Any teachers out there?

Question

Please tell me the pro's and con's of becoming a teacher. What type of personality type do you think is ideal? It's one of the many things I'm considering as a career.
Also, any suggestions on schooling for a teacher?

Answer 1

There are many good and bad things about becoming a teacher. It depends on what you consider good or bad! I found that being a teacher exhausted my desire to become anything else. I love to be explosively busy [a multi-tasking person] and more than anything in the world, adore being around youth of all ages and faccetts of life. I worked hard in college to acrue 5 education degrees, but worked even harder being a great teacher. Being a teacher will bring bad days and even worse days. As most teachers know, we can't pick a perfect classroom, nor will you ever want one! Being a Special Education teacher, meant paperwork on top of paperwork, crisis after crisis, struggle after struggle. The position gave me headaches from worrying about students who didn't have homes, food, clothing or parents who cared. I worked more overtime then any regular education teacher could even imagine! I busted my butt to accommodate parents who worked and couldn't come to meetings during school hours. I created behavior plans and wrote Individual Education Plans for hundreds of youth on my own time and at home. I spent money for classroom pleasures and incentives which interfered with my own needs. I gave 150 percent at all times. I worked hard at liking each and every student, as I made it my goal to find strengths in everyone. I attended meeting after meeting and trained in everything I COULD SEE as beneficial to my classroom's success. I rolemodeled being a mother, father, grandparent,brother, sister, aunt and uncle. I was strict when needed and loving all of the time. My personality had to match the population in which I taught. I had to hold a strong personality, as students are able to eat you up, chew you up and spit you out. I learned to take NOTHING personal, as a teacher who does, loses all respect and authority. I often swallowed my pride with my many mistakes, but I gained a backbone for admitting them. I grew to love all youth, in all environments and all ethnicities. I made myself learn through education and experience, what the needs of our children were. I endured a broken heart many times, as I saw tragedy and even death during my years as a teacher. I gained a genuine love for youth with less opportunity than myself and learned empathy in the true meaning. I experienced many different types of students and many varieties of the word "need". I taught in all black schools, and all boys schools. I taught in a residential correction facility for the most violent male and female youth in the state of Minnesota. I taught in a lock- in facility for inter-city gang kids and the homeless, from 13 different school districts, involving police officers, probation officers, psycologists, social workers and a team of behavior management professionals who assisted with the success for them all. I worked with multihandicapped elememtary and junior high students who had more needs then you could imagine, but I managed to find strengths in each and every one of them. I managed to put myself in the middle of the most needy youth in the state of Minnesota and North Carolina. I truly loved teaching! If you don't quite know for sure if you want all the ups and downs of being a good teacher, DON'T! You either love teaching or you hate it. There is nothing inbetween! The best part of teaching for me, was the many things I learned from my students. They were my master educators, as without them, I would have taught no one and learned nothing. There are no books that will ever prepare you for being a good teacher and no school that can give you the experience and knowledge to make the right decisions. The students are your main basis of knowledge and the best trainers of all. Teaching can be ever so gratifying if you learn to accept differences, promote challenges,endure mistakes and more mistakes and have a genuine love for children, no matter what their background or present conflicts. My suggestion for schooling, is to get an Associates degree and then Bachelors in Elementary or Secondary Education. Use and choose your student teaching experiences wisely.Teach in a variety of settings to find your nitch and then learn with the students. You can then go back to school to develop and master the skills your nitch of students requires. Too many people get there Associates, Bachelors and Masters without one day in a classroom. How do you know if teaching is for you until you experience it? YOU EITHER LOVE TEACHING OR YOU DON'T. Please select this career with your heart!

Answer 2

I am a teacher and I love my job. It takes all kinds of personalities; the kids have different personalities and it helps to make it all work. A quick temper would be a drawback.

The pros are of course summer off. The cons are that you work all day and then bring work home all night for the time that you are in school. The trade off is worth it.

Seeing students grow and change and mature is wonderful, especially knowing you helped. Discipline problems can sometimes be tiring. Most teacher do not have a ton of problems provided you lay down the rules and stick to them right from the start.

Lack of funding is a concern. The pay is not great, but is acceptable. I would never quit to do something else. It is a fulfilling job.

Which state do you live in? Check out the schools near you and ask about their education programs. Those with a good reputation will stand out.

Answer 3

Wow, I'm also a teacher, and am a little offended by the answer above. People shouldn't call you names just because you made a mistake or two. Anyway...

Pros - The kids can be great. I really enjoy sharing the subject
that I enjoy. My colleagues are great to work with and I absolutely think my principal is great.

Cons - You don't make much money. People assume you have a job that is a piece of cake to do. I have to deal with kids who don't want to learn. My previous boss was a person that I really didn't like working for, which made going to work no fun.

Personality wise, you really need to know how to handle the age level you work with. Whether it's little people in 2nd grade or slightly larger people in 11th grade. You should be very comfortable with your materials, especially if you teach high school or middle school kids. They will ask you questions that you are not expecting and you need to have a knowledgeable answer for them. You need to have a little knowledge in all subject areas. And to survive in schools you must have a very strong sense of humor. I never would have made it passed my first year teaching if I couldn't laugh about some of the stuff the kids did.

