Finding Interviewees is Harder Than You Think....

Since class last Monday evening, I have been trying to secure a participant for our think tank's assignment to "Create an Interview Protocol." I thought this would be easy, since we chose, as our topic, interviewing a fellow teacher about their impressions of professional development in our school district. I spend my working days surrounded by other teachers, so I started my search by casually asking other teachers at my school if they would be willing to talk to me for 20 minutes about professional development.

As background, report cards and IEP progress reports are due to our principal at the end of next week, and annual reviews for special ed students begin the week after, so all teachers are pretty stressed right now about preparing all of these documents in time and preparing for parent-teacher conferences, so the first reaction I got across the board was, pretty much, "I don't have time to eat or sleep right now, and you think I have time to chat about professional development? Ask me again in a couple of weeks..."

After more begging and pleading on my part, those who were willing to reconsider immediately clammed up when they found out I would be taping the interview. Maybe they think the tapes may be used against them if they fall into the wrong hands? I don't know, but they were very uncomfortable with the taping. Maybe it would be easier if I knew the teachers better; this is my first year teaching at this school. I've been thinking it might be easier if I could go back to one of my old schools and find a teacher who knows me for a longer period of time and might be more trusting. I think I'll try this next week, though I'll still be up against report card and IEP deadlines. Oh well, I'll give it a try...