Teachers: anyone one or thinking of becoming one?

[Wonderlicious]

This is somewhat random, but is anyone here a teacher or thinking of going into the profession?

As you may know, I've been spending a year of my degree in French and German by doing a year abroad. In France, I studied at Strasbourg University for a semester (Sep 2008 - Jan 2009). Since February, I've been in Munich, where I'm doing an internship. Whilst I think Munich is a nice enough place (even if I wouldn't wanna live there full time), I don't really like my job all that much. One colleague is an absolute nob, and in all fairness, an office environment isn't where I wanna spend the rest of my life. It just feels so, erm, pokey and anti-social. I know that this may sound harsh, but saying "good morning" even becomes tiresome.

Come August, I'll be back in the UK, and I'll be back to my university in England come September. Since it's the final year (which is worth 80% of my final degree overall ), I kinda want a break with academic pressure of sorts, so I'm probably going to take a gap year of sorts. And for at least part of it, I'm hoping to do part-time teaching English as a foreign language through the British Council, and then, if teaching goes well for me, I'll probably go back to college (;)) to do teacher training. If I do super well in my degree, I might also think about becoming a university teacher, though probably not a fully-blown professor (since that would mean studying for at least three or four years more thereafter, and thus finally being ready around the age of 30 ).

Is anyone here a teacher or training to become one (if I remember correctly, Escapay is)? What do you think of it? Why did you do it and would you have done anything else?

Also, am I correct in thinking that teachers in the USA not very well paid? In the UK, the starting salary (graduates) is normally between £20,000 and £30,000 (obviously teachers working in London and even some other hot-spots might earn a bit more), which considering that one is only working around nine or ten months of the year is quite good (a lot of other graduate jobs start at around a similar or lesser level). I don't know much about how much they get paid over the rest of Europe, though.

[blackcauldron85]

I had thought about being a teacher, and I even changed my major to Education one semester and took Intro to Education, or whatever the name of the class was. I went to 2 or 3 schools and shadowed teachers in their classrooms, which sometimes was boring, but it was still neat to see school being done from a non-student perspective.

The reason I changed my major again (which is the same reason I had trouble deciding on a major) is because I didn't want to pigeon-hole myself into one career; if I majored in education, then I'd have to be a teacher, end of story. Versus choosing a broad major (like the one I ended up graduating in, Interpersonal/Organizational Communication), which allows you to try different jobs in different fields.

I think that to be a teacher, you have to have a love of learning and like people. I mean, you have to like kids, and it helps if you like adults, since you might have to deal with some parents.

My grandmother went to school to become a teacher, but she quit after a year or two. She was teaching first graders. I think that when teaching the younger grades, you have to absolutely love children and have oodles and oodles of patience. If I taught, I would've taught middle school or high school- I like (some) younger children; I think that in middle school and high school, the kids need adults they can depend on, adults they can trust and ask questions of. My 10th grade Spanish teacher (who was from Spain- I don't know if that had anything to do with it) said early in the school year that she wouldn't be available for questions not pertaining to Spanish...which is almost counterproductive to teaching- I think that teachers need to be there for the students. Maybe her English wasn't very good besides what she needed for 10th grade Spanish- I don't know. But I've never forgotten that.

If you choose middle school or high school, I would say choose a subject that you have a passion for. If you hate history, even if you do well in your history classes, you would probably not enjoy teaching history every school day.

Do you have a minor in school? I'm not sure how college works in England, but having a minor is a great thing to fall back on; it shows that you have some education and experience in a second field.

I probably gave no helpful advice or anything, but I figured that I'd give my $0.01. I don't even feel like it was $0.02 worth.

Good luck, though, and I'll be interested in hearing how your education path goes!

[Disney's Divinity]

I think there are actually a lot of (future) teachers on UD. More than I would have guessed last time there was a thread like this.

The reason I changed my major again (which is the same reason I had trouble deciding on a major) is because I didn't want to pigeon-hole myself into one career; if I majored in education, then I'd have to be a teacher, end of story.

That's kind of how I feel sometimes. Becoming a teacher is kind of daunting, because it's almost like sentencing yourself to one life, one career for most, if not all of your life. I still want to do it, but I decided to double major in other areas along with it. Sometimes I feel so sure that this is what I want to do, and then other times I start questioning whether that's just a convenient road I picked. Bothersome.

But, yeah, I'm going into English Education (I might think of Spanish Education, too), because the subject has always come to me so easily. And high school is definitely the level I want to be at, possibly because of the good memories I have of that time. College is too impersonal for me, children irritate me so that rules elementary out, and middle school is the most difficult time in most students' lives (puberty, eh).

And I think teachers are paid so-so, but they get a lot of benefits in the process. Though there've been a lot of paycuts that have come to education lately, because of the economy. Also, the only bad thing I've heard is that a lot of teaching jobs these days require you to have a bus license. *is afraid*

[Wonderlicious]

Do you have a minor in school? I'm not sure how college works in England, but having a minor is a great thing to fall back on; it shows that you have some education and experience in a second field.

