Mary Vanacore Interview

On October 28th, I interviewed Mrs. Mary Vanacore. She is a Teacher’s Assistant at Reading Fleming Intermediate School. She works in the room with Mrs. Lori Koehler when I am there. Her job title is a Teacher’s Assistant. Her main job as a TA is to assist the teacher. She helps the teacher with the flow of the classroom. Meaning she helps with procedures, assignments, and helps with students. In basic terms, she helps make the teacher's job easy and make it flow without any distractions. She said her job is more “behind the scenes.” She make sure that students are staying focused and that the teacher spends time teaching and not dealing with a distracted student. Mrs. Vanacore has been a Teacher’s Assistant at RFIS for five years now and …show more content…
She said the hardest thing is to motivate reluctant learners. She answered this question very quickly. She mention a student she had a couple of years ago. She mentioned that he was very reluctant to learning, but he was a very smart kid. She said that the student thought he thought that liking school and being smart was not “cool.” However, she talked to the student and said to him that his way out is being smart. She mentioned how she knew that he didn’t have the best background and didn't have the best family. Afterwards, she saw this student grow and develop. One day, this student went up to her to show how well he did on a test. She said she was very happy for him and mentioned that that was the biggest satisfaction about her job. She loves watching students grow, but also she wants the students to know that she is there for them. She also stated how she wants to be a “motherly,” figure to …show more content…
We first talked about eh strengths that RFIS has. She said there is lots of opportunities, for example, resource time, where the students get to ask teachers about homework and lesson. She also said how the technology is very great. Each student gets their own Chromebook. The chromebook is used in each class in someway a few days a week. Then we talked about RFIS weaknesses of the school. She said that the curriculum is very strict. She also mentions that it misses the basics. For example, the curriculum expects the students to know something, before they were ever teached it.
Following, we talked about her interactions with other staff members. She said she works very well with others. She tries her best to communicate to head teachers when she is in the room. She always mentions to them that if they don’t like something that she is doing, they should mention that to her. Mrs. Vanacore ultimate goal is to “work seamlessly.” Meaning she wants the classroom to flow as it easy, but make the day-by-day experience work best for the students and the