Interview Assessment #1

Name of person interviewed: Brad Smith

Profession: Music Education

Location and business name: Wester Middle School, Frisco, TX

Date of interview: Friday, September 28, 2018

Time: 9:00 AM

The original purpose I had for completing the interview was to ask questions to a

professional in the field that I’m going to study. The interview I had with Brad Smith, the head

band director at Wester Middle School in Frisco, Texas was very helpful to my studies for this

purpose. Mr. Smith was my band director in middle school, so we already have had a

relationship for a long time. This fact made the interview a more comfortable situation for the

both of us, as well as allowed us more time to talk about his job as a music educator, because we

didn’t have to spend time on introductions. After discussing his job for only a couple of minutes,

I went ahead and asked him if he would be my mentor. In the past, he has had other Centennial

High School band members who went to Wester mentor with him, so he knows how the program

works. He said yes, and from that point on we talked about what my responsibilities would be in

the future. Even though I have previously talked to him about doing ISM for music education, it

was the highlight of our interview when he told me that he would be happy to be my mentor.

Locking in who I will be mentoring with this early in the year is a big relief to me going forward

in my ISM journey because I will already have someone that I can contact with questions I may

have. In the interview, Mr. Smith told me about the roles I will play at Wester once I am meeting

with him on a regular basis. He said that I will be treated as a student teacher, with

responsibilities that would gradually increase over the time I spend at Wester. For example, at
first I would mainly observe classes in order to see how Mr. Smith teaches students, then start to

take students out one-by-one and work with them on specific techniques. The goal is, by the end

of the year, for me to be leading entire classes of beginners or a full band in whatever I feel that

they need to work on. I was not expecting the fact that I have the potential to take on so much

responsibility with the students I’d be leading, and this makes me look forward to working at

Wester much more than I already was. For the last part of my interview time, Mr. Smith invited

me to play my instrument for a class of beginners that was taking place at the time of our

interview. Playing for the students I will have the opportunity to teach at some point soon was a

really reassuring experience for me, because they thought the fact that I was in high school band

was very cool, and they loved to hear me play. After this, we concluded by returning to Mr.

Smith’s office and him asking me if I had any questions. At that point, we figured out a tentative

schedule for good times to meet when mentor visits become more frequent. Everything that we

discussed during this interview, like my future roles and times that we will meet, will be useful

for a functioning mentorship later in the year.