Elementary Education Major
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About the Major
Elementary schools offer educators a unique opportunity to reach children in the early years of their schooling and provide them with the foundation for a lifelong love of learning. Elon’s Dr. Jo Watts Williams School of Education teaches students how to build those relationships and prepare for a career in elementary education by providing optimal learning experiences built on rigorous coursework and carefully sequenced, in-depth internships.
Jobs in Elementary Education
- Elementary school teacher
- Middle school teacher
Past Elon Elementary Education Internships
- Alamance-Burlington Schools
- Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools
- Orange County Schools
- Guilford County Schools
Related Majors
For N.C. Student Teacher of the Year finalist, building student relationships is key to success in the classroom
Erika Kim has known since the fourth grade that she wanted to be an elementary school teacher. It was at that critical age when Kim saw how pivotal an educator can be in a child’s life.
“I actually really hated school until the fourth grade,” she said. “I’m a student of Color, and I went to a primarily white school, so I never saw myself in my teachers and my classmates and the books we read — I just didn’t feel like I had a space there, like I belonged. It wasn’t until my fourth-grade year that my teacher actually saw me for who I was and incorporated my home life and asked me questions about the languages we spoke at home and the food we ate, and I was like, ‘Wait, I can be this teacher for someone. I can be that person who sees someone for who they are.’”
Elon University wasn’t on her radar when she was applying to colleges, but her college counselor knew she wanted to be a teacher and planted the seed that the Dr. Jo Watts Williams School of Education at Elon was top-notch.
I looked into Elon, and I mean, their School of Ed was so impressive, so welcoming, relationship-based, and it didn’t stand a chance with the other schools I was looking at. I thought, ‘This is exactly where I want to be, where I need to be.’
“I looked into Elon, and I mean, their School of Ed was so impressive, so welcoming, relationship-based, and it didn’t stand a chance with the other schools I was looking at,” said Kim, a first-generation college student. “I thought, ‘This is exactly where I want to be, where I need to be.’ ”
The Teaching Fellow went on to major in elementary education, graduating in 2022. Her very first year in the classroom, as a first-grade teacher at Durham Academy, Kim was named a top 10 finalist for the North Carolina Student Teacher of the Year for 2021-22.
She credits Elon for giving her the tools she needs to excel in the classroom and the mindset that teaching is all about relationship-building.
“I will say that almost every professor I had or came into contact with is a continuing mentor,” Kim said. “The relationship-focused learning at the Elon School of Ed is such a part of my teacher identity; everything starts with the trust between an educator and a learner.”
And that’s a teaching philosophy she has already applied in her classroom and will continue to do so, said Kim, who in 2023 began teaching third grade at Durham Academy.
“My interpersonal skills and those of my students are practiced all over the school: on the carpet of the classroom, at my small group table, during lunch at the picnic tables and on the swings at the playground,” Kim said. “I encourage my students to talk to me about whatever comes to mind.
“Building relationships with my students looks like a grown-up and a second grader sitting at lunch, eating apples and talking about life together,” she said. “It is organic and absolutely one of the best parts of teaching.”
The School of Education also instilled in Kim a mindset of continued learning.
“I did not leave Elon School of Ed thinking, ‘OK, I checked all my boxes. I’m good. I’m going to be a perfect teacher now and I never have to do any learning.’ I’m constantly seeking out professional development, whether that’s in-person conversations or attending workshops or reading independently.”
And she shares her identity as a lifelong learner with her students. “Tomorrow when we start school, I’ll tell the kids that they’re going to learn a lot this year, I’m going to learn a lot this year, they’re going to learn from me, but more importantly, I’m going to learn from them,” she said. “That reciprocal teaching is definitely my teaching philosophy that I would not have if it were not for Elon.”
Did You Know?
- A Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in elementary education meets the requirements for elementary education (K-6) licensure in North Carolina. Initial licensure programs are accredited under the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation.
- The program emphasizes practical hands-on experience in classrooms as well as educational theory and pedagogy, and students are highly engaged in undergraduate research. Frequent field experiences in public school classrooms begin in the introductory course, continue throughout candidates’ methods courses and culminate with a full semester of teaching in the teacher candidate’s licensure area.
- In addition to traditional study abroad opportunities led by Elon faculty, the School of Education partners with the College of Education at the University of Otago and Arcadia University to run a semester-long study abroad program in New Zealand tailored for teacher education majors.