Education will always be important and it takes a special type of person to be able to teach and have the patience to educate others. Park University student Natalie Motta, who is a sophomore and an education major, is one of those people.
Motta is originally from Liberty, Mo., and she chose Park because she likes the smaller class sizes which allows for more one on one time with your professors.
Motta is focusing her education degree on English and would really like to teach first, second or third graders.
“At that age students are gaining interest in a lot of things which makes that a very important age,” Motta said.
Inner city or rural areas is where Motta would like to take her teaching.
“The inner city and rural areas get deprived a lot of education,” she said.
Assistant Professor of Literacy Education Shannon Cuff, who is one of Motta’s mentors, said she is up to the task.
“Natalie continually seeks information,” Cuff said. “If she wants to learn more about a topic or subject she will go out and seek the information which is a tremendous quality especially for being in the beginning stages of the program.”
This is important because of things that are changing for education across the country – including new Common Core State Standards Initiative for elementary and secondary education.
“It’s a good idea to have these standards,” said Motta. “Currently, they only cover math and English but there is more in the works. There is always room for improvement though. More input from the teachers would allow the standards to be improved and right now the standards are a lot of generics. If there are going to be standards they should be more specific.”
Common core standards and other new requirements will have a major impact on future education.
“The future of education will either go one of two ways I feel,” Motta said. “Either it will be more independent and personalized or it will be a one size fits all.”
Common core standards will also impact the technology in classrooms due to finances.
“Schools that are struggling will have a tough time getting the ‘Rise to the Top’ grants because they have to improve in order to be eligible for the grant,” said Motta. “Without the grant, the schools won’t be able to improve the technology that could help improve their scores.”
Not only does Motta have a passion for education, she also has a passion for the National Education Association and the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Motta is the president of the NEA group at Park, which is a group of students in the education field that work together for professional development.
“She only has room to grow from here and to show the leadership skills this early really shows her passion to be a teacher,” said Cuff.
