1. 1550 Owens Store Road
Canton, GA 30115
April 18, 2012
Judges, Senior Project
Creekview High School
1550 Owens Store Road
Canton, GA 30115
Dear Judges:
My name is Paige Amoss, and I’m a senior at Creekview High School. For as long as I can
remember, I have always loved to play “school” down in my basement with my sister. My mom
has been a teacher since she graduated college, and is now teaching at Creekland Middle School.
Since I have grown up around teaching all my life, I knew at an early age that I wanted to follow
in my mom’s footsteps and become a teacher. This interest is what helped me choose what I
wanted to do for my senior project. For my senior project, I taught sixth grade Social Studies
over at Creekland Middle School.
For my product, I decided to create a scrapbook to illustrate all the lessons I taught and all the
activities the students created. For my research paper, I had to choose an issue on the career for
the topic of the paper. I chose to write about Race to the Top. Race to the Top is a new program
in the United States that helps out the school systems. States have to apply for the grant, and if
accepted, the grant gives money to the school systems. However, the major problem I see with
the new program is that Race to the Top is going to affect teachers salaries. Teachers salaries will
now be based on their students’ standardized tests scores. Since most sixth graders find it more
difficult to learn straight from textbooks, I decided to create a craft or two to go along with the
lesson I was teaching. This way the students were able to learn the information two different
ways. As I was working on the product, there were many obstacles I had to overcome. The first
was finding times where I could come in and teach the students. Since I had to go to school
myself, it was hard trying to find a day where I could miss school and not fall behind in my
classes. This was really difficult because one day I could miss most periods, but then in one or
two classes we would be learning something new. The second was figuring out what crafts went
together with each different lesson I taught. Mrs. Moss, my project facilitator, and I ended up
deciding on three crafts I could have the students create with the three different regions that I
would be teaching. Eventually everything turned out good, and I couldn’t be more happier with
my product.
Race to the Top, the topic of my research paper, really opened my eyes to what is in store for the

2. future of teaching. Race to the Top has its pros and cons, however, as I was researching the
program, I realized that it drastically can affect a teacher. Learning this, I have realized that
teaching is now my second career option. Next fall, I am attending Georgia Southern University,
and as of now I plan on earning my bachelor's degree in Accounting. However, if I find out
along the way that accounting is not a career that appeals to me, I have decided on majoring in
Mathematics, with a minor in Secondary Education and Economics.
Senior Project has taught me a lot about what I will except if I do end up in the field of teaching.
I’m glad I was given the opportunity to have this experience, especially because it taught me that
teaching is not really my top interest. I hope all seniors take this opportunity to really experience
what they believe their interests are because it really shows you how different your expectations
can be.
Sincerely,
Paige Amoss