Max Weber's Ideas on Characteristics of Professions: Profession of Teaching

I can still remember coming home from school after an exciting day in the first grade. I would go straight to my room, line all of my dolls up in the floor, and “teach” them everything I had learned earlier that day. But of course, not every child who pretends to be a teacher in his or her early years actually becomes a teacher. So although I enjoyed “teaching,” I never really considered it as a choice for my life-long career.

A teacher needs to be flexible and adaptable due to schedule changes, adapting lessons, gaining new students, adapting to various behaviors and various academic levels of students. A teacher needs to be assertive when advocating for the needs of their students, themselves and for their peers. To be outstanding you have to have compassion towards your peers, your students and their families. A teacher always need to be prepared for their day including designing lessons, creating materials, writing IEP's, knowing students levels, handling any behavior, that anything can happen and always have extra work. A teacher should be able to Multitask, you have to wear lots of hats in this field such as a mother figure, nurse, friend, disciplinarian, enemy,

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

In Michael D. Bayles “The Professions”, Bayles describes the basic characteristics of a profession. Instead of providing a single definition Bayles instead defines the term profession based on three basic characteristics due to the complex meaning of the term. The three characteristics he identified that all professions must have include: extensive training, intellectual component included in the training, and must provide important service in society. Based on these characteristics that Bayles identifies I believe my profession of a teacher strongly correlates with Bayles definition of the term profession.

It is interesting to note that many people believe the stereotype that teaching is a stress free job. They get the summers and weekends off, as well as a shortened workday, and typically is a job that people only do because they cannot do anything else. The old adage that people teach who cannot do is widely believed. However, the reality is that there is a high degree of stress associated with being an educator. There have been various research studies that indeed

For me, the decision to become a teacher is more of a way of life than a career. I have always loved school, practicing at being school marm from a young age, and voraciously devouring every shred of education offered me in my career as a student. If it were possible, I would be a student for the rest of my life. And then I still would not have learned enough. As a teacher, I hope to instill this appetite for knowledge in secondary students. They are, after all, the future leaders of the world, and what better place to expand the minds of the generations to come than here in Appalachia where education programs, especially the sciences, which I plan to teach, are poorly funded and children’s dreams

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

“To hell with your career, what is your calling?” It was this quote that led me to the classroom just five years ago. I was convinced that teaching was indeed my calling. I was compelled to make a difference in the world, and felt that there was no better way to do it than by educating young children, that in many ways, whether through life experiences or appearance, resembled me. I knew that this was no easy feat. In fact, it’s no secret that teachers do not make significant amounts of money, and the profession of teaching does not always receive the respect and dignity it is due. But it was that day, in the spring of 2009, after hearing Dr. Joseph E Lowery speak these words, I promised myself to never chase a career, but instead, to always

Going into the field experience, I wanted to become a teacher. As the weeks went on, I started questioning if this is what I really wanted to do. Teachers spend hours coming up with lesson plans and going to meetings. They also have to find ways to make lessons fun so the students pay attention. I realized that teachers also have to put up with a lot of students and it is hard for them to not yell and get frustrated. Just observing the teacher and how she handles the class seems really stressful and tiring. Even though teachers go through a lot, there is also a positive side to it.

In the United States, majority of teachers are public school teachers and they make over three millions in numbers. The number of pupils per teacher has recorded a decline for the last few decades and it continues to decline to date. The average class size presently is over 20 pupils for public elementary schools and 23.4 for public secondary schools. This can tell the reason as to why teachers leave teaching professions because of workload.

I believe that teaching is one of the most important professions in the world today. From the very beginning, until present time, teaching has been around. The book of Genesis speaks of God walking and talking with Adam in The Garden of Eden, God was teaching Adam. I will be proud to, one day, be a part of this great calling.

           An early education teacher gains a lot of big responsibility. One classroom occupies about 25 children per teacher and that means 25 parents place that teacher responsible for each and every one of their children. Also, teachers endure other responsibilities that some people do not think of like grading test or papers, supervising recess, creating lesson plans, and attending in-service training or meeting. Teachers need to watch what they do and say all the time because they are role models for everyone and everywhere they go. Teachers need good communication skills, because they need to make sure the parents stay involved as much as possible. They also need to know how to listen to others no matter what age they are. Reason and problem solving is another area teachers have to be good at because they need to think under pressure fast when things go wrong. Time and managing themselves remains very important, because it teaches the children how to manage their time and help the schedule run smoothly. Also, teaching can obtain very physically demanding, because teachers

During normal usage, it seems that the terms “profession” and “occupation” are almost identical and are interchangeable. Generally they both define the work people do for a living. However, after delving into their meanings, one can easily notice that the word profession is a bit more advanced than occupation. In other words, there are peculiar criteria or characteristics that an occupation has to meet in order to qualify as a profession.

Teaching is a difficult occupation. Teachers play an important part in training children, teenagers… So, a good teacher must have some special qualities. They are: knowledge, creation, confidence, empathy, sense of humor and passion.

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