teaching as a second career

Home

Chat

Blogs

Collection

Directory

Home : 2003 : October : 24

teaching as a second career
By Carolyn

I went into teaching because I enjoyed watching children develop. I entered the profession, officially, in January, 1986 after completing my student teaching in the fall semester, 1985. There are some good things, and there
is a downside, like with every job. Here are some of the things I like about teaching:
1. You get to help kids and see measurable growth.
2. Even though you are strict and hard on them at times, when you come back after a few days absence they will write you sweet notes. One of mine gave me a piece of candy after I returned from a conference.
3. I teach fifth grade, and I

have 19 girls in my class of 25. The girls just can't seem to do enough for me. It's as if I have 19 assistants!

4. The children complain, but they really do love to learn to do new things, especially when they get to do projects.

5. They will come back to you the next year (even from middle school!) and give me a huge hug.

6. I like getting a large block of time off during the summer to travel. Travel is my favorite hobby.

What I dislike about teaching:

1. Handling so many people at once. Ten-year-old children are SOOOO energetic that they wear me out. I often think it would be lovely just to have a nice, quiet desk job where the most I'd have to take care of would be ONE at a time!

2. Standing on my feet a good portion of the day. There are days when my feet and legs hurt.

3. Not having a lunch break. I have to eat every day with the students, and we are basically in the cafeteria for 20 minutes.

4. Dealing with discipline problems. Some children don't have good role models at home and are not disciplined.

5. State Testing - Kids and parents are not held accountable, but the teacher is. This is true even when kids don't attend school on a regular basis. It is true even though the kids take the test. There is test anxiety in my school district. Test, test, test. How are we doing for next year's test? Will we pass the tests? How will we pass the tests? Score, score, score!

6. Nagging principals - Who want to raise scores, of course. The pressure is on them, so they pass it on to us.

7. Spending long hours each day at school. I usually spend 8-10 hours a day at school. You also have to attend PTO at night. Spending your home-time correcting papers and doing other stuff for school. That includes your weekends.

My advice is to visit schools and get a realistic picture of what we do. I have a friend whose son wanted to be a teacher until he began visiting schools. He dropped out of education and went into marketing instead.