Courtney Krueger

Professor Cella

EDU 102

Due December 2nd

Interviews

Kindergarten:

1. Introduce the teacher and his/her background.

Mrs. Culbertson graduated from the University of Virginia in 1979 with a BS in education. She

taught in Summit NJ for 5 years. She then took 12 years off of teaching to have a family. She re

entered the profession in 1996 as an aid in a kindergarten class. She then began teaching

kindergarten full time at Mendha and has been doing so for the past 21 years. She has taken a

couple courses at Kean University and attended many teaching seminars throughout the years. In

addition, she attended 3 summer institutes at Columbia teacher's college and did a Title 1

summer program.

2. What do you think is the purpose of education?

“The purpose of education is to instill a love of learning in all children and progress them across

a continuum at their own rate. The goal is to help the students to become good citizens that can

work together, are great people and are ready to take on the world.”

3. Why did you enter teaching?

“I entered teaching because I loved being with young children. I was excited to work with kids

and incorporate things like art, music, language to help the kids learn. I also really wanted to be a

mom and teaching was a career that worked with having a family.”

4. What are the advantages/disadvantages of a teaching career?

“The advantages are that you are sort of our own boss and you have the ability to be creative. But

the main one is that you get to touch people’s lives. You get to watch students change and it

makes you feel appreciated and that you made a difference in the world.”

5. How is technology impacting education?

“Technology has had a huge impact on education. It definitely gives kids more opportunity with

screens and helps with speaking , listening and viewing standards as well as brings the outside

world into the classroom. Technology should be used sometimes, but should not be relied on.

Students still need concrete learning with real physical things that you can’t get from using

technology.”

6. What advice would you give a person entering the profession?

“The main thing is to work hard. Also to take a good program of study consider studying things

like special ed on top of your degree. Make sure to keep up with the times and adapt to the way

the world is changing, especially with technology. Make sure teaching is the right career for you

and that you are teaching the right grade level. Be organized and always remember to have fun.”

7. What is your opinion of homework? How often should students be assigned homework?
“I give homework to inform parents and to give the students a second look at what they learned

in class. I give it to review skills that they learn but I don’t give a large amount because that’s not

good for younger kids. After all, it doesn’t make students smarter or anything, it’s only there for

extra review.”

2nd Grade:

1. Introduce the teacher and his/her background

Mrs. Pieper attended college and got a MBA in Business and Administration, She started her

business career working at AT&T. She then started subbing and loved it so she finished her

education through an alternate route program and has been teaching for the past 15 years. She

began as a 3rd grade teacher and is now a 2nd grade teacher.

2. What do you think is the purpose of education?

“The purpose of education is to teach children how to think and be problem solvers. To teach

them how to look at problems from different perspectives and think on their own to solve them. “

3. Why did you enter teaching?

“I started in substituting because the principal really needed help and it worked for my family to

substitute. I decided to teach after that because I loved it. I love kids and I love helping people

understand something.”

4. What are the advantages/disadvantages of a teaching career?

“The main advantage is when you look at a kid that’s been struggling and you finally see it click

for them. Or when you see the kids excited about school and to learn. It’s also great to see the

kids start to develop great character qualities like learning to work together and showing

kindness to one another. The bad things about teaching? Definitely the paperwork. There is also

a lot of extra stuff that you are required to get done because of standardized testing and pleasing

administrators. People are unaware of how much work goes into teaching and how much more

teachers have to do besides the 7 hour school day”

5. How is technology impacting education?

“Technology definitely makes teaching a lot easier. Especially the smartboard is a big help

because I can go over the work on the screen as the kids do it on their paper and I can do

interactive activities with it. It lets you immediately see who needs help and it’s convenient.

Technology also opens up many resources, I used to limited to only the books in my classroom,

but now there is an endless amount of books online to chose from.”

6. What advice would you give a person entering the profession?’

“Make sure to do research and get a good understanding of stuff that goes along with teaching so

you know what the job entails both in and outside the classroom. Find your passion in teaching. I

love my kids and they are the reason I get up for work in the morning and am excited to come

here.”