Unlike in the US, people in the UK (and the rest of Europe) apply to and tend to pretty much stick to one topic as part of their degrees. Quite a number of people do two subjects together, but they normally have some relation to each other (e.g. History and Politics, French and German etc). A lot of people just studying one topic would probably do a minor (probably in a foreign language if they're not already studying one) as part of their degree, but I never have had to do that since I've always done two subjects, and regardless, they wouldn't do enough to be able to really use it as a back-up plan. However, a lot of people do actually do a degree combining a foreign language and a non-language subject (ranging from Law, Economics or History to Maths and Science), which I suppose you could call a back-up of sorts.

Interestingly, quite a few people can train to be a teacher in a subject that they didn't actually study at university. I know of somebody who studied Criminology (yes... ), who is doing a year-long teacher training to become an English teacher, since he's used to writing long essays and dissertations for his degree. A lot of Science teachers also probably only studied one specific topic at degree-level. I also know of a German teacher who got taught Spanish by the Spanish teacher so she could teach some of the basics to the younger students.

Good luck, though, and I'll be interested in hearing how your education path goes!

Thank you!

[Elladorine]

I did a lot of babysitting as I was growing up and have always loved kids and related well to them. I was a student teacher for a couple of years in high school and lead a preschool class at the time as part of my grade. Although I thoroughly enjoyed working with the kids, I wasn't particularly fond of *my* teacher!

I used to have the title of "teacher" and headed my own SAC (School Age Center) for a while on behalf of the YMCA. So I wasn't a teacher in the traditional sense, but still had to meet state requirements to educate the children I worked with, a group that varied between the ages of 5 and 12 and numbered anywhere between 5 and 30 at a time. As fun as it could be, it was often very stressful. We couldn't be as structured as a traditional school setting yet we had to find ways to keep the kids occupied so they would stay out of trouble.

I have thought about becoming a "real" art teacher for quite a while now, most likely for high school students. I believe I have the correct mindset, ability, and drive, but I lack the required education so I'd have to go back to college . . .

[Wonderlicious]

Also, the only bad thing I've heard is that a lot of teaching jobs these days require you to have a bus license. *is afraid*

In that case, if I do go along the teaching route, I WON'T cross the pond in the process!

[Elladorine]

Also, the only bad thing I've heard is that a lot of teaching jobs these days require you to have a bus license. *is afraid*

In that case, if I do go along the teaching route, I WON'T cross the pond in the process!

Driving a bus isn't nearly as scary as it sounds! Although to be fair I only drove one of those "short" buses. I'd much prefer that to driving the little stick shift car that I currenty have.

[pap64]

As some of you may knew, I recently completed a bachelor's degree in elementary school education and just started my master's degree. I don't have that many experiences since I just entered the department of education (which is going through hell due to over 7000 employees were laid off all over the island). However the few experiences that I have had were enlightening as well as frustrating.

My first experience was with my practical, which is when you become a student teacher in order to complete your bachelor's. Before I continue a friend of mine once said that I was successfully living my life in the hardest difficulty setting available. At first I didn't believe him, but after my practical I realized that he wasn't kidding.

I was given the WORST fourth grade class in school, mainly because they had trouble learning, had disciplinary issues and was overall the last group in the whole school. Some teachers said that my supervising teacher was crazy to give me, a newbie teacher who didn't have any experience prior to this, a group that demands the attention of someone with lots of experience under his or her belt.

It didn't help that both my teachers had very different views on what education should be. One saw it through very romantic ideals and demanded me to be more giving, more loving etc. The other teacher was more traditional because she wanted me to be stern, firm and give lots of school work.

This limited my own potential because it was hard for me to decide what was best for me. I was under the will of the teachers. This got so frustrating that one day after a very, very VERY bad evaluation I got home and got very depressed. I got very sick, I started vomiting, I lost sleep my overall mood was on the floor, because my teacher openly said that if that was going to be the final evaluation I was going to fail the class and not finish my bachelor's.

After this breakdown all three of us talked about it. I expressed what was frustrating me, that the two contrasting ideals were confusing me and I needed more support because I was tossed into the lion's cage and no one seemed to care. Luckily this changed things a little bit. The class was still hard but was able to pass with a great grade and got the gratitude of the students and their parents.

I have two other teaching stories to tell, but what I will say is that the reason I decided to become a teacher was because when I was working with my associate's degree in programming I was talking to some of my friends and how they were enjoying the education classes and inspired me to check it out. I love the psychology involved in all of it.

Teaching can be both one of the most frustrating jobs on the face of the Earth and also one of the most satisfying. There were times where I wondered if I made the right choice in being a teacher, if it was worth. Only to have a student say "thank you" or look at me and smile and wave when I am walking around school, then think "This was worth it".