Krotz ready to become a teacher for life

Fractions can be tough, especially for a first-grader.

So, Havelock High senior Casandra Krotz offered a little teacherly advice to students at W.J. Gurganus Elmentary School. It's something she plans on doing for the rest of her life.

"I'm in it for life," Krotz said of teaching. "I don't see myself doing anything else."

Krotz earned a North Carolina Teaching Fellows scholarship and will be attending the University of North Carolina at Pembroke in the fall to become a teacher.

The scholarship is worth $26,000. In return, Krotz will commit to teaching in North Carolina for at least three years.

She said she found out she had won the scholarship when a packet came in the mail.

"I was screaming. I was running up and down the hallway," she said. "I called my dad. I called everyone to say ‘I got it! I got it!'"

She said she has wanted to be a teacher since childhood.

"When I was younger, we used to play school and I always wanted to be the teacher," she said. "I liked being in charge."

She said she got her first experience teaching when she helped out at Sunday school at her church when she was a freshman.

"I really enjoyed working with the kids," she said.

She works two hours a day, three days a week in the first-grade class of teacher Sue Williams and teacher assistant Janice Wickman at Gurganus.

"She could handle the class herself," Williams said of Krotz.

Krotz admitted to being nervous her first time in front of the class.

"I was worried none of the kids would like me," she said. "But, I think they were nervous, too. Once I got to know them and they got to know me, it was great."

Krotz said Williams, Wickman and Martha Allmon, the program teacher at Havelock High, helped her a lot in learning how to be better in the classroom and in getting the scholarship.

"They're great teachers and they helped me a lot," she said. "They keep pushing me."

She said she plans to teach in elementary school after graduating from college.

"I love it," she said.