Running head: THE WORLD NEEDS MORE TEACHERS 1

The World Needs More Teachers

Julia Duffy

Harrison High School

Capstone Courses

Paulette Allard

23 April 2021
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Table of Contents
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Career Choice

Introduction

Inspiring others has always been very important to me. From a young age, I have thrived

off of helping grow those younger than me. When I was a young dancer, I always helped the

little kids. When I started thinking about careers, I knew I wanted to teach in some form. I

always want to grow up teaching dance but in 2018 I suffered a career ending injury. I will likely

never return to dancing. After that, my dream unfortunately flew out the window.

I grew up around many teachers and saw how rewarding their job is. As someone who

had joined STEM, the pay was much less than my counterparts. For a long time, the pay dictated

my career choice. As I have gotten older and worked, I have learned that you will struggle no

matter your pay if you hate your job. Going into a medical career based on money would have

left me miserable. I have watched my dad makes tons of money but come feeling empty every

day. I have also watched people next to nothing but love their career.

My older sister is special needs. Her life has shown us how far one good teacher can go. I

would love to make that same impact on another child. There are few teachers who have

transformed her education and pushed her to be the best she can be. Being able to help someone

do something they couldn’t do before is so rewarding to me. In my internship, I work with 3-5-

year old’s. A lot of my kids are behind where they need to be for Kindergarten. They have come

a long way working with me and it is so rewarding to see. I hope I can forever make the same

impact on other kids.

In my career activity, I was described as social, enterprising, and artistic. These are all

huge attributes for teaching. The kids at my internship talk all day because they are developing
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their language skills. They need someone social to keep conversation. I also got many future

careers working with kids. I cannot wait to have great years with my future students.

Job Description

I am becoming an Elementary Educator. More specifically, I want to be a first grade

teacher.

To be a first-grade teacher, I would work five days a week in a classroom. I would have

the weekend and school breaks off. I will work with students off all skill levels and help them

master the skills necessary to move to second grade. I will do a lot of developing life skills. First

graders are still young, and they are learning the world.

First grade teachers make between 35,000 and 72,000 dollars. The median pay

nationwide is 59,000 dollars. Job growth is about 4% which is average. Unemployment is at

2.8% for teachers. There are around 104,000 that will be available between 2016 and 2026.

Teachers are in high demand especially since COVID happened.

Good teachers must be strong communicators. They also must listen well. Kids could be

disclosing family information that could save them if it is heard and reported. Teachers need to

be adaptable. Especially with kids, things change fast and often. Good teachers need patience

and empathy. Some kids will test your patience but, in the end, you must be able to be kind to

them and relate to their feelings.

Being a teacher is physically demanding. The day is spent on your feet. There is a lot of

bending and lifting. Teachers need at least a bachelor’s degree. Pay is better if you go on to your

master’s degree. Also, prior teaching experience, in any way, is preferred. A lot of teachers start

in after school or teaching sports such as dance. These jobs build skills needed to run a

classroom. Walking in on the first day with no teaching experience will not make a successful
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classroom. Teachers are expected to keep control of their rooms without the use of force or fear.

Teachers should also know when to send a kid to the nurse and when to let them stick things out.

Lastly, teachers should always keep open communication with the parents. They need to know

what is going on inside the school each day.

Day In The Life

The day starts off around 6:30 when they arrive in their classroom. There is alone time to

prepare the room for the day and finish anything that was not done the day before. Around 7:15,

kids are allowed in the building. A few kids trickle in every few minutes until 7:50 when the bell

rings. Everyone who is on time has arrived and been seated. Between 7:50 and 7:55 are the

morning announcements. From 7:55-8:10 the class has their morning meeting. During this time

the discuss their evenings, go over the day and read a story or listen to a song. This time is used

to get their brains moving.

After that the class transitions into math block. This lasts about an hour and there is group

and individual work. At this point it is almost 9:30. For 10 minutes they have a brain break. This

time consists of dancing, singing and getting any movement out. This helps kids stay focused

since their attention spans are short.

At 9:40, it is time to transition into guided reading and centers. This will last a half hour.

The kids will be in smaller groups so the teacher can identify the different reading levels and

help each of them. This will transition the class into read aloud. The first read aloud of the day is

popcorn style and lasts 15 minutes. Popcorn style is where one child reads, and another picks up

where they leave off. After read aloud, they will spend 15 minuets doing phonics and 15 minutes

doing reading workshops.

