Any teacher would advise a student to make sure they love teaching before they pursue it, because more than ever now, the pressure is real.

Dealing with students on any grade can be quite stressful at times, and the pressure, and sometimes outright disrespect, from parents all contribute to the massive amount of teachers leaving their position all around the country. But within the Triton community it is not hard to find people who are still passionate about their careers. 

Geena Borzi, and Eloise Hurton, are both new first  grade teachers at Pine Grove Elementary School. Both are fresh out of Salam State University .Hurton is from Newburyport ,  so the surrounding area is very familiar to her, she also attended Triton High School and had Mr. Allen as a journalism teacher. Borzi is also from the Boston area and chose to stick around after college to be with friends and family.  

Shauna Magee is the reading specialist for Pine Grove, and she´s also Borzi´s mentor. At first Magee went to college for environmental science and worked in  the field for a year before leaving her position to become a substitute teacher in the Boston School District. She graduated with her master´s degree from UMASS Boston, and then she worked in Boston for four years until switching to Pine Grove.

Hurton and Borzi share that teachers and staff from schools in their prior academic career,  and a natural instinct for helping people, were fundamental to their interest in working with kids .

“I’ve always wanted to be a teacher since middle school really,” said Borzi.

 When questioned about the government response about the teacher shortage, all three teachers agreed, the government and the education department  should be integrating more measures to incentivize  students who want to pursue teaching, better payment being one of the most concerning issues among others such as more affordable education and more respect both from parents and students, but also from the government itself . 

“People need to understand that teaching is not babysitting.” Says Hurton. More scholarships specifically toward education majors is also essential right now; people need to   into consideration that student teachers have to spend large amounts of time in unpaid internships that are a requirement for graduate.  

¨ If you are an 18-year-old, and it comes down to choosing, would you choose a modest-paying job or be broke?¨ Said Hurton.

It can’t be denied that drastic changes in the school year due to COVID-19 Pandemic have  greatly affected students academically, especially elementary schoolers.

“ Most of these newer classes that we have right now were out for the most important part of elementary school,” said Magee “That kindergarten to 2nd grade phase is very important to the children since that is the appropriate time to begin writing.”

Neither Borzi nor Hurton were discouraged to become teachers due to the pandemic like many other students reported, they fought through it and stayed till the end.

¨If anything the pandemic made me want to teach even more, I knew kids would need more support than ever,¨ said Borzi.  

“Even though I had a weird experience in college because of COVID-19 I was determined to finish it,” said Hurton. And although first years can be tough on anyone, the teachers report doing well when it comes to time management between school and social life.