7. What is your opinion of homework? How often should students be assigned homework?
“I am opposed to homework, if students work hard during the day, they should be able to go

home and be kids. The only exception is reading because I believe kids should be reading at

home. Kids need family time, time to play, the option to to go to bed at a reasonable time. Some

of these kids are also in sports and are involved with other activities. They shouldn’t have to be

sitting in a class all day and then have to go home and do more work. The school district requires

me to give homework but I try to give as little as i can. Homework is only reinforcement, it does

not make them better students.”

1st Grade:

1. Introduce the teacher and his/her background

Mrs. Draghi went to TCNJ and got a degree in Education (K-5) and Sociology. She started

teaching in 2006 at Benedict A. Cucinella (I was in her first class) and she taught 3rd grade for 9

years and now this is her second real teaching 1st grade.

2. What do you think is the purpose of education?

“To help develop the minds of the students and make then understand how to learn. Things like

reading and writing and math are important but the most important thing is learning how to learn.

The kids need to know how to problem solve and have self control as well as properly follow

directions.”

3. Why did you enter teaching?

“I always babysat and loved working with little kids, but my mom was a teacher and I never

wanted to be like her so I never considered teaching. My freshman year I went to college as

undecided, however the following summer I worked at a girl scout camp and realized that

teaching is what I wanted to do.”

4. What are the advantages/disadvantages of a teaching career?

“An advantage is that the job is very rewarding. It’s amazing seeing the kids learn and grow.

They still obviously need improvement, otherwise they wouldn’t need to be in school anymore.

But even from the beginning of the year to now [October 18th] they have improved so much.

Other advantages are that there is a shorter work day and you get holidays and summer off which

is nice to have a break. A big disadvantage is that it is draining, both physically and emotionally.

All of the students are so different and have different needs and it’s hard keeping up with that. I

am fortunate that our administration is supportive and aids kids who have different needs, but not

every administration is like that. Also the planning can be difficult. It’s not like any other job

where you are told what to do, you have to be creative and plans can easily change you have

have to learn how to think on the fly. What you do impacts other people’s lives which is a big

responsibility.”

5. How is technology impacting education?

“It has a huge impact. We used to not have things like smartboards and ipads which is now very

useful. There are many things that students can’t experience first hand but they now can

experience through technology. It allows teachers to be more flexible and allows kids to see

things they wouldn’t otherwise be able to see. Like even in the lesson today I was able to google
what something looked like that the kids didn’t know about. Also some zoos have live feeds that

I will show the kids. Obviously it doesn’t substitute for the real thing, but it gives kids the

experience. Kids can engage in the reading with the ipads too. But kids also need to be able to

function in a world outside from technology so it’s important not to rely on it and to create a

good balance of how often to use it.”

6. What advice would you give a person entering the profession?’

“Learn to be flexible. Make a lot of connections so you can see a lot of different things. A lot of

what teaching requires is seeing what other teachers do and looking into different ways of

teaching and finding what works best for you. Experience a lot so you’re not shocked as to what

being a teacher entails. Also it’s very easy to get annoyed with children, but remember that these

kids have parents and family that they are everything to, so how you act really matters.”

7. What is your opinion of homework? How often should students be assigned homework?

“I don’t like giving a lot of homework. Over the years, especially as being a parent, my view on

homework has changed a lot. Especially in 3rd grade, it’s hard to remember that these students

are only kids. Those 8 year old are really intelligent and perform well in school. They have

complex minds and seem grown up so it’s hard to remember they are only 8. They need time

with their families and time to experience the world. I definitely give reading homework because

I believe reading is important for children. It’s important that the homework you do give is

meaningful. We are required to give sheets of math homework, however it does not take the

students that long, it’s good because it informs parents of what’s going on and I don’t grade it or

anything. The problem with homework is that it doesn’t always get across the way it’s meant to,
a lot of times parents end up doing most of it for the kids. I give little homework because it isn’t

very necessary, kids get enough practice in class, they don’t need more at home