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It is now 10:55. The class takes another 5-minute brain break and at 11am starts writing

workshops. Writing workshops last 15 minutes and will be small groups with the teacher. At

11:15 they break into independent writing time. This time is used for any type of writing.

At 11:30am the kids will head to lunch. After lunch they will have recess. It is now

12:30pm. From 12:30-1pm the kids will do science or social studies. It will depend on the day.

At 1:05pm the kids have specials until 2:05. Specials will be different every day. At 2:05 they

come back to class and pack up to leave at 2:15.

Pros and Cons

There are many ups and downs when teaching. As a teacher, you get to develop great

relationships with kids, you get to help kids grow as people, and you get summer and breaks off.

Also, as a teacher, you do not get paid great, you put in a lot of work for kids who may not want

to learn, and you may have little backing from administration.

The pros to teaching are that you develop great relationships with kids, you get to help

kids grow as people, and you get summer and breaks off. Young students usually absolutely love

their teachers. They share every detail of their lives with their teacher. They also show their love

even on the bad days. You will never feel unwanted when you are with your students. In

Elementary school, kids have a lot of growing to do. You get to watch kids grow from little kids

to big second graders. This is super rewarding just like many aspects of teaching. Most kids

remember their first-grade teacher. If you get lucky, they will come back when they’re older to

visit.

The cons to teaching are that you do not get paid great, you put in a lot of work for kids

who may not want to learn, and you may have little backing from administration. The pay for a

teacher is not horrible in retrospect but for the hours you put in are not great. Even if you work
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12 hours every day instead of 8, you do not get paid extra. You also are expected to answer

emails around the clock even outside of school. Some kids are not backed by their parents in

being successful at school. No matter the work a teacher puts in, some kids won’t be successful

until they have home support. Lastly, at a young age like first grade, kids are hyper. These

stereotypes can be pushed when kids are misbehaving. No administrator wants to send a child

home or discipline them for bad behavior. Also, administrators do not see what your everyday

life is like. If a parent emails complaining about their child, administration may downplay the

event causing you more stress. Lastly, we have seen that last year that teachers are needed no

matter what. Administrators do not see how much work is truly going in. All administration and

the state are seeing is the decrease in test grades across the board. The use of standardized testing

is unnecessary, especially this year. Even though most teachers do not agree with testing, they

must still prepare their kids for it and make sure it gets done.

Teaching is very rewarding, but it comes with many pros and cons. At the end of the day,

if you love teaching more than you hate the hard times, you will be just fine.
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From Here to There

Professional Profile

To work in education, you need to enjoy kids. This may seem obvious but there are many

teachers who do not like children. If a teacher does not enjoy the students they have, they cannot

be a good educator.

Teachers need to be dedicated. There will be weeks where they are burnt out and do not

want to go to work. I have already had many of those days in my internship. When giving 100%

to students who do not understand the amount of effort that is being put in for them, it is very

easy to completely give up. Also, dedication is important because some students will not be able

to grasp concepts easily. Teachers cannot give up every time a student takes longer than the rest.

Each student is dependent on their teacher to not give up on them. Many students who are

struggling learning have parents who have given up already. Teachers need to be the one person

who always sees troubles through.

Teachers have to be accommodating. A teacher who allows students to stand or sit on the

floor as they need will have better results than one who sits each child at a desk. Students may

not be able to focus when seated for multiple hours. Brain breaks are also great to incorporate.

This does come with compromise on both sides to make this system work, but it can be the most

effective. Every student will learn at a different pace. There may be one student that needs to be

pulled aside during individual work to go over what the class did last week. By giving each

student the accommodations they need, each student has room to grow. Large group

environments can be stressful for some students and they may not truly focus until a teacher has

them one on one.

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Overall, the biggest connector is that teachers need caring traits. Caring traits will outlast

any education imaginable. Teachers could go to school for 10 years and have all the knowledge

they need but will not get to the core of a child’s learning unless they care about the child.

Education

The first step, after self-evaluation, to becoming a teacher is getting educated. Before

senior year of high school is the best time to start finding good education colleges.