Good luck with your future as a possible teacher. :)

Answer 4

I am "new" teacher. This is my 2nd year in public education as a Special Education High School Teacher. I absolutely love being a teacher. I graduated from college and for 8 years did other "jobs". I didn't want to be a teacher and in 10 years wonder if there was something else I wanted to do. So, I did those other things first.

PROS- I usually only like my job for about 9 months, with teaching it's perfect. At the end of about 9 months I get a break and refresh myself before school starts again.

Summers are great, especially if you have your own kids. The school hours aren't bad either. Being SpEd there is a lot that I do at home, but at my other jobs I stayed late at the office to get things done there that I wasn't getting paid overtime to do either. I choose to do these things at home, it's not like someone is telling me I have to do them. That's my choice to bring it home.

At the high school level my classes change every 50 minutes, so if I have a rowdy class, I can be assured that they are only going to be there for 50 minutes and then move on!! : ) Also, every year you get new kids, yes some are worse than others and there are some you wish would transfer districts. But then there are those that tug on your heartstrings. There are many benefits to being a teacher.

CONS- If you have administration that isn't up to par. That's where my district is now. It makes it a struggle because they aren't in the classroom everyday yet they are making decisions that effect the classroom.

I know a lot of people will say money isn't great. But it's how you look at it. As a teacher I am bringing home more money than I ever did at my other jobs. I have time off with my children, like now for instance we all have the 4 day weekend off together. Before it would have been a hassle working out daycare, etc. But I also spend a lot of my own money for my classroom. But I found if you know people who work in offices, banks, etc. that they are willing to donate things to you. For instance a local bank changed logos and names and they donated about 100 pens to me. Ask and ye shall receive!!

Whatever decision you make good luck.

Answer 5

You don't want to be a teacher... Everybody will act as if they could do your job better than yourself. You'll be poorly paid even though yours will be not only the most important of jobs (there aren't any other professions unless there's teaching) but also requesting a high degree of technical proficiency. You'll have to deal with loads of totally unnecessary paperwork. You'll have to deal with every problem in society and smartass pupils that would deserve a spanking but you'll always have to act "psychologically". You'll also have to put up with a lot of your colleagues (but maybe that's the same for every business). People will look at you strangely if you complain because there's some kind of weird notion that a being a teacher is more like having a "mission" instead of a job. Do you still want to be a teacher? Well, maybe you do. I'll tell you this: had I known any better I would never have become a teacher. Apart from that, the best of lucks to you whatever you choose to be. :)

Answer 6

A young woman teacher with obvious liberal tendencies explains to her class of small children that she is an atheist. She asks her class if they are atheists too. Not really knowing what atheism is but wanting to be like their teacher, their hands explode into the air like fleshy fireworks. There is, however, one exception. A beautiful girl named Lucy has not gone along with the crowd. The teacher asks her why she has decided to be different. "Because I'm not an atheist." Then, asks the teacher, "What are you?" "I'm a Christian." The teacher is a little perturbed now, her face slightly red. She asks Lucy why she is a Christian. "Well, I was brought up knowing and loving Jesus. My mom is a Christian, and my dad is a Christian, so I am a Christian." The teacher is now angry. "That's no reason," she says loudly. "What if your mom was a moron, and your dad was a moron. What would you be then?" She paused, and smiled. "Then," says Lucy, "I'd be an atheist." ......................................... Teacher: Where is your homework? Pupil: I lost it fighting this kid who said you weren't the best teacher in the school ......................................... The teacher spent the entire hour reading to her class about the bison family. When she had finished, she said, “Name some things that are very dangerous to get near to and have horns.” Little Johnny spoke up without hesitation, “Automobiles?” ......................................... A little boy just couldn't learn. One day his teacher asked him who signed the Declaration of Independence. He didn't know. For almost a week she asked him the same question every day, but still he couldn't come up with the right answer. Finally, in desperation, she called the boy's father to her office. "Your boy won't tell me who signed the Declaration of Independence," she complained. "Come here, son, and sit down," the dad said to the boy. "Now if you signed that crazy thing, just admit it so we can get out of here!"

Answer 7

I have taught in the UK. It is a job you do for the love of it. You need to like children and want to help them to reach their potential.
Teaching these days is very demanding. There is a lot of record keeping, assessing and marking. You'll be on your feet from well before school starts to well after it finishes. There is also work to take home.

You need to be fit and enthusiastic. Teaching can be very satisfying when you see children beginning to understand something or when you get through to a child who isn't really interested.

At times you'll love the job and at times you'll feel drained and exhausted.

If you are a people person with lots of energy then maybe it's for you.

Good luck in whatever you do.

Answer 8

Hi. I'm a teacher. But there's no way in hell your becoming one! I mean, just look at all the grammar and spelling errors in your question .Your a joke. An idiot. What a stupid question.