Personal Narrative: A Career In Early Childhood Education

This assignment was slightly difficult for me. I struggle with talking to people I don’t know well in normal situations, but having to find and call someone to interview was very stressful for me. I strongly dislike talking to people on the phone unless they are a close friend or family member. The part that made me more nervous was actually having to interview someone. I have only had to do one job interview in my whole life and I was so nervous I could hardly talk. This is quite different than a job interview, but public speaking isn’t a strong skill that I possess.

I need to work on my public speaking skills if I am considering becoming a teacher. I don’t get as nervous talking to children that I don’t know very well as I do with adults

that I don’t know so hopefully actually teaching the children will not be a problem for me. I love working with children, and I will have to become a better public speaker so I can be a good teacher. Luckily, I had met the person I interviewed once before, so the interview wasn’t as awkward as I thought it would be.
I am thinking about being a teacher; I am still unsure of what age I would like to teach, but I am currently leaning towards Early Childhood Education.

I interviewed Kellie Ridenour, she works at Lakeland in the Teaching Learning Center (TLC). She currently works in the toddler room, but has worked with the preschool age kids in the past. She enjoys working with both the toddlers and preschoolers, but she does prefer the preschoolers. She told me that during her typical day she welcomes, comforts, and interacts with the preschool children and their parents. Then she goes over to her assigned room to welcome the toddler age children and their

parents.
Since she currently works in the toddler room, she focuses on observing the children, working on behavior management, and working with the other teachers to follow their lesson plans. Another task she has in the toddler room is changing diapers and potty training the children. Kellie told me that the favorite thing about what she does is helping and seeing the children grow as individuals; her least favorite part of being a teacher is being required to write incident reports when a child gets hurt.
Kellie told me that when she graduated, she was very lucky to be offered a position as a substitute where she did her schooling.

She took the position and has now become a full time teacher. I asked if she was a college graduate today, how she would find a job in this field? She said that if she hadn’t been offered the substitute position like she was, she would have networked and asked other teachers if they knew of any schools that had openings. She also told me that she would look in the classifieds to also find more ideas.

I asked if there were opportunities for promotion within being a teacher. She has obviously been promoted because she started as a substitute and now is a full time teacher. She also mentioned that there was an opportunity for all of the teachers to apply for the lead teacher position. They were all given an equal opportunity to be promoted. She felt that she was not ready to make the change in the position and be the lead teacher, so she did not apply.

I asked her what her work environment is like and she described it as welcoming, homey, fun, and educational. She has a great relationship with all of her co-workers and they are like a family. Kellie said that she feels very comfortable around her coworkers while she is at work. She said that they are all kind, understanding, supportive, and

helpful.
This assignment was an excellent way to get me out of my comfort zone. The informational interview was a very good learning experience for me. I learned a lot about the toddler and preschool environment and what types of activities go along with teaching them. I feel like teaching will be the career I end up doing, however I have to decide what age I would like to teach. I will try to further this learning experience by talking to other teachers that are in different grade levels to help me make the best decision for me.