A couple questions for experienced teachers?

Question

What is your favorite thing about teaching? What is the most challenging aspect of your job? What changes would you like to see in educational policy? What were the most important lessons you learned during your first few years of teaching? Would you recommend this profession to others?

Wow, thanks for the great feedback! No, this is not a homework assignment! I'm out of school, but I'm kind of trying to decide which way my career is going right now and I like hearing other people's opinions.

pcpy ... you have some really disturbing comments! Why would you feel it necessary to comment that some teachers "enjoy" taking children away from their families because they fell down on the playground?! Also, I'm totally unclear about your comment that teachers work "3 days a week, 31 months a year." The last time I checked, school is from about 8am to 3pm (hence, 7 hours PLUS all the prep time teachers need) and, the last time I checked there were only 12 months in a year ... correct me if I'm wrong ...

Answer 1

What is your favorite thing about teaching?
Knowing that I have an opportunity to transform the lives of my students and their families; I try to guide my students towards self-sufficiency through success and a love of learning.

What is the most challenging aspect of your job?
In the past it has varied from irrational parents, "spineless" administrators, and unmotivated students. Motivating students has been the easiest to deal with. ;-)

What changes would you like to see in educational policy?
I would require higher standards/qualifications for teachers (educational background, certification, experience) so that society would be more willing to pay higher salaries. As long as you let every Joe and Jane into the classroom, many on waiver with no educational background, it devalues our profession and damages our reputations.
Go ahead and let them in... provisionally. Give them three years to prove their worth with adequate support and supervision from districts and mentor teachers. After that? If they are unable to demonstrate adequate proficiency, cut them loose. Think of it as doctors doing their internship... Why should teacher prep be any less important?

What were the most important lessons you learned during your first few years of teaching?
CYA - Cover your @ss... Be sure to keep documentation even if you find the situation "irrelevant". This applies to student behavior/academics, professional and parent communication.
Don't take yourself too seriously - As I mentioned, districts that have teacher shortages are more than willing to hire off of the street... plus they can pay them much less than an experienced teacher.
Be proactive - Be the person to keep a situation from escalating.
Teach students not subjects - You either get it or you don't...

Would you recommend this profession to others?
Yes but only if you are willing to accept that the learning experience benefits BOTH the student and the teacher as facilitator. You also have to be very open-minded and flexible.

Now, picture two teachers, equally qualified, same classroom of students, identical lesson plans...
If only one of these teachers had a passion for and understood that knowledge is a catalyst for change, which teacher would you be?

Good questions! It's important for teachers to be able to verbalize these aspects of the profession that we are called to.

Take care,
Mon :-)

Answer 2

Your question sounds like a homework assignment! :-)

Not everyone is as jaded as some of those that answered your questions. Here are some quick answers:

1. A tie between the work schedule and seeing the "ding" in a child's eye when they suddenly understand what you're teaching them.
2. The paperwork. More and more district are turning to turn us into administrators. They cut the budgets for secretaries and clerks and pass their work along to us.
3. Changes? Might seem impossible, but let educators drive curriculum and standards...not political appointees and politicians with agenda that support textbook publishers and other special interests.
4.Be prepared was the most important lesson. Have your lesson plans done, and everything ready to go. It will make your day smoother, and time will fly by.
5. I'd say to try before you jump in with both feet. Subbing will give you a small taste. You have to do it because you love it, because you won't get rich doing it.

Answer 3

I was a teacher before my present job. what i liked most about teaching was, besides coming to know so many different characters in my students, their mannerisms, their strengths and weaknesses, their youthful innocence, but most of all, being their friend,mentor and guide. The most challenging aspect of my job then was to the best of my knowledge, trying not to pick out any favorites from amongst the students, though some came really close. Education should be free, should be vocationally oriented, because it's sad to see an otherwise bright student fumble and do bad overall because he/she may not have the interest or the brain for some subjects. Lessons i learnt from my years as a teacher Not all children are alike, and they are like little bits of putty that can be moulded any which way, how so many of them have sucumbed to peer pressures, and how the home environment plays such a vital role to bring them out of the messthey normally find themselves in, or to keep them entirely awayfrom the whole affair in the first place! Yes, I would definitely recommend the job as a great area, especially for interaction, and believe me I would have stuck to teaching, had the one i'm in right now not been my life's ambition!!

Answer 4

1. Education. It is a thrill to advance students, to help them improve and see them learn well and make progress. It is also a thrill to learn to lead well with respect and with hardly any power.
2. Stress. Very stressful to attempt to teach with distractions and sometimes even putdowns, including from parents.
3. Less government involvement monetarily. Good families should be more involved. Perhaps have the government assist the families through voucher grants but have it give less direct funding.
4. I learned teaching has an enormous amount to do with dealing with personalities, not just knowledge of subject material and how to present it. I learned that often having the students take control of many aspects of the class gets them more motivated.
5. No. Someone must be determined that this is his or her type of work. I would give information about the profession, then let others decide on their own.

Answer 5

Some teachers enjoy the interaction with the children.
Some teachers enjoy being able to have a child who fell down on the playground and has a bruise taken away from their family.
Some teachers enjoy working 3 hours a day, 31 months a year and making 50K.
Some teachers enjoy being the boss of a bunch of helpless kids; the power trip thing.
I have yet to meet a teacher that enjoys teaching; it's a lost art.
Talk to CT, he'll tell what he enjoys.

Answer 6

I am a trainer, too. You did the correct factor by means of contacting the counselor and the fundamental immediately. Can you touch this baby's moms and dads? That's whatever that I could do. I strongly disagree with the replies in your query that suggest that that is no significant deal, or that the youngsters are simply messing with you, or that it is ordinary. I am a laid-again, innovative trainer, and I comprise plenty of arts and drama into my study room - that's to mention, I am no longer a strict disciplinarian-form. However, what this baby did was once irrelevant, and he demands to grasp that immediately, and take delivery of a logical end result for his habits. It's viable that he must additionally obtain counseling and possibly even switched to one other study room for the leisure of the 12 months. There demands to be a guardian convention with you, the baby, a counselor, and a fundamental. It is most likely your accountability to set up transparent obstacles and expectancies and to keep professionalism consistently in the study room, and it could be unethical to allow this move or to regard it as applicable habits.

Answer 7

Favorite thing: seeing the "eureka" affect.

Challenging aspect: making it fun.

Changes desired: less reliance on testing.

Important lessons: to trust my own decisions, to respect those who disagree, and to make it fun.

Recommend to others: only if they're interested already.

Answer 8

1. self fulfillment
2. How to help students love learning
3. that learning should not be subject to any standardization system
4. classroom management
5. yes i do