Do You Really Want to Teach?
Things to Seriously Consider Before Deciding to Teach
Loving children and having a desire to serve are simply not enough to ensure teacher success in today's education system. Look closer before leaping into the classroom.
When someone says they are not sure if they should become a teacher, what they are usually considering is if they would be happy teaching children. The fact is, successful people are generally happy in their careers, and unsuccessful people are not. The trick is doing everything possible to help ensure success in whatever profession you choose.
Respect Your Own Strengths and Weaknesses
Don’t enroll in a teacher education program because your mother, father, and aunt were teachers. Look critically at your own character traits and choose the path that best suits you, which might not be the one taken by family and friends. Believe in yourself and hold fast to who you are ~ not who someone else thinks you should be.
Don’t Glamorize Teaching ~ Take a Realistic Look
If a teaching career looks inviting because of summers off and lots of money, you will be sadly disappointed. Teaching demands very long hours. Performance inside the classroom is entirely dependent upon how much planning goes into the lesson which is often written outside school hours. Teachers spend about $400-$500 of their own money yearly to meet the needs of students. Many teachers use the summers to recover from their demanding jobs, but there are also many who work summer jobs just to make ends meet.
If You Do Decide To Join the Ranks
First year teachers should pay very close attention to the drop out data for beginning teachers. The National Education Association shows that about 50% of new teachers leave the profession within 5 years. The top reasons are unsatisfactory working conditions and poor salaries.
Ways to Take Control of Your Own Teaching Destiny
- Solid teacher training is a given for those expecting to succeed as teachers. Be sure it includes a course in special populations because you will have special needs students in your classroom. It does little good to know your 6th grade math content backwards and forwards and not know how to deal with the student in your class who is at first grade level in math. Lacking the skills to meet the needs of these special students is one of the biggest frustrations of classroom teachers at all levels.
- Another way to help ensure success is to educate yourself and go into teaching interviews prepared, rather than on bended knee. Arrive early and walk around the school observing students and teachers in action. Do you like what you see? If not, remember school districts compete for good teachers, and finding just the right spot might take some shopping around on your part. Asking the personnel director to wait a few days or longer for your decision is perfectly acceptable.
- Before signing a contract, know what school you will be assigned to, what salary you will be making, and if health benefits are paid by the school district. If not, you will have to subtract that substantial amount from you salary each month which might drop the total figure well below what you can afford to make.
- Request a meeting with the teachers you will be working with before accepting the job. You will be working with these people each day and if there is tension in the relationship, it is probably not the right position for you. The same is true of the school principal. Lack of professional support is a high ranking reason teachers leave the profession. Set yourself up for success by choosing to work in a positive, nurturing environment.
See “Is being a teacher a good job?" to read comments from veteran teachers and the National Education Association “Portrait of an American Teacher.”
