June 15th, 2022 - Fifth Graders Interview Erica Braden!

June 15, 2022

Click to View as a Webpage

The Interview Squad Strikes Again!

What is the Interview Squad?

The Interview Squad is a group of 5th graders who have volunteered to interview staff, in an effort to help families get to know them a little better.
All 5th graders participated in shaping the questions to be asked.
Students from each 5th grade classroom volunteered to conduct the interviews.
These interviews, written up by the students, have been published in a series of Special Edition Newsletters over this school year. This is the final issue.
Four 5th graders conducted this interview.

Volunteer to be Communications Chair

Interview #7 : Erica Braden

French philosopher and writer Marcel Proust was known for his witty answers to a series of intriguing questions, now known as the Proust Questionnaire. To learn more about our teachers in a unique way, the TC 5^th graders took on the challenge of creating their own set of interview questions.

For this issue we had the honor of interviewing one of our new 1st grade teachers: Erica Braden

Background

The Interview Squad interviewed Erica to ask some questions. Here are some cool things about her: Erica grew up here in Seattle and loves the Seahawks. She lives with her husband and son. Erica has many favorite things. Her favorite books are the Bridgerton novels and her favorite movie is Love Actually. Cats are her favorite animal. She loves Italian food and reading. Erica’s favorite color is purple and her favorite number is 4. There is more! Erica’s secret talent is tap dancing, but it is not much of a secret anymore! Erica’s college major was Communications and she has a Masters in Teaching. And last but not least her hopes and dreams – “I already have my dream job, so I can only hope for the health and happiness of my family and the planet.”

Thank you for being at Thornton Creek, Erica!

Interview Questions

If you could live as an animal, what would it be and why?

I thought about it a lot. As much as I would love to live as a pampered house cat and just get pet and treated to whatever I wanted all day, I think I would choose to be a bird because then I would be able to fly. I have always wanted to fly. It could be very fun to fly.

If you could meet anyone, living or dead, who would it be and why?

There’s a lot of people, and it is hard to choose. But I said Abraham Lincoln because he did so much for this country and was such an inspiration.

If you could have one super-power, what would it be and why?

If I could have any kind of super power it would be to be able to time travel, because then I could travel back in time to see sorts of different time periods in the world. That would be really interesting to check out different eras and times in history.

If you could choose another job besides teaching, what would it be and why?

I would be really interested in designing toys for kids. This year I have a toddler myself and he is nearly two and it’s been really interesting to check out new toys and see what he’s interested in. I would try to find ways to make fun toys that were still educational.

What is the best thing you ever learned from a student?

The best thing I think I learned from a student was in my first year of teaching where I felt really stressed out and I didn’t know what I was doing and I felt like I was way over my head with teaching. But I learned from a student that the best thing that I could do every day was just to show up and I didn’t need to worry about being perfect and always having the perfect lesson plan. But it was just me being there every day which was most important for my students. So just to be there and do the best I can is what I learned.

Respectfully submitted,

Thornton Creek Interview Squad

-Alex O.

-Anya L.

-Nava M.

-Oscar C.

The newsletter team would like to offer thanks to Erica Braden for taking the time to be interviewed, and to the 5th graders who worked together to come up with such excellent interview questions, and who produced this lovely interview!

Additional thanks go to Bridget DuRuz who organized this whole operation as the "Interview Squad Faculty Adviser". Sharing these interviews gives us a chance to 'meet' some of the friendly faces at TC! Thank you!