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I love teaching. I have taught in many differnt areas of education, but have landed where I want to be: fifth grade. Here are some reasons I like what I do, even when I may gripe.
Staying young: Teaching forces you to keep up with youth, or at least try to. You can gain so much advantage by being able to nail sudents for their funny little innuendos when you are hip to them. (for example, you would never say "hip" these days. Death)
Laughing: I never laugh as much as I do in school. My lord are kids funny.
Me: "Don't worry about how other people do on this test. Just compare yourself to yourself."
Student: "But Mrs. O'Brien, if we compare ourselves to ourselves, we will always be average."
Staying smart (or trying desperately to get smart):
I have learned more teaching than I ever have in school. I always tell the kids they teach me more than I teach them, and I am not exaggerating. Plus, I am always reading about new methods and ideas.
Summers off:
Need I say more about this?
Vacations with my kids:
Very nice, perfectly timed breaks from the action.
Mutual Love:
I do love the children, and it is amazing to know that your heart can expand to love so many people. It is a bit disconcerting to see the love come back from (some of) those faces, but it is worth it all.
Sense of humor:
In case any of you have not noticed, mine has not really advanced much past fifth grade potty talk.
Good reading
I have to read lots of young adult literature, so I can recommend it to students. Also, I have a killer classroom library, which is a good place to store and share all my books.
So much more.
Please, Belle, Narnia, Paul, and whoever else is starting out on this adventure, it is an adventure. It will not be easy, ever, don't get me wrong. But it will be worth it, I promise.
[ January 26, 2005, 02:58 PM: Message edited by: Elizabeth ]
Posts: 10890 | Registered: May 2003
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Liz, When my wife gets home I'm gonna have her read this. She will really enjoy it. I know there is a thread specifically dedicated to this but, you really do rock!
Posts: 2022 | Registered: Mar 2004
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Thank you. I really appreciate hearing that from you. For what it's worth, all my friends who are teachers have also been very encouraging and definitely support me. I've never heard one of them say "I would not do this again."
Even when they grumble about the hours they put in after school and the pay, they always come back to it and say - despite all that, I love what I do. I have heard plenty about the downsides of teaching, and people who know me who aren't teachers have even said "You don't have to work, you can afford to go to college and become anything you want - why teach? you'll make more money as a nurse, or back in programming or IT (what I used to do)"
It's good to hear, from the people who actually do it, that it's worthwhile.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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Oh Elizabeth, this is exactly what I needed. Next year I'm switching college's, and beginning my education classes. I've known that's what I want to do since I was little. Last year, the last semester of high school I was able to do cadet teaching, first graders, I really didn't want to be with such little kids, but it was at my old elementary, and I wanted to be with a teacher I knew I agreed with on most stuff. They were amazing. So just when I'm getting excited, you see articles or media about how teachers just do it for the summers off, or the short hours (my mom, a middle school english teacher grades about 4 hours a night after school so that's deffinatly not my reason), it's what I want to do. So thanks Elizabeth for doing this, and thanks everyone else for always being here.
Posts: 5362 | Registered: Apr 2004
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(((Elizabeth))) You sound like an awesome teacher.
Educationally, it's been a rough week....my class was terrible yesterday, I had my first encounter with a parent that was specifically questioning my classroom management methods....*sigh*
So I needed that. Thanks. Posts: 6415 | Registered: Jul 2000
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Narnia - did you use the "fifty lashes with a wet noodle approach?"
(((Cecily)))
I just got done with three 1-day teaching stints - teaching adults, however - so not anywhere near as intense as the day-to-day stuff classroom teachers prepare and handle. I kind of like teaching adults - except that they could really use some lessons in classroom comportment themselves . . .
Hang in there, Cecily!
Parents can be very wolf-ish or bear-ish when it comes to their kits/cubs.
Posts: 5609 | Registered: Jan 2003
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Elizabeth, thank you... It's been the week for bad student teacher experiences, I think... Narnia, I hear ya! This week has been AWFUL. It's my last week in my first placement school and it's just been horrendous - I have taught 6 lessons so far, of which only 2 were decent, and classroom management was the big problem in all the other 4, plus I've managed to say things to piss off two people in my department (who have, I think, forgiven me even if I haven't forgiven myself). I have four more lessons to go, and I really needed to get some motivation from somewhere, so thank you Elizabeth for helping to provide it. I also spoke to another older wiser teacher friend of mine (who has been a head of department for about 15 years) and that helped. Older wiser teachers who are willing to give up their time to help us young naive students - you rawk!
Posts: 1550 | Registered: Jun 1999
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Thanks! Two of my four classes this semester are education courses and sometimes they drive me nuts and make me think about changing minors. One is about teaching methods and usually we get into how hard it is to implement strategies that might actually get students to learn instead of pass a test. The other is just education in general, so like today we discussed vouchers and private vs public. But other days we have discussed homeless children, accountability, and privitazation/corperate takeover. Half the time I'm in ther I wonder who thinks this stuff up, who want to deal with it, and can I really hack it? So thanks!
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Thank you, but I don't know about wiser! I am still looking for strategies from older, or just wiser, teachers. It is like Thomas Jefferson wrote about gardening: : "I am an old man, but a young gardener." (something like that)
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