teaching as a profession

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teaching as a profession
By Cathy-Dee

Although it seems that there are some school divisions, districts, schools, administrators, parents, students that others have found made teaching difficult or unbearable, I'd like to point out....

Not all school divisions
trod on their teachers. Some of us make pretty descent money. I teach in Alberta and will be making just over $60,000. This is quite a bit more than I made when I was working in the private sector (not teaching). And one of the reasons I went into teaching in the first place.
And my union is actually pretty good. Unions have good and bad names throughout many different professions.

If your union is not doing it's job then get involved to make changes.

For the most part my students and parents have been pretty good. I do think children have become more challenging in some ways. We can look to our society and easily see many factors that may influence our children negatively. Do I like being a surrogate parent, nurse, counsellor, disciplinarian, teacher all on the same day - not always, but then again if I truly disliked it I would get out. And there is so much positive about teaching as well.

- we do make a difference for some kids
- we are generally our own boss within our classroom for the most part
- we can be creative
- we can branch out into many other fields
- many of us do earn decent wages
- we do get summers off, holidays
- we get to play with toys, colour, sing songs, role play, etc.,
- we get to listen to children, watch them grow, see their eyes light up, listen to an older one tell us that because of us they made it through the year, have a parent tell us "you did a great job this year", have our Principal commend us, go on field trips, and so many other wonderful things

For those situations that do require change
I do agree that changes will only happen when teachers, union leaders, parents, etc., band together to fight for necessary changes. And just complaining about what you don't like isn't going to help bring about those changes.

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By the way when a student or parent disagrees with my point of view or reacts to me negatively I generally handle it quite professionally. This board and post is very different. Here we are having fellow "PROFESSIONALS" attacking our profession. Hey Jacko wanted some backbone, he's getting it!

And don't tell me police officers, social workers, and others do not put up with tons of nonsense, disrespect, violence in their chosen careers. No matter what job we are in - you may face opposition, etc., Is teaching difficult at times - YES, but to just give in and quit seems like the easy road out. However if you really don't like to teach, then you should seek another profession. Recently in Edmonton several police officers were attacked by those in a mob situation. They were not badly hurt. I've seen people swearing at them, spitting at them, etc., Some of our social workers deal with the most horrendous situations.

And thankfully most teachers do feel teaching is their "calling". They are the ones who do make a difference. Those who are just putting in the time are not going to challenge their students and more than likely are not going to enjoy their students.