In order to teach in anything above preschool, a bachelor’s degree is required. The first

one and a half to two years of college will be prerequisites such as math. In order to get into most

education programs, passing the entry exam or exempting with SAT scores is required.

Once admitted to the program, there will be multiple choices to major in. Most schools

have PreK through fifth, sixth through eighth and ninth through twelfth as majors alongside

special education(SPED). Some schools offer Early childhood in a bachelor’s form. Early

childhood is usually an associate’s program.

After a major is selected, the pathway to graduation will begin. Around junior year there

will be a placement course. This will give each future teacher an idea of where they would like to

student teach. Many teachers will plan on going into Kindergarten and then realize they prefer

older classes or vice versa.

After placement, teachers are placed in a classroom to student teach. Student teaching

lasts the final semester of college. Many times, student teachers are hired into the school they are

teaching at. Rarely, teachers will get all the way to student teaching and then decide they do not

want to teach anymore.

When student teaching is done, most teachers continue on in their education. To be more

competitive in the job market, a master’s degree is recommended. Master’s degrees are also
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more specific and often taught by those in field. Masters are done while working in field and are

mostly to completely online. Broderick states, “Most educators enter the field with a bachelor’s

or master’s degree” (Broderick 2021). A bachelors degree is standard and a masters will increase

job opportunity and pay.

Having a degree in education opens up opportunities to substitute if full time employment

is no longer working but teaching is still a passion.

Budgeting

Going to college is never cheap. When selecting a major and school, take into account the

payoff of this job. Everyone knows teachers don’t make much money. I decided to go to a local

college to cut costs. I do not want hefty student loans to pay off.

Student loans can be helpful, but they can also be very hurtful. Taking out too many loans

can set anyone up for failure. Freshly graduated students do not make much in the first place and

having massive debt before getting a job is not a good thing.

I have applied for hundreds of scholarships and also chose to stay local. I plan on getting

a better job and moving out with friends or significant other. Without living on campus, I am

looking at spending 6-7,000 dollars a year for four years. I have been lucky enough to have a

college fund that will cover my college. For the average student, this alone would have them in

debt. Utilizing finical aid in college will make college less of a burden.

My rent will be about $750 a month. My boyfriend works full time as a mechanic, and I

will be getting a job as a daycare teacher alongside my current job. Working at a daycare, my

lunch will be provided through the school. Once I am in my career, I will make $35,000 or more

starting out.
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Going to college will be well worth the investment. My career pathway is not available if

I do not attend college. With the assistance my parents have provided, I have no reason not to

attend college. My biggest risk is making sure I stay focused and do not give my parents any

reason to take their assistance back.

Teaching does not pay as bad as people make it seem. I believe I will be able to live

comfortably off of my salary. Teaching will also give me the opportunity to raise kids. My kids

can attend my school and I will have their breaks off. I can also always work in daycare while

they are little and move back into Elementary when they do.

Personal Assessment

My Skills

I have many skills that are useful as a teacher. Doyle states, “Teachers have the power to

change their students' lives for the better” (Doyle 2020). Through my internship I have seen my

own skills change students lives. I have a few kids with autism. I have grown up with a special

needs sister. Through her life, I have dealt with and watched others deal with all sorts of

differing abilities. These experiences have helped deal with kids that others struggle with.

I am known to take the time to develop a bond with each of my students. Developing

close bonds with each child helps when they have off days or something is going on at home. My

students are very young, so they do not tell you why they are down. I have to be able to gauge

when one of my babies is off. I have learned that I have to, “adapt {my} communication style to

the needs of different students, depending on their age, culture, ability, and learning style”

(Doyle 2020). Each of my students requires a different type of bond and communication.
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I have had to increase my critical thinking skills when working with kids. My students

are again young and have very interesting thought processes. Many days, I have to think ahead of

them to avoid injuries or conflict. For example, I have one student who likes to run out of my

room. She will start eyeing the door and moving around and then she darts. When she starts

eyeing the door, I stand in front of it so she cannot run. I had to take the time to identify her cues

to be able to stop her. For another example, I have a little boy who runs in circles when he has to

use the bathroom. When he starts running laps, I hold his hand and bring him to the potty. He

will not admit he needs to go but when he runs laps it is almost too late.

Students need teachers who are skilled as teachers at heart. A teacher who does not take

the time to learn kids behaviors and their languages will not be successful.

