask if the principal was involved with the students? She said "Yes they both are... We actually have two principals and one vice principal. Everyday they go over the intercome and speek to us and during our lunches they walk around and talk to the students". I loved how involved the principals were at this school I knew they had two principals because the population at that is outrages but I love how they work as a team. I then asked if she had any non speeking students in her cass? She replied, " No, all of my students in my classes speek english, but ther is one student at our school who has a disability so he has a translater who goes class to class". I found this so cool that the school helps out like that. She also said "all of the students are really friendly to him and it makes no difference". I was surprised that the students were actually nice because when I attended the school the kids were really mean.

I brought up a subject that was very touchey and was not sure if I should go their but I did and loved the responce. I asked if racism was an issue at her school and she said "No, if so I do not notice everyone I know hangs out with everyone. And if the student feels confortable they anonce that they are interested in the other sex and no one cares! It is really cool because I have alot of guy friends who like guys and they are the coolest friends ever". I then asked if ther was any problems with vandalism or gangs at her school? She stated "Ther is vandalism just like tagging or breaking windows but they are the type of thing that is fixed before we even make it to school the next morning. Ther are gangs I guess I do not really know if ther are they keep to them selves and thats it. Nothing crazy"."Ther is alot of PDA also known as Public Demenstration of Affection but nothing out of the ordinary at a high school." I found this interesting because when I went to that school the PDA was really bad to the point that people were recieving Saturday school for it.

I then wanted to know more about the contriversal testing that all of the students had to take in order to exit high school. I asked her what she thought of the exam? She responded with "It was a waiste of time, the questions were too easy anyone should be able to pass that test. They should let people graduate based on their GPA so it is all of the work they have put into it". I asked if the classrooms were up to date tecnologywise and she said yes all of the teachers use the computers all the time and let us work on them too". This student was very usefull because she had alot of opinions and stated the truth. She is a student who is egar to go to USC or Harvard with my sister with is really cool. I hope they end up togeather because starting fresh is really hard for alot of people. This school seems very organized and on top of things. I believe it would be a school that i would love to teach at just because the atmosphere of the teachers ands students is really amazing.