Originally Posted by Jeep_Bike_Teach
Easy to become a teacher? Not here in Washington!
Last quarter I had 5 classes and they were 3 hours each night and a ton of homework every night and all weekend. I was working at my regular job and teaching at the elementary school science club on Fridays. By the time I went to bed, my husband was getting up to go to work! Oh, and wait, then there is my daughter who needs parenting! This summer I have 4 classes and they are 5 hours long, 2 days a week - that way they can cram in 12 weeks of education and work into 8 weeks.
Yikes!
Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining!
Anyway, when all is said a done, I'm looking forward to teaching math and science in middle school. Scary but very, very exciting and rewarding....
I can only hope to become as great of a teacher as those who have taught me.
(Life before career-changing: Biotech)
sorry, I too burned both ends - and the center - of my candle while student teaching.....didn't mean to imply it was a walk in the park - quite the contrary!
put it this way though, the gen public look at teachers as having a breeze of a job - 6 hour days (you never work when class is over, right?
) summers off (I worked 10 years in special ed - summers off in that decade? Z-E-R-O!!
) and you get to play with games or do fun stuff with kids....
what they don't realize is you are competing with unrealistic role models (star athletes, actors, musicians, etc), trying to undo a lot of bad parenting, at least academically speaking (sorry, but it's often - not always - true), struggling to keep your job every year (enrollment number fluctuations = instant annual cuts) and you are vastly underpaid for your efforts.
Consequently it is possible - and quite easy - for people to slack off and do a "so-so" job of teaching. many do (from what I saw) due to burn-out as much as anything else. I saw myself doing that another ten-15 yrs down the road and got out while I still enjoyed it. I have almost all good memories overall and miss the fun times (In addition to the kids being fun, most of my co-workers were the best, nicest & hardest working people I've ever met) but I know changing careers was right for me.
I compare teaching to playing the guitar - some jobs are difficult. You don't just pick up brain surgery anymore than you can make a violin or a sax sound like something the first time you pick one up. Teaching, however, imo is more like the guitar - it's pretty easy for anyone to become adequate, if unexeceptional. But to attain real skill and accomplishment is another story. I have nothing but admiration for the teachers who put 200% into their work because that is what it takes to make a difference, and in making a difference they are uber important to the future of our nation, and the whole world.
No, I'm NOT kidding....