My Personality

One strong suit of my personality is that I am caring. Each one of my students know if

they come to me, I will sit down and talk to them. In the age group I have, they have lots of

emotions that they can’t deal with alone. At three and four years old, these kids are just learning

about themselves. Sometimes they need a second to sit with me and talk about the incident that

made them outburst. Usually, talking to me about the situation will calm them enough to go back

to playing. Most incidents are not major in the scheme of things. I usually am dealing with kids

not sharing.

It is often difficult to have enough patience to deal with the troubles of toddlers because,

to an adult, these things aren’t earth shattering. I have had to learn that, even if something isn’t

huge to me, these kids aren’t used to coping with conflict. I have had to have the patience to be

the safe place for 11 kids. When we go outside, I walk a lap or two to regain my composure so I

can continue to be patient with my kids.

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Another big part of me is that I am a child at heart. When we have fun days, I would

rather enjoy it with the kids. My lead teacher does not enjoy being involved with the kids as

much. I gladly take the role of activity tester for the kids. Enjoying the days with the kids builds

a trust. When your students watch you sit back and avoid fun, there is a bigger divide between

teacher and student. I always hated when my teachers just sat around and watched us play. It

made me feel like they were left out. Whenever my students hand me a barbie or other toy, I play

with them.

My Motivation

My motivation are the students who are falling behind. During COVID, “the average

American student has already lost a full year of learning in reading and over a full year of

learning in math” (Smith 2021). The article by Amber Smith was published in January 2021.

During that time, school had been remote since March 2020. For children to be continuing to

lose valuable education through online learning is terrifying.

The damage caused by remote learning will last a lifetime for all of these students. It is

also stated that, “66% of teachers said their students are less prepared for grade-level work

compared to this time last year” (Smith 2021). At the end of each school year standardized

testing is performed. This year standardized testing will likely show that kids are more behind

than anyone sees.

I plan on attending KSU to major in Elementary Education. I will pursue my masters

after I graduate. In Georgia, Kennesaw State is tied with the university of Georgia for most

teachers produced. Teachers are needed everywhere. I plan on teaching in Paulding county after

college. I will likely move up there also as the cost of living is lower than Kennesaw. Student
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teaching will be my biggest step into the field. I hope to make a lasting impression and get hired

in the school I student teach in.

In school, we have learned how to write a SWOT analysis. I believe this will help me

identify my weaknesses and make them stronger points. In my recent SWOT analysis, I

identified the course of my future (Duffy). I strongly believe that as a teacher you must also

identify your own flaws. Teaching involves a lot of addressing students weak points but teachers

also need to evaluate themselves. Another skill I learned was time management. In class, there is

always something due. When I start teaching, I will have many deadlines to meet alongside

getting in contact with parents and my administration. Lastly, class has taught me how to

communicate with people. When I become a lead teacher, I will do a lot of communicating with

parents, other teachers, and administration. Email writing and phone calls are important skills to

posse even if I do not end up becoming an educator.

Productivity

My Project

For my learning project, I taught a class. My internship

was in a preschool classroom. I played the role of an assistant

teacher most of the semester. For the day, I was the lead teacher. I

planned a lesson and outlined the whole day, as seen in Figure

1.3. I had lots of fun, but it was not an easy task. Preschool aged
Figure 1.3

children have lots of energy. They need to be kept entertained at all seconds because free time

equals mischief. They also have a huge variety of skill levels. I had kids who could write and

kids who could barely talk in full sentences. Planning activities for such a huge skill range is

very difficult.
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I started off with my lesson plan and a ton of research on Pinterest and teacher sites. For

my first lesson plan, my theme was community helpers. I cut out police badges for the kids to

decorate with markers and paper. I then cut out fingerprint cards to do fingerprinting. I bought a

small ink pad to use. I made a red circle and green circle to attach to a stick to play red light

green light. For vocabulary, I printed out a list of careers with pictures. Lastly, I made

worksheets to learn the letter P. The second time I did a lesson I started out the same way. We

worked on our name skills. This lesson had three parts. We did all of pour work in groups of two

or three. I bought name strips, people cut outs, and printed worksheets. I wrote each childs name

and cut out between each letter on the strips. I also made dots in the shape of each childs name

on the worksheet. Some of my kids needed the dots to trace to write their name.

