Interview: Understanding Learner

Lorraine Low: High School Math Teacher

1. Has Laura successfully adapted to the self-learning curriculum in Precalculus

class?

I would say as the year has gone by, Laura has adapted more and more. So, I think, in
the beginning it was a hard transition to not having direct teaching or not being able to
ask as many questions during a lesson, but I think as we’ve moved through the year, she
has adapted and learned a lot of new skills about how to find her own problems and
correct those, which is a great mathematical skill.

2. Would you consider Laura a flexible person?

I think as far as when I met Laura in 7th grade, she’s a more flexible person now. I think
that’s being one of the biggest areas of growth during her time in Doulos is being able to
gain that flexibility and the ability to adapt better.

3. Did Laura effectively adapt to the expectations of your class?

Yes. I mean that’s an easy one to answer because I think Laura is willing to put in the extra
effort cause she has high expectations for herself and works very hard to meet those
expectations and so that pushes her to adapt and to have a positive attitude while she’s
adapting.

4. Are there any memorable moments in which Laura reacted positively to a

change?

Recently, I gave the student a challenge to master 100% of the Precalculus curriculum on
Khan Academy and, so, there’s a lot of adaptation needed because it isn’t something we’ve
never done, it’s something new in general for the Precalc class. And Laura immediately
jumped in and it was great because I was able to see her use the skills she’s being learning
throughout the year on how to self-teach and how to keep herself accountable for her goals
and so she reacted very well to that change in our class.

5. Are there any memorable moments in which Laura reacted negatively to a

change?

In math class specifically, no. I think when we were going through Trig identities, during
that really challenging unit, probably the first couple of days she was feeling a little down
on herself. But that was one of those moments where she learned the most about how to be
self-teaching and self-initiating because that was a very difficult unit, so I think the first
couple of days we were proving Trig identities that was very hard.
 6. Did Laura persevere when difficult changes or challenges arose?

Across the board, yes. I think that’s also something, along with being flexible, in flexibility
that perseverance has really grown, specially from 7th grade Laura to 12th grade Laura, that
was a very hard skill for Laura in middle school, whether that was in friendships and
relationships with others, or in school. I feel that’s been a huge, huge growth.

7. Did Laura cause a positive change in her classmates during her time as your
student?

I think as far as being a force for perseverance, and being a force for saying “no, we can do
these hard things,” I think that positive change cause is very easy as 12th graders to wanna
give up, and so, I think her positivity and perseverance to say, “I am gonna do things well,”
has been a very good change.

8. Did Laura cause a negative change in her classmates during her time as your
student?

No, never.

9. Did Laura successfully transition from one learning target or one expedition to
the next?

Yes, I would say there’s really been no difficulty as far as transitioning from units or
expeditions, or whatever is in our class time.

10. Do you consider that Laura is going to successfully transition from high school
to college?

That’s hard to define what ‘successfully’ looks like in that. I think as far as being able to do
the academic work I think she’s ready, so, I think that transition yes. I think from going
from the environment since there’s so many changes as far as structure, cause I think Laura
really enjoys structure, so, I think losing some of that structure will be hard, but I think
she’ll still be successful in it.