So it's been a few days since I last posted, I have been slacking lately. Well to be honest, work started back today so I have been busy preparing myself to start school back. So that's what I've decided to make this post about; my job.
So maybe you're going through a stage in your life where you aren't sure what you want to do and you're possibly considering teaching.
Here's my story and why I chose my job, & why you shouldn't, but before you assume negative - keep reading :)
All of my life I knew from day one that I wanted to teach. From the time I was old enough to teach my barbies, baby dolls, and younger brother, I was doing exactly that. I would make my brother do the workbook pages from my workbook that the teachers would say we weren't going to do. Marshall absolutely hated playing school, but I loved playing teacher!
In high school I thought about the reality of teaching, and the fact that there really wasn't that much money in it. So I set my goals higher. I wanted to make a lot of money and I didn't care how much school I had to have in order to get there. So when it was time to start preparing for colleges I decided that I wanted to go into being an orthodontist. Nowhere in our area offered such a major and when I looked into other schools, my mom realized we couldn't afford to send me out of state, so I was really bummed.
I then received loads of scholarships and financial aid from UVa-Wise that I never, not one time, had to pay a dime for my degree. I went into UVa knowing that my heart was in teaching, but I just did not know what exactly. So English was my first choice, it took me 3 years before I fully decided that Special Education was where my heart was at. I was required to take a special education course in order to get a teaching license and when I had to do my field experience for that course, I FELL IN LOVE. After I finished my field experience, I went straight into advising and changed my major and I have never felt more confident about my decision in my life.
I was absolutely blessed beyond measures when I was hired at the same school I interned at, and every single day I wake up excited to go to work. I mean, working at Little Caesars for 5 years really did stink, literally, and I could NOT wait to get out of that place. Therefore, my new job is the most amazing blessing that has ever happened to me.
I want to spend the rest of my life as a teacher.
I want to encourage other people to have a passion for school as much as I do.
There is just something so special about what I do, and there is nothing that irritates me more than people who do not take teaching seriously. So if you're thinking about becoming a teacher, I have some small advice:
Reasons why you should NOT become a teacher:
1. Do not become a teacher because you want every weekend off.
2. Do not become a teacher because you only want to work 8-5.
3. Do not become a teacher because you don't want to work on snow days.
4. Do not become a teacher because you need a summer vacation.
5. Do not become a teacher because you want to coach a sport.
6. Do not become a teacher because the college classes were easier than science.
7. Do not become a teacher because of state benefits.
8. Do not become a teacher because "you only work half the year."
9. Do not become a teacher because you like being in control.
10. Do not become a teacher because it's "easy money"
When you're teaching, you do NOT get every weekend, holiday, snow day, summer break off. You never stop working. The students you meet in your classroom stay in your mind 24/7, and you are constantly planning your next lesson, idea, how to improve this, increase this score, etc. The teaching never ends, regardless of what you think. You don't leave your classroom at 5:00 everyday, some days you're in that school until dark because your lesson did not go as well as you thought and tomorrow you get to teach it all over again. The point is, on paper sure teaching looks "easy" but ask ANY teacher you know, and we will all tell you the same answer: it's not.
Teaching is all about passion.
If you're going to be a teacher, do it because that's where your heart belongs, NOT because you want summer/winter off. Do it because you want to improve someone's life, NOT because you want to coach a sport. Do it because you want to watch others achieve, NOT because you work 8-5 & are off on weekends - because TRUST ME, there is so much more to teaching that what you think, and yes you may get all that time off but you NEVER stop working.
Therefore if you're only wanting to become a teacher for the "so-called benefits" then save us all, especially students, the trouble of having to deal with you as a teacher, because you're not only going to fail yourself, but the people around you as well.
I hope this post does not offend anyone, but nothing rubs me the wrong way more than someone who is teaching because of the reasons above. I can name countless people who are in teaching because that's where their heart belongs and that's where they belong, and people such as them are what makes school the most wonderful place there ever was. But I can promise you, that as you were reading those reasons several teacher's faces were coming to your mind, and you did not remember those teachers because they were your favorite.
In conclusion: Kids won't always remember the things that you taught them, but they will remember you.
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