Future Teachers Creating Brighter Times Ahead
By Emily Boudreau | Observer Contributor
The hardest choice when going to college for many is choosing a major. Many students in college will change their major multiple times before sticking with one choice. I was lucky enough to find two MWCC students who have known their majors for the two years they have attended the school. Their majors both have to do with educations but they vary in many ways and it was interesting seeing the major from two different viewpoints.
Siobhan Haggerty of Fitchburg is majoring in Education with a goal to make a difference in the education system. The main changes in the education system she believes should be the “standardized testing system because the way it is now has very little positive effects on children and their futures and also having more integrated classrooms,” said Haggerty. Her main goal for the future is to become a special education teacher for grades six and under or a school psychologist. Haggerty believes that “all children should learn together and learn from the differences and disabilities of other students.”
Choosing a major for Haggerty was very simple because she always knew she wanted to work with children and teach. Her grandmother, mother, and father are all teachers; at a very young age she was always watching them teach and knew that’s what she wanted to pursue when she was older. In order for her to choose what grades and type of classes she wanted to teach, she volunteered at different schools and tried out different grades and classrooms. The workload for this major is pretty heavy, involving many years of schooling, observing, and bookwork.
Samantha Brooks of Winchendon is majoring in Early Childhood Education. She chose this major because making a difference and working with children has always been something she wanted to do. Her future goals are to first become a paraprofessional or have a one-on-one position with a child who has special needs and then become a preschool teacher in an integrated preschool which will most likely take a while to work up to. “Teaching is the one profession that creates all other professions,” said Brooks.
Brooks main inspiration to become a teacher was her own preschool teacher, Mrs. Helen; she was one of her favorite people and made a huge impact on her life. “I still write to her every Christmas and when I become a teacher, I would love to impact a student’s life so much that they still keep in contact with me years later,” said Brooks. She agreed with Haggerty that the workload for this major is also a lot; there are many classes about working with children and families, practicum classes where she student teaches, and then juggling that with her other mandatory classes, along with always having to further her education with higher degrees and workshops.
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