ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, October 30, 1996 TAG: 9610300051
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
DURING THE NEXT DECADE, 2 million new schoolteachers will be needed in the United States to meet rising enrollments and replace an aging teaching force. The nation may be hard-pressed to fill the jobs if current trends continue, educators say.
National statistics show that about one-third of beginning teachers do not return for a second year. The Roanoke Times talked with three beginning teachers in the Roanoke Valley about why they wanted to teach - and their first few weeks in the classroom. Their stories follow.
Christy Cundiff decided to become a teacher when she was in the second grade.
No, she wasn't inspired by her teacher. She was angered and infuriated by her.
"She had favorites, and she wasn't fair. She wasn't consistent. She yelled quite a bit," Cundiff said.
"I didn't want anyone to have to go through that. So I thought I would become a teacher and be the opposite of her."
Cundiff, a first-year teacher at Fishburn Park Elementary School in Roanoke, hasn't forgotten the childhood experience.
During her first two months in the classroom, Cundiff said, she has tried to be firm, but fair and understanding, with the 23 children in her multilevel class of fourth-and fifth-graders.
She is already building a close rapport with them.
Her pupils were upset when she had to leave school an hour early one day recently so she could take her 3-year-old daughter, Alexandrea, to the doctor.
"That was nice - to know they feel that way about you," Cundiff said. "They come to me if they have a problem."
She said she tries to avoid displaying anger or making verbal threats to her pupils.
"When you start to yell, you've lost control of your class," she said. "I try to treat them like I would treat my own daughter."
Fishburn Park, a 356-pupil school in Southwest Roanoke, has few discipline problems, she said.
Cundiff, 22, said she feels the responsibility of teaching and the pressure of being a role model for her pupils.
"I really watch what I say and do," she said. "You get nervous at times and think, `What should I have done?'''
She said she spends time each night reflecting on how she could have done a better job that day. "There are always tons of reflections."
Cundiff wanted to become a teacher because she thought she could make a difference in children's lives. Most of her relatives are in business; no one in her family has been a teacher.
She attended private schools when she was growing up in Roanoke County. She majored in psychology at Roanoke College.
She wanted to teach in Roanoke after a summer internship with the school system while she was in college. She met Superintendent Wayne Harris and decided to seek a job with the city.
To be an effective teacher, Cundiff said, she has learned that she must be prepared to use different instructional strategies. "Kids are different every day, and you have to be ready for that."
Teaching requires longer hours than she anticipated. "When I go home, I have to do lesson plans for the next day and grade papers," she said. "You don't realize how much time it takes."
Fishburn Park is a magnet school that incorporates environmental studies into all subject areas.
She said the school has extensive technology and environmental programs that help teachers do a better job.
"I have found the teachers so dedicated here," she said. "They work together so well."
Cundiff likes having fourth-and fifth-graders in the same class because she can adjust assignments for them on the basis of their abilities.
She said she can give more challenging work to advanced fourth-graders while giving more attention to fifth-graders who are having difficulty with their studies.
"It's not limiting," she said. "You can have children working at different levels."
She has no complaints about her $27,493 salary as a first-year teacher. By comparison, the average beginning pay nationally for jobs in the computer science field is $34,565, according to a survey by the National Education Association.
Only 5 percent of new teachers go into education because of its earning potential, the NEA survey found.
"I just got out of college," Cundiff said. "I'm sure I could make more money if I had some other jobs, but that's not why I wanted to be a teacher."
Her husband, Derek, is a graduate student in architecture at Virginia Tech.
Cundiff said she plans to stick with teaching at least five to 10 years, but she might want to get into school administration at some point.
She has been impressed with the support that school administrators give new teachers in the Roanoke school system. She said Fishburn Park's principal, Tom Dunleavy, tells the school's teachers that it is his job to help make them successful.
Happy back home
The story couldn't have ended better if Jill Shelton had written the script herself.
She didn't even have to leave home to find her dream job as a fourth-grade teacher.
Her classroom is just a few blocks from Salem High School, where her desire to become a teacher was born.
And to add to the storybook ending, she's teaching at a school that her father, Danny Clinevell, attended when he was growing up - West Salem Elementary.
"I feel so lucky," said Shelton, a first-year teacher. "This is where I really wanted to be."
Shelton, 23, didn't get the job until shortly before school began in late August.
"I was worried I wouldn't get it, and I was so excited when I did," she said.
She applied for a job with only a few other school districts as a backup in case she didn't get one in Salem. "I was gambling on Salem, but I wasn't sure."
She had a busy summer as she waited to get the job. She married Chris Shelton, a financial analyst. She said many people still know her by her maiden name, Jill Clinevell.
Once she got the job, she stayed busy decorating her classroom and getting ready for school to open.
Her first two months as a teacher have confirmed her belief that she would be happy teaching in her hometown.
"It's been a lot of work, but I love it," Shelton said. "I love working with children, and I feel almost like I've been doing it all my life."
She arrives at school by 7:15 or 7:20 each morning - at least 30 minutes before classes begin - and doesn't leave until 4 or 5 in the afternoon.
"I'm really into my job," she said. "After the children leave in the afternoon, I prepare for the next day," she said. "I clean up the room and put out visual aids for the next day's lessons."
Shelton has 21 children in her class, which she said is a good size. She teaches them Virginia history and social studies; science; math; and English, including, spelling, reading and writing.