My major basis was Elementary school and the skills they needed to acquire. I did my

lesson on name identification and writing. While I was doing deeper research afterwards, I

learned that my lesson was great in every way but one. The specific age group I had has

underdeveloped hand bones. Instead of having them handwrite I should have had them play in

clay or sand to promote development in those supporting muscles. The identification and

matching of their names were great growth for them though. I noticed the lack of handwriting

ability which is what pushed me to do further research afterwards. The proper ages to start

correctly holding a pencil is between five and seven. (Belsky). Figure 1.4 shows the

development that needs to happen. The left is an elementary school hand. The right is a

preschoolers hand. The handwriting part of my lesson is the

only part I am no longer satisfied with.

Figure 1.4
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Career Connection

My project is the reality of my future. I will be planning lessons every day. I will also feel

the exact failure I do today when I teach a lesson in a way that current research shows are not as

effective. There will be many learning curves and many re dos. No matter how far technology

goes, there will never be a replacement for educators or planning in education. If teachers

personally planning lessons goes away, the individuality of school would be lost. Through my

project I learned how to deal with issues in my plans.

I also had to learn how to go with the flow. I had a plan, but I had to follow how much

my students could handle that day. If I only get through half my lesson my kids had no attention

left, I just had to leave it and let them calm down. I tried to utilize brain breaks which seemed to

help. Brain breaks are songs, activities or games that are done to help re focus attention. I utilized

physical breaks such as dancing. The attention span of my students is less than twelve minutes

(Brain Balance). The attention span of my future students would not be much longer.

Lastly, I had to work on my leadership skills. I could not be a weak leader because young

children need structure. Saying no to a young child can be difficult but it needs to be done. My

specific group was largely affected by COVID in their development. They were not well

socialized and lack sharing skills. They also lack respect for other adults. Most of their parents

have not said no to them in over a year. I, unfortunately, had to be one of the first to tell them

they could not do something. No matter how hard discipline is, kids cannot strive without

knowing boundaries. The lack of socialization has been the biggest impact. I had eleven students

and half could not share a toy. Socialization is a significant part of child development
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(Dangerfield). Becoming a teacher, I will continue to see COVID repercussions wearing on my

students for years to come.

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References

Belsky, Gail. “Writing Skills at Different Ages.” Understood, Understood, 9 Apr. 2021,

www.understood.org/en/learning-thinking-differences/signs-symptoms/age-by-age-

learning-skills/writing-skills-what-to-expect-at-different-ages. 

Broderick, Thomas. “What Are The Requirements For a Career in Teaching and

Education?” CollegeChoice, 22 Mar. 2021, www.collegechoice.net/faq/what-are-the-

requirements-for-a-career-in-teaching-and-education/. 

Dangerfield, Katie. “Coronavirus: How a Lack of Socialization Could Impact a Generation of

Kids.” Global News, Global News, 9 July 2020, globalnews.ca/news/7156863/coronavirus-

children-isolation-socialization/.

“Data Shows Millions of Students Falling Behind in Math, Reading.” Study Finds Students Fall

Behind During Pandemic, 24 Jan. 2021,

spectrumnews1.com/ky/lexington/news/2021/01/24/pandemic-learning-loss. 

Davis, Angela. Interview. By Julia Duffy. 25 February 2021.

Doyle, Alison. “Teaching Skills for Resumes, Cover Letters, and More.” The Balance Careers, 8

May 2020, www.thebalancecareers.com/teaching-skills-list-2062488. 

Duffy, J (2021). SWOT Analysis [Unpublished manuscript]. Harrison High School.

“Normal Attention Span Expectations By Age.” Brain Balance,

www.brainbalancecenters.com/blog/normal-attention-span-expectations-by-age.
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Nurturing Handwriting Through Play, Dr. Hellion, 4 Sept. 2019,

www.helliontoys.co.uk/2019/09/04/where-is-the-pen-nurturing-handwriting-through-play/.

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http://www.harristeeter.com/shopping/express_lane/express_lane.aspx

TwoSigmas. “5 Pros and Cons of Being a Teacher in the 21st Century.” Medium, Medium, 22

Aug. 2019, medium.com/@twosigmas/5-pros-and-cons-of-being-a-teacher-in-the-21st-

century-aa4f7530ee24.