Sara Given & David Foye Interview, November 30, 2021

Primary tabs

  • A basic introduction with greetings and interview details.
  • Sara's childhood
  • David's Childhood, and his background leading to becoming an educator
  • David and Sara describe the five years they spent living together on a sailboat.
  • Sara details her difficulty finding employment after college.
  • David and Sara discuss living on a sailboat together for five years
  • Sara shares personal details about her youth in her response to my follow up to her description of her childhood as being 'a wild child'
  • Sara shares how she began studying at community college
  • David describes his athleticism as a youth, and his love for/ skill at racquetball. David won a national gold medal in racquetball as a teenager.
  • Sara describes her love for music and art, art modeling, and 'creating and crafting.'
  • David describes the influences that led him to major in History in college.
  • David describes his faculty mentor who had a significant influence on him.
  • David describes the versatility of a History degree, and the powerful ability of researching.
  • Sara details how she came to study criminology
  • Sara discusses deciding on a major in community college
  • Sara discusses how one faculty member at her community college had a profound impact on her Education.
  • Sara discusses her passion specifically for Criminological theory and legal theory.
  • Sara and David discuss their respective experince transitioning from community college to a four-year undergraduate student.
  • David discusses what being a transfer student at UMBC felt like.
  • David discusses what it was like to study at a historically African American institution.
  • Sara discusses what it was like to be a student at The University of Maryland, which she describes as 'overwhelming'.
  • Sara discusses the parking horrors that commuter students face.
  • Sara discusses her favorite college courses.
  • David Discusses his favorite classes.
  • Sara discusses the terrible difficulty finding employment she face following graduation. She admits she applied to over one-hundred and fifty jobs.
  • Sara discusses Alternative Education, which caters to the needs of students that are not being met in the traditional schools.
  • David discusses his journey to becoming a teacher. Unlike Sara, he found employment, but he had many setbacks leading to full-time employment as an educator.
  • David discusses a volunteer teacher program that he participated in in Baltimore.
  • David discusses how networking contributed to his employment as a Long-Term Substitute, and his determination contributed to being hired as a teacher.
  • David and Sara discuss the RTC program in their School County. They both received a teacher's license by participating in this credentialing program.
  • Sara and David discuss the support or lack of guidance long-term substitute teachers receive as 'a warm body in the room.' David details how he earned a job as a long-term sub in a middle school.
  • David discusses his love for mentoring high school students, as a teacher and a coach.
  • 01:07:34.000 --> 01:09:23.000 Sara discusses the ideal qualities for an Alternative Educator.
  • Sara and David discuss the qualities that enable a productive teacher-student relationship, that they acquired from teaching in their various capacities.
  • Sara discusses the shortcomings of teaching to the Standardized Test in the STEM fields, particularly for a new teacher in general, and a special educator in general.
  • Sara discusses how she works on a team of Specialized Special Educators, who co-teach alongside general educators at her middle school.
  • David discusses how he cultivates professional working relationships with his coworkers, who 'have his back'
  • Sara and David respond to the question if they felt that they were adequately prepared when entering the classroom.
  • David discusses how he believes that only certain individuals have the grit to make a career in education.
  • Sara discusses the professional support she receives from her department.
  • Sara describes a typical day at work, and the multiple obligations she has as a special educator and case manager.
  • Individualized Education Plans are a required part of Special Education. Sara discusses how IEPs are made for teen-aged students with special needs.
  • Sara discusses how the students benefit from a the team teaching at her school.
  • Sara and David discuss how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted their relationship with friends, family, and their own mental health
  • Sara discusses the relatively positive experince she had giving birth to her child during the pandemic
  • David discusses his early response to the Pandemic was building a classroom for remote teaching in his basement.
  • Sara and David discuss the transition to remote teaching.
  • Sara and David discuss the push to incorporate new software for remote learning, including Google Classroom. Interestingly, these software are different than the software used on the elementary level from my previous interview.
  • David discusses student learning performance during the pandemic.
  • The couple discusses the massive rush in their county to acquire over 150,000 computers for all the students and faculty in the county to learn. They also discuss the disadvantages of technology in Education.
  • Sara shares her observations about remote teaching in Special Education
  • the couple discusses the advantages to acquiring computers for every student.
  • Sara discusses her observations about the changes to IEP meetings since the pandemic.
  • Sara and David discuss a basic timeline of events from their working perspective.
  • David and Sara discuss returning to in-person instruction
  • The couple discuss the edition of SEL instruction to every school day since the pandemic began.
  • Each discuss how they see Educaiton evolving.
  • Sara offers her perspective on the greatest obstacle to Education: Popular Culture.
  • David responds differntly to the question, and discusses attrition and burnout rates amongst educators.
  • The couple discusses the differnces between educators and the schoolboard.
  • The couple commend their immediate administration for their outstanding work during the pandemic.
  • The couple shares how they beleive their students will remember them.
  • 02:37:32.000 --> 02:40:08.000 The couple reflect on what they would like the general public to know about the pandemic work of educators.
  • Both share helpful advice they received from their peers.
  • The couple discuss their long-term plan to return to living on a sailboat together.
  • The couple indulges my inquiry to hear more about their time living on a sailboat together. They offer unique insights to the extremes of living on a boat.
  • The couple reflect on their experince repairing their sailboat.
Description: In this interview, Sara and Dave—a married couple from Annapolis, Maryland—share some of their story and detail how they became professional educators. Sara provides unique insight into Special Education and Alternative Learning programs, like how IEPs (Individualized Education Plans) are created for each student, the challenges that Alternative Learning educators face, and the services middle school students receive in Special Education. David provides important insights into teaching Technology Education courses in a secondary school, including strategies for behavior management and teaching subjects outside of your undergraduate major. In addition, both narrators shed light on the unique circumstances teachers in their respective subfields faced (and continue to face) in the remote and in-person COVID-19 classroom. Both Sara and Dave became educators through a credentialling program after long-term substitute teaching. Beyond education, the couple shares personal details of their lives, like becoming parents during the COVID-19 pandemic, living on a boat together for five years, and being lifelong Maryland residents.

In collections

Details
Title
Sara Given & David Foye Interview, November 30, 2021
Creator(s)
Walter Jackson ; David Foye ; Sara Given
Interviewee
David Foye ; Sara Given
Interviewer
Walter Jackson
Created
November 30, 2021
Topical Subject(s)
University of Maryland, Baltimore College ; living on a sailboat ; Job search ; wild child ; community college ; racquetball national champion ; artistic background ; history ; faculty mentor ; non-degree career ; criminology ; Baltimore City Teaching Residency Program ; Substitute teacher ; alternative education ; classroom management ; mentoring students ; Special education ; covid-19 ; professional educators ; remote teaching software ; Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) ; remote learning ; burnout ; teachers rights ; Advice for new teachers ; five-year plan
Continent
North and Central America
Country
United States
First Order Political Division
Maryland
City
Annapolis
Rights Statement
Copyright for this object is held by American University and does not preclude any use the co-interviewee(s) may want to make of the information in the recordings themselves. This object is made available through the American University Digital Research Archive for research and educational purposes. Permission to reuse, publish, or reproduce the object beyond the bounds of Fair Use must be obtained from the American University Library -- Archives and Special Collections.
URI / Handle
http://hdl.handle.net/1961/humanitiestruck:3307

Stats

Viewed 45 times
Downloaded 0 times