She tries to cover each subject every day, but she said that can depend on other events, such as field trips and special programs.
Discipline often can be a problem for first-year teachers because children will test them sometimes, but Shelton said most of her children are well behaved.
"They decided on their rules [for class behavior], and they pretty much follow them," she said. "I haven't had many discipline problems."
Shelton rearranges the table and chairs in her room frequently to encourage her pupils to work together and get to know each other better.
While teaching is tiring, she hasn't found it to be as stressful as some new teachers do.
"I will definitely stick with it," she said. "This is what I want to do. It has been a great experience so far."
During her first two months, Shelton said she hasn't encountered anything to cause her to become disillusioned or cynical about teaching or public schools. She has been busy planning lessons and field trips for her pupils rather than worrying about whether schools are failing, as some critics charge.
She has found the environment in Salem schools to be far more orderly than in some large urban school systems where teachers have been threatened and assaulted by students.
Her salary as a first-year teacher is $28,115. Pay was never an issue in her desire to become a teacher.
Shelton decided to become a teacher when she was taking an independent-study course in psychology at Salem High. As part of her high school studies, she visited East Salem Elementary and got a feel for an elementary classroom.
Shelton majored in psychology and minored in education at Roanoke College. She tutored children while she was in college and did her student teaching at East Salem.
"I like psychology, and that has helped me as a teacher, but I wanted to be a teacher because teaching is rewarding," she said. "When you get through to children and help them understand something, that's wonderful."
A recent national survey found that the teaching profession is perceived to provide the "most benefit" to society, compared with such other professions as law, politics, journalism and business.
Shelton said she understands why some people feel that way. She views teaching as a way to help make a contribution to society.
"I can't think of anything I'd rather do," she said. "I enjoy every aspect of it."
Seeing the positives
Jennifer Paplomatas has discovered that a middle school social studies teacher's hours can be long and tiring. The anxieties and pressures of the job are there every day. The sense of responsibility can be almost overwhelming.
And she's making less money than she has in other jobs.
But Paplomatas said she made the right decision when she became a teacher.
After two months at Glenvar Middle School in Roanoke County, she is convinced that a classroom is where she belongs.
"I've done other things, and I can make comparisons," she said. "I see the positives of teaching more than the negatives."
Paplomatas, 30, thought about teaching when she was a senior at Virginia Tech majoring in consumer economics. But it was too late to change her undergraduate studies, and she put the idea on hold.
She worked as a legislative assistant for the Virginia Senate for nearly three years. She also worked for a lobbying firm in Washington and a political consulting business.
Meanwhile, she got married and took a job with James Madison University's academic affairs office when her husband was transferred to Harrisonburg. Her husband, Jamie, is in pharmaceutical sales.
She kept thinking about teaching and decided to get a master's degree in elementary education at JMU. She received her degree in June. She wrote her thesis on teachers' anxiety about the use of computers.
A 1984 graduate of Cave Spring High School, Paplomatas applied for a job with each of the Roanoke Valley school systems, but she really wanted to teach in Roanoke County.
She said the family decided to move to the Roanoke Valley if she got a teaching job there.
She has five classes a day with a total of 114 students. There are 23 or 24 students in most of her classes, but one has only 18.
Besides teaching, she's the cheerleading coach for the varsity and junior varsity squads at Glenvar High School. She has to attend one or two ball games a week with her squads.
On some days, Paplomatas works eight or nine hours at school, arriving at 7:30 and leaving after 4. After she finishes her classes, she spends about an hour cleaning up her room and preparing lessons for the next day.
Paplomatas gets home by late afternoon and spends some time with her 5-year-old son, Alexander, who is in kindergarten at Penn Forest Elementary School.
After the family has dinner, Alexander goes to bed about 8. Jennifer reads over her lesson plans for the next day.
As a first-year teacher with a master's degree, she's making $28,035. But she said she didn't go into teaching for the pay, because she thinks money alone does not determine the quality of life.
In her classes, she tries to keep her students interested by mixing current events with history and traditional subjects. Her students have done several assignments and projects in connection with the presidential campaign and election.
But they also study ancient history. On a recent day, her classes were studying the achievements of the Mesopotamian culture.
She said she's helping her students develop basic research and writing skills, too.
"It's exciting to be on your own and have your own class, but there is anxiety," she said. "You realize there is no safety net below you."
Paplomatas said she has found that the toughest part of teaching is helping each individual student.
"Everyone learns differently. I have some students with special needs," she said. "You have to try to make modifications for them."
She said she has become aware of teachers' enormous influence on students.
"We have these children for seven hours a day and we have such an impact on their lives," she said. "Even when you are not teaching, you can have an influence on the children. It's the ultimate responsibility."
She said the county school system provides strong support and assistance for new teachers. All first-year teachers have a veteran teacher assigned to them as a mentor - someone who provides advice and counsel for any problems that might arise.
LENGTH: Long : 246 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 1. ROGER HART/Staff. Glenvar Middle School sixth-graderby CNBChanning Price tells teacher Jennifer Paplomatas about her
assignment. 2. CINDY PINKSTON/Staff. At right, Jill Shelton checks a
Christopher Columbus project by West Salem Elementary fourth-graders
(from left) Zoilamys Perez, Alison Byrd, Neil Weeks and Matt
Shawver. Below, Christy Cundiff teaches fourth- and fifth-graders at
Fishburn Park Elementary. color.