Most people that end up teaching have ususally always wanted to become a teacher. I do not fall into that category. After graduating from a community college with my associates degree, I then started at NC State for my bachelors degree, studying to become an accountant. During my second semester I found that accounting was not something that I would "love" to do for the rest of my life. I have always enjoyed math, especially algebra, but in my opinion, teachers do not make as much money as they should. Educators have one of the most important jobs and their pay does not reflect their importance. The pay scale is one of the reasons why I did not start out studying in the education field. Now that I am older and truly understand that life is not only about money, my long-term happiness is now my focus, which I believe would come from teaching mathematics.
I have been trying to recall my best and worst teachers and it has not been as easy as one would think it would have been. They are not jumping out at me like I would have hoped. My worst teacher definitely comes to mind a lot easier than my favorite teacher. In my early college years at a community college I had a professor that was foreign and English was not his first language. Not only was there a large language barrier to cross, but his teaching skills, in my opinion, were not that good. His idea of a lecture was to show the class all of the pictures and diagrams that were located in the book, over the projector. In the end, I feel that I did not retain any of the information throughout the semester that I had learned.
My favorite teacher, on the other hand, was great. She would lecture, usually using power point slides, but she would also get the class involved with hands on activities. It was not only about taking notes, which usually affects any students attention span, our class had a lot of group discussions. I think I received a 106 average in that class, not because I had no life and all that I did was study, but because my professor made the material fun and understandable. I really learned a lot in that class and I actually still remember a large majority of the information to this day.
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I kind of went thru your same situation but backwards. I wanted to become a teacher my whole life, but about half way into my Early Childhood associates I changed my mind. I thought I wouldn't be happy because I knew I wouldn't ever make a lot of money. Well for about a year and a half. I took nursing classes, and was soo unhappy. So I switched back to teaching, it just seems like a natural match for me.
ReplyDeleteIsn't it so interesting how one good teacher can make the class so interesting and make it a breeze to go thru.
I'm glad you got your technical issues sorted out!!! I think I would have been panicking.
ReplyDeleteGood for you for choosing something that you think would be enjoyable and make you happy instead of what would make you the most money. Teaching is definitely not the best paying job in the world, but I think that it must be one of the most rewarding. I've only been a teacher, so I don't know!
You are are right about teachers not making enough money! I am a teacher and it is a lot of hard work. I love teaching my first graders but a lot comes with it from bad behavior from the child and their parent. I feel that you need to go into teaching for the right reasons and not because it is a pay check. As people go through life, they will find out what they are meant to do for their career. Great post!
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