My First Paid Teaching Job

The twenty-five stories that are contained in the book, My First Year As A Teacher, are about real teachers and their experiences during the first year of teaching. Each story is different. Some are about memorable students while other stories are about some of the hardships that are encountered as a novice teacher. The diverse sampling of stories in this book gives insight of what kind of problems one might encounter as a teacher, yet they also describe how rewarding the profession can be. I found it