Are you a teacher? What do you love and hate about it?

Question

I am thinking about teaching in the future. Your opinions are appreciated! Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

I am a teacher of multihandicapped students. They are all blind, with another condition (such as autism, MR, behavior disorders, and orthopedic conditions.) They are low-functioning and non-verbal (at least no real communicative skills.)

I am appalled by the first answer you received, that stated teachers have a "gravy-train job" and we are whiners that love to have summers off. We do not!

(In fact, year round schools are becoming more the norm than agrarian-based calendars.)

I have been a teacher for 10 years, and this summer I took 4 weeks off for the first time since becoming a teacher. There are classes to take, summer school sessions to teach, and professional development to consider. No one gets 3 months off for the summer, anyway. It's down to about 8 weeks, where I am.

And gravy job? I don't think so. I have had numerous physical injuries and fractures from students that have violent tendencies, and, because I am a special ed. teacher, have no recourse for these behaviors. Other teachers, who are regular, academic instructors are protected here under Zero Tolerance laws. Special ed. students are not covered under such policies, and we are told "it's part of your job description."

But--I love it. I enjoy my job immensely, and I know that, for 7 hours per day, my kids are loved, happy, clean and fed, and they
are receiving the best that I can give them. I teach them Life Skills, basic mobility so they can maneuver in their world, I teach them how to cook basic things, use the kitchen safely, and how to take care of their bodies and environments. I teach them job skills, so that they can hopefully get a job in a workshop or other supervised employment someday.

The parts that I do NOT like: having TWICE the paperwork as other teachers, including data collection on every child, every day!
IEPs for each child, progress reports, and documentation of everything that happens in my classroom, every day.

I do NOT like knowing that many of my kids are going to go home to bad situations, where they are allowed to sit unstimulated for the duration of their time at home, or not be made to use the skills that they have been taught.

I do NOT like knowing that some of my students may die soon, and I am powerless to help them.

I do NOT like the tenure laws, which, in my state, say that for the first 3 years of your job in a system, you can be non-renewed without cause! (In other words, if they don't like ANYTHING about you, regardless of how well you teach or the progress your kids make, you can just NOT be rehired!) I think that job security should not be the first and foremost idea in a teacher's mind--the kids should be.

If you are seriously thinking of going into teaching, consider that the money is never enough (I spend a fortune on clothes and other necessities for my kids, materials to use in the classroom, and have even bought glasses and medications when the families couldn't afford it!)

Also consider the politics and back-biting that goes on in schools. It can be brutal, particularly when you have administrators that are friends with staff members to the point that their opinions are tainted and some teachers are punished unfairly. And that you may not even be able to get a job at all, if you live in a school system with The Good Old Boy network. If you don't know someone in the system, you will not get a job!

Just some things to think about. There are so many rewards to teaching children how to be independent and functioning adults, but there are days that you will sit and wonder "Why???" (and the answer doesn't ever come.)

Answer 2

Best about teaching:
1. The kids are great! They are funny, kind, caring, and provide you with the best stories that you will ever hear. They are also brutally honest so you will always know if your outfit doesn't match!
2. I love lesson planning! I love to think of new ideas and ways for me to make learning fun. I teach high school social studies and a lot of kids have this automatic aversion to it. I love it when the kids are excited about what they are learning and tell me that my class is their favorite.
3. I just love teaching itself. I love interacting with the students and I love being able to give them knowledge about their world. It's really rewarding.

Worst about teaching:
1. First off I have to say that one of the things that I don't like about teaching are people like the 1st commenter who believes that teachers have it easy and are paid too much. If you don't teach, you really don't have any idea how much it takes to do what we do. We deal with parents, administrators, and children who all want different things and are impossible to make happy all of the time. Also, for someone who has a masters degree, I'm not sure that our salary really matches the pay scales of people in the private sector. I've figured it out previously that with the hours I put in that I make something like $10-15 an hour. My students can make around that working part time jobs!
2. Paper work! I just am not a fan. It is of course an important part of teaching and there are few jobs that don't require it but I just do not enjoy it at all!
3. Parents---I know that's not a great thing to put out there but I have had a lot of negative experiences. Not that they are mean to me but that they do not have high expectations for their children. I have so many students who have few rules at home or have rules that are not enforced. When they are failing and I call home, parents often respond by saying that is typical of their child and that they guess they will take the class in summer school. That was never acceptable with my parents and I just feel like my students could achieve more if they were supported both at home and at school.

Answer 3

I LOVE having an impact and to make a difference in a Childs Life.I work with 2-5 year olds and nothing beats those hugs ! I hate the fact that at public Schools you are not just limited in what and how you teach...but also with the apathy of some parents who expect you to make up for things that are missing at Home.Thats why i Changed to a Private School!

Answer 4

Loves:

Knowing I'm are part of a very important aspect of society
Seeing my kids learn and discover new things daily
Building positive relationships with my kids.
The job is NEVER boring - the day goes by VERY fast!
Many breaks (summer, winter, spring etc.) - trust me, they're needed!
I have control of my work environment (classroom) to a certain extent
I can use my creativity to develop my own lessons
I have wonderful co-workers (not true in all schools though - I'm very fortunate!)
The supportive parents/community
Job security once you have tenure - you can fight for you students' rights and not be scared you'll be fired.

Hate:

Long work days/week - 10-12 hour days for about 60 hours a week.
Tons of paperwork - grading papers, report cards, other bureaucratic paperwork
Politics of "blame the teacher"
Public misconceptions of the teaching profession
Low pay
The unsupportive parents/community
Standardized testing
Non-educators that make educational policies that schools have to follow.
I have to spend many hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars out of my own pocket each year to help supply my classroom.

Answer 5

Teachers love the gravy train job of being a public school teacher. Where else can a whinning cry baby get full time pay for working part time? They are off June July and August, get back to work in Sept. and start burning their vaction days, and paid sick days then when those are used up start crying that they are overworked, underpaid, and their class sizes are too big and they need more money and more benefits that the Democrats give them at the expense of the taxpayers. Fire them all, get rid of the teachers union, and hire qualified teachers that can be held accountable. Look at Yahoo Answers...see all the spelling mistakes and bad grammar? THANK THE PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHERS.

Answer 6

I love having a creative outlet. I love learning for a living. I love sharing things that are important to me like literature and languages with young people. I love it when they learn to love those important things too! I love making friends and being a mentor. I love that teenagers can keep me grounded in reality instead of letting me shoot off into some pedantic orbit. I love it when they express themselves more clearly than I had imagined possible and teach me something new. I love the sense of community.

I could do without excessive chatting and cheating. I might have fewer headaches with higher student motivation. I wish they had higher aims and better focus. I wish they did their homework more often. I wish papers graded themselves.

But hate? I don't think I really hate anything about it.

Answer 7

What I love about teaching:

-The wonder in the eyes of a child who learned something new.
-The way every class is different every year.
-The chance I have to make a difference in a child's life.
-The fact that it is never boring!

What I hate:

-Being blamed for that fact that many children can't read or write. There is a lot more going on there than just what a teacher is or isn't doing. I can't teach a chlid who never comes to school.
-Being labeled as working an "easy job". The hours are long. Just because the kids go home after 6 hours certainly doesn't mean I do And I have to get a job over the summer because I get paid for 10 months--but spread out over a 12 month period.
-Administrators, superintendents who care more about PC crap and less about the children and how their decisions affect them.
-Having to buy materials, paper, glue, out of my own pocket because the district has no money to give me for materials. The children need pencils and paper to do work. I teach in a poor district--a lot of the parents can't even afford to feed thier children--let alone buy school supplies.
-Uninterested/uninterested parents who expect me to teach their child not only how to read, write and do arithematic, but also to teach them respect and dignity.
-Non educators who berate the profession--say how we need better qualified people to teach our chlildren--yet do nothing to change the system so the best and the brightest want to become teachers. What math or science grad wants to come to the teaching profession--get paid $25,000 a year to start off--when they can go to private industry and make 2-3 times that. I am all for accountability--but to say that teachers don't work hard and have their students' bets interests in mind--is just silly.
-Having to base an entire year's worth of teaching on one test--given over a 5 day period once a year-when the school year is 180 or more days long. If you want to test to measure growth--fine. Just do it multiple times over a year so you can see that growth.

To the people who think teacher don't care--go visit your local school. There are bad teachers just like there are bad doctors, lawyers, politicians--every professon has them. But to think that the majority of teachers don't care--that is simply not true. Don't believe everything you read or hear from a secondary source--go and find out for yourself. Gather information on what is really going on in schools--then make your own opinions based on what you saw. There are a lot of dedicated people out there--who are doing the best they can within the regimented structures of state and federal mandates.

Answer 8

The main thing I love about teaching is seeing students learn/grasp new concepts and the Aha! expression that comes over their faces!

The main thing I hate is all the ridiculous amount of paperwork no one told you about in college.

You really have to learn to balance/juggle your time to get things done by deadlines. It can be frustrating, at times. But that is when I remind myself that I entered the field for the sake of the children. That gives me the boost to keep on going. :-)

Answer 9

I love getting to work with kids and make a difference in their lives. I don't love working such long hours and always having more papers to grade and more work to do. It reminds me of being in college. You're never all the way caught up no matter what.

Answer 10

I love children and their ability to be totally honest about things. I like trying new approaches to old ideas. I like the hours of work, which actually continue 24/7...I like having my former students come back to me years later and tell me how I positively influenced their life. I love receiving christmas cards from students I had 30 years ago...from my very first class of junior high students. I love watching children grow mentally, physically and emotionally. I also like having nice vacations.
As for things I do not like...when children pick on one another. I do not like teachers who pick on children and can not overlook where the child has come from. I do not like teachers who are competitive with one another. They need to function as a unit like in a family. I enjoy junior high and high school teachers better than elementary teachers. The elementary teachers tend to nit pick and whine. Teachers who specialize in a particular field do not get caught on in that. I suggest working with the older children.
I am a teacher and my mom was a teacher. My niece is also a teacher. We all share the same complaints.
Being a teacher is exhausting but a very emotionally rewarding experience. Be sure to make time for yourself if you choose to become one.
Oh, one more thing. Clueless people make rules for teachers and their rules make it difficult for teachers to find time to be innovative. No Child Left Behind may sound like a good idea, but it is a very destructive one...for the school systems financially, for the teachers who have so much to otherwise do and for the children who are victimized by too much focus on the tests when they could be learning more important and interesting things than studying for a test with a bunch of irrelevant things on it. I do not know of any school who cheers for No Child Left Behind. We, as teachers do not want our children left behind. I would like to see politicians have to take tests about economics, law, history and political science and have to take additional courses while they are trying to decide things for others. I doubt very much if they would be very successful. Sorry , but there is much to say about that stupid idea that sounds great on paper but is a mess to the educational systems. But, getting back to your original question...become a teacher, give it a try and if it isn't right for you find a job that is...but more than likely, you will fall in love with the job and the nurturing of children. Children are wonderful people.