As explained in Diane Ravitch's article, “American Schools in CRISIS,” educators are provided with little job security under Bush's No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and Obama's Race to the Top educational reform initiatives; where teachers can be fired based on poor standardized test scores from their students (50). The majority of new teachers already quit within five years of entering the field; “demoralized” (Ravitch 50) by the effects of such high stakes and low resources (Ravitch 52). To combat this figure, many states have decreased the requirements for becoming a teacher, even allowing online licensure in Texas (Ravitch 51). To lower the standards of the “conservators of our common future” (Barber 122) is an irresponsible practice that must be reversed if students are to succeed. Barber proposes paying early childhood educators as much as lawyers to attract better teachers. Higher wages would encourage more ambitious individuals to enter the fields of primary and secondary education. Without highly-trained and intelligent educators, who are dedicated to progress and change, students will continue to stumble through a broken system, woefully unprepared for the task of becoming productive citizens.
When you think about a teacher, you automatically think about someone who teaches kids for a living. Being a teacher doesn’t have to be just teaching children on a daily basis. Teachers are the reasons why a lot of children have grown to love learning and appreciate the effort their teacher has put into their education. Teachers are very important in today’s society and they do a lot for everyone. Teachers aren’t just there to make lesson plans, grade papers, and write on black-boards. Teachers are around because they want to give children a proper education.
Back in the 1950s, teaching was considered a noble profession. The men and women that chose the field of education as a career were well respected by parents, students, and the community as a whole. I sat down with a retired teacher, a current teacher and a student working on their education degree, all three from the same family. Mr. Charles Faren is a retired high school teacher, head football coach and assistant principal, Ms. Cheryl Faren is currently a middle school reading teacher for the Clark County School District, and Mr. Matthew Barth is a student at College of Southern Nevada working on his degree in secondary education who is currently working as a gear up tutor at one of the county’s middle schools. The role of a teacher hasn’t necessarily changed over the years, the requirements and expectations have however. Today the educators of America are required to teach what is called common core, they have to prepare students to take standardize exams, with the technology of the internet and social media comes new forms of bullying and harassment that shows up in schools, low wages and now a lack of support and respect that today’s teachers now have to work through.
The differences were connected with a teacher’s original preparation for the teaching profession, licensing in the particular subject area to be taught, strength of the educational experience, and the degree of experience in teaching along with the demonstration of abilities through the National Board Certification, in which all of these facets can be addressed through policy (Darling-Hammond, 2010).America has not produced a national method containing supports and reasons to guarantee that teachers’ are adequately prepared and equipped to teach all children effectively when they first enter into the career of teaching. America also does not have a vast collection of methods available that will maintain the evaluation and continuing development of a teacher’s effectiveness in the classroom, or support decisions about entry into the field of teaching and the continuance in the profession of teaching (Darling-Hammond, 2010). n order to reach the belief that all students will be taught and learn to high standards calls for a makeover in the methods our system of education in order to be a magnet for, train, support or uphold, and cultivate effective teachers in more efficient ways. A makeover that is contingent in a certain degree of how the abilities or skills are comprehended (Darling-Hammond, 2010).In the last few years there has been increasing
Teaching is an extremely important profession as we are responsible for training up the future generations of our community, country and in effect, the world. In order to be a successful and effective teacher there are some basic skills and competencies that one must possess. The experiences that students have inside (and outside) our classrooms, schools and various other institutes will shape and mould their approach to our subjects and to life in general. Therefore, it requires a certain level of skill and training to be deemed professionally fit to enter into this career path and even then, continuous
Why is teaching an important profession to me? Life is about something, but what it is about for me it is the passing of knowledge that will make society move forward. Without the teacher, we would be in the dark, because, the light of someone teaching would not be. We would not advance as a society, on Medicare or agricultural advances.
Looking back at the experience I had in observing, I still have the determination to inspire others through a career in teaching. Teaching is a very diverse job that requires many skills and a lot of patience. It is important for a teacher to be able to maintain a healthy and professional relationship with their pupils, develop lesson plans that keep the attention of a majority of the students, make the atmosphere of the classroom inviting, and be a welcoming person capable of standing up in front of the class to
Teachers have the power to change the world and to make a difference in the student's life. Teacher is a facilitator of knowledge, motivator, advisor and a positive person that can improve the student's education. I decided to pursue the career of education because I have the desire to help others. I also have the ambition to provide encouragement and support to the people that need it. Becoming a teacher means more than sharing my knowledge to the students. It is a commitment with society to shape the performance and learning of future generations.
America has encountered a change within the teaching profession: concerning, experience, age, credentials, and ethnic background (Feistritzer, 2011). It is almost as if the year of 2005, overturned the trend of older employed teachers (Feistritzer, 2011). A six-year survey shows that the amount of teachers under the age of thirty has increased drastically, and that most teachers have earned master degrees. Also, although teaching has been a predominately white profession, more Hispanic and African American teachers were hired between the years of 2005 and 2011 (Feistritzer, 2011).
Teachers play one of the biggest roles in schools, they’re the individuals who are responsible for students learning and developing. Teachers also have can have an influence on students that’ll follow them as they enter college and the real world. However, despite teachers having arguably one of the most important jobs ever, teachers aren’t being paid as much as they should be. According to one Study called “Closing the Talent Gap” by McKinsey teachers’ salaries have been declining for the past 40 years. In this past decade alone, salaries have decreased further in 30 states. If teacher salaries had grown proportionally to our classroom spending, the average annual salary would now be about $120,000. Teachers should be paid more because better
Teaching has always been an occupation that amazed me. I believe it to be one of the most important jobs that anyone could ever embrace. A person choosing their career to be a teacher is essentially choosing to take on the role that is similar to DNA. Teachers are the group of people that pass on knowledge (which is what DNA does in our bodies), through education to the rest of us. Imagine the pressure on them. Imagine for one second that you were given this task. To teach another person a certain subject in such a way so that, the person that you are teaching can incorporate this knowledge to their daily life. Could you confidently teach
The Teacher Salary Project states that “teachers make 14 percent less than people in other professions that require similar levels of education” (“Facts about Teachers”). If anything, teachers deserve to make much more than those “other professions”. Even though teacher salary varies throughout the country, it is overall too low bringing to life an issue that needs to be recognized as an important one and must be properly addressed in order to improve several aspects of schooling (Nir) (See Fig. 1). Because the education system holds teachers responsible for molding their students’ futures, delivering and planning focused daily lessons, and putting in extra work time outside of school, they should be held accountable for ensuing teachers the higher pay that they deserve.
With beginning teachers usually earning entirely less than other college graduates, the profession is at loss of top-notch, quality people who tend to find jobs seeking more money. Almost 50 percent leave the profession within 5 years, lured by higher pay and prestige elsewhere in the booming U.S. economy (World, 1999, par. 7). Starting teachers average a $25,735 salary in the United States compared to an engineer earning $56,820 or a physical therapist earning $56,600 (Engineer, 2000, par.1). And what signal does it send out about the value of good teachers and a good education when a 45-year-old teacher with a master’s degree earns $45,000 a year and a 25-year-old out of law school often starts at $80,000, considering a six year education for a master’s degree and a seven year education for a law degree (Greenhouse, 2002, par. 4)? A teacher is also given no compensation for the long hours spent basically in overtime work. The teacher’s day does not end when they leave school because if lesson plans, grading, or planning is not completed, it will have to be finished on their own time. Accountants, paralegals, and engineers all are compensated and get paid overtime for work that does not get completed in a regular day or if they want to stay and
Throughout time, one career that has been a part of most societies is education. Education is a career that will always be needed. When choosing a career, many consider going into education. Education professor, Pam Grossman said, “Because all of us have spent thousands of hours in classroom observing teachers, we may underestimate the skill required to engage a group of children or adolescents and ensure that they are learning. Much of the teaching we do in everyday life, as parents or employers, involves telling or tutoring. As parents, we help children with math homework, test them on their vocabulary words, answer their questions. But teaching is much more than telling, and teachers have to know more than right answers,”
Being a teacher is not an easy task as many people could think. To be a teacher does not only imply to know the subject to be taught, it also includes being willing to constantly improve oneself integrally, as much as updating the resources and materials one uses in teaching. Reflecting and analyzing over and over again the best way to teach to learn and how to make students to extend what has been learned. The many hours spend in the classroom will never be enough to plan lessons, prepare materials, review pupils tasks and exams, as well, all the administrative requirements one has to cover for whatever institution we work. Besides all this a good teacher, a professional one, will have to find the time to keep preparing to improve