A teacher’s first year is a mix of excitement and new challenges. Learning how to manage a classroom and how to cater to different student learning needs can be demanding. However, first year kindergarten teacher, Carol Rotz, has approached her first semester teaching with excitement, and is achieving great results. The D38 Communications Team spoke with Rotz to learn more about her experience and the lessons she’s learned along the way.
Before this year, you were a paraeducator. What prompted you to make the move to teacher?
I've had my initial teaching license for about ten years now. I completed my student teaching in a kindergarten classroom in 2014, and I was a kindergarten para for about a year around 2017. Around that time childcare got too expensive, so I stayed home with my youngest child. I decided to slowly transition back into the classroom in 2021, and I worked as a part-time preschool assistant at Bear Creek Elementary. Last year I was given the opportunity to work at Palmer Lake Elementary as a kindergarten para and work closely with that amazing team. My team taught me a lot, and I was offered a position as a kindergarten teacher this year. I feel incredibly lucky!
What has been your favorite part of your first semester teaching? What have you found most surprising or challenging?
My favorite part has been my students and my co-workers. I have a very sweet, funny, smart class this year. They really are great kids!
I have the amazing privilege of working with Chris Thomas again this year. I have an amazing mentor, Kecia Tomitsch, and help from our instructional coach, Lisa DelVecchio, and principal, Kim Briding. I could not do my job without any of them, nor without our paras, Tammy Dolan, Shea Westmoreland, and Eileen Arnold. Our team here is outstanding; everyone is always ready to pitch in and help.
The most challenging thing is keeping the attention of some of my students, and managing some of the challe