Teacher Interview

Mr. Pablico's Subject Interview

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Eddy Pablico is a teacher at R.C. Palmer Secondary School. He teaches English and Social Studies in multiple grades. Students have held an interview in the previous month of October with him to record useful information about the subject for their assignment.

The interviewer begins by asking, "How do you help students that are struggling in your class?"

Mr. Pablico tends to see what kind of learner they are first. He expresses his opinion of there is not one approach for everyone.

"... So I kind of gauge who the student is, how they learn, and then sort of help them from there. For example, if they're a visual learner, I'll show them some pictures. The same goes for students who are more about using words, ad in that case, I'll review key terms with them. Stuff like that..."

Want to know how the teacher knows if a student is understanding and not just memorizing? Well Mr. Pablico has your answer.

"I always look at how they're explaining their work. So if they teach it back to me, then I know they actually got it. So I kind of like, ask them some key questions to inspire and see if they actually understands the material. If they explain it back to me, and well, I get a sense of their answer and thought process."

Mr. Pablico helps students stay motivated by "tapping" into their interests.

He continues to add on it it by saying, "So, before class even starts or asking a meaningful question based on a particular topic, I get an idea for what people like. I have kids who sort of express their interests and provide me with options for topics, without me asking."

In the classroom, the teacher tries to make it relevant to what the students know and understand in terms of pop culture, its references, and the music.

The second question was, "What are students currently learning about in your class?"

Mr. Pablico says his Grade 10's are learning about WWI, while his other grade is learning geography (most likely alongside with history).

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When asked about the problems students encounter and have with Social Studies classes, the teacher answers, "Usually, I would say literacy. In my classes, students find it difficult to paraphrase certain thing sometimes. There's that, and critical thinking as well, the big one, but I tend to have sessions where they can practice and exercise that area of weaknesses."

Students will learn a lot about research skills, which is the most important thing in classes having to do with history and fact-checking, and apply them to their presentations, projects, and assignment. Communicating information, breaking down structures, and presenting information to audiences are also a big part of Social Studies.

A common misconception of Mr. Pablico's Socials classes is the need to memorize specific and detailed dates.

Mr. Pablico explains by saying, "Kids come in and try to memorize every single day and year that might be significant, things like that. But it's really about why events were in place and how the event was played out."

Basically, Mr. Pablico is encouraging students to identify the significance of historical events and go from there, instead of just memorizing the facts and the time that it happened. Although documented time and dates are important in Social Studies, a history-heavy course, teachers usually look for the understanding of events rather than blind memorization.

As for skills that students learn from Mr. Pablico's class that they can use in the outside world, the list includes:

Verifying sources, their reputation, reliability, and information
Fact-checking authors and their research
Taking in information appropriately and communicating back to the audience
Identifying bias, perspectives, and the meaning behind sources

And more in this area.

Mr. Pablico shares, "It's really fun teaching Socials. To me, it's basically story time. I like stories, and I like hearing about them. Those are things like people's experiences and how the world changes due to them. There are also people who have greatly influenced the world as well. Basically, there's a lot of reading and telling of stories."

You might already know why Social Studies would impact the world, so below is few examples:

People get to know what's going on in the world that they live in
- Awareness of current events, historical events, and future events
It encourages people to not be scared to share and voice their perspectives and opinions to the world and make a change
It clears a path for us when we get lost in all the bias, corruption, and manipulation in the news we take in

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Lastly, Mr. Pablico shares some meaningful advice. "Socials allow us to have those complicated, even controversial conversations in a safer environment. Socials allow us to not repeat the same mistakes humans have previously made."

You can find the interview video here: https://ssalillac.wixsite.com/webdevelopment9/raw-material

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