Howard Webb

Education 350
Student Interviews
November 22, 2016
Isabella Sobral

I was able to set down with Isabella Sobral, a student in Mrs. Deborah Frains eighth-grade art
class at Lesher Junior High in Fort Collins, Colorado. Isabella has impressed me as being
unusually insightful and urbane for a person of her age during the time I have been around her in
class. In our conversation, she described herself as being a homebody and a bit of bookworm, yet
she has seen more of the world at her age than I have at mine. I have frequently admired the
quality of the art she has produced in class. We have spoken briefly on a number of occasions,
but it was difficult for me to recall her name at the time of our interview. She is one of the
students in the class that does her work, interacts appropriately with her peers and with her
teacher, and ultimately goes relatively unnoticed in the context of an otherwise chaotic classroom
environment. Isabella was my first choice as an interview subject largely because she piqued my
curiosity and interest. I found my conversation with her to be interesting and potentially valuable
as a future teacher.
Isabella told me that she, her father and stepmother have been living in Fort Collins for only
the last year and a half. Before that, they were living in Lausanne, Switzerland where she had
lived for about three years and attended school for two. Her opinions of Fort Collins and of

Lesher Junior High were both markedly positive. This was most notably apparent in her
descriptions of her peers and teachers. Though she did not say so explicitly, she expressed an
appreciation for the culture that exists at Lesher, and stated, I dont really want to leave next
year when talking about going to high school. She described her education in Switzerland as
being of a very high quality but also suggested that she had felt somewhat alienated by the
students there due to her lack of fluency in the local language.
Isabella has two half-brothers and a half-sister, all of which are in their late twenties to early
thirties. Her mother lives in Blacksburg, Virginia where Isabella grew up. She acknowledged that
the distance was tough for her, but that it was much better now than it had been when she was
living in Switzerland. She is typically able to stay with her mother during extended breaks such
as holidays. She noted that she is drawn to metropolitan cities, in spite of the fact that she grew
up in a relatively small town. This was affirmed by a discussion about a recent trip to London,
England and an upcoming trip to New York, NY. Though I did not pry, her responses and
demeanor suggested that she has a good relationship with the family she regularly lives with and
with her estranged mother. She was by all measures very candid and matter of fact concerning
each question I asked.
Isabella expressed her love of school and learning at different points during our conversation.
She particularly enjoys math, and her current teacher Mrs. Langenderfer, though she spoke
fondly of several academic subjects. Art and cooking are both personal interests and hobbies, and
she spoke of a potential career option that would combine these pursuits with science. In spite of
the skills that she demonstrates, I feel confident that art is not her primary academic interest. In
spite of this, I felt that she had a number of insights that would prove valuable as an art teacher.

We talked about what teachers that make her want to learn do, and about what some teachers
do that is counterproductive. She enthusiastically recounted a Pear Deck assignment that a
teacher had assigned that morning, and about participating in classes through Kahoot! and
other non-traditional interactive learning and assessment methods. Isabella noted the significance
of choice and even a modicum of freedom as an incentive in more than one instance. She
suggested that a good teacher is able to put themselves in the shoes of their pupils and think
about how they would want to learn. She went beyond this to describe her best teachers as those
who did not lose sight of the fact that they were interacting with a group of individual human
beings rather than things. We talked about the value of students understanding the practical
application of what they are learning, and how it relates to past and future learning as well as to
the futures of each student. Though she was not critical of her peers or instructor, she referenced
the behavior of some students in our art class, and how she felt like a variety of students are not
engaged on a meaningful level. She noted that quite a few students in the class were there
because it was the best elective option for them, but not an interest. That being said, she
suggested that those students have a responsibility to apply themselves to the work, regardless of
their interests. We talked about some alternative teaching methods and learning opportunities that
she felt might alleviate this condition.
Isabella showed a deep level of understanding regarding the complexities that schools,
teacher, and students face in making changes and providing alternatives. Her insight also
encompassed issues on a local, national, and global level. We spoke briefly about her concerns
regarding our government and the growing extremist's culture, though she chose not to expand at
on it at length out of respect for the beliefs of others. I found her perspective to be more balanced
and considerate than that of many adults that I interact with regularly. She suggested, and I agree

that her perception is in part due to her cultural experiences. I think above all, that she is an
intelligent young woman who is capable of formulating her own thoughts and opinions. She
expresses those thoughts in a manner that is substantive and perspicacious. She gave me a
number of things to think about as a teacher. Most of all, she made me consider how important it
is that no student, especially one with as much potential as she exhibits, ever falls through the
cracks in my classroom.
I feel as though I have learned a number of valuable lessons from my discussion with Isabella.
Her thoughts about the students in our class who are not necessarily interested in art is
particularly valuable. As a teacher, I will almost certainly have students who have arrived in my
classroom through similar circumstances. In order to have the classroom environment that I plan
to provide, I will have to work hard to engage these students. Doing so will be important to the
success of those students, and to the students with whom they interact. Isabellas description of
active participation and a sense of freedom were ideas that I had not fully considered. I believe
that I will be able to utilize this knowledge to increase student satisfaction in my classes and as
an incentive.
I found the fact that the opportunity to use technology in the classroom was such a positive
experience for Isabella to be of considerable interest. It will be important for me to keep pace
with the rapid evolution of technology so that I may take advantage of this enthusiasm and help
my students develop appropriate skills. Her experiences in Switzerland reminded me to be
sensitive to the challenges and attentive to how I teach and interact when working with English
language learners. She was able to articulate the frustrations she had experienced due to a
language barrier in a very frank and personal way. Arguably, the most important thing that I
learned from Isabella is how little you can know about someone if you do not take the initiative

to learn about him or her individually. I will have to discipline myself to make sure that I do not
make assumptions, positive or negative, about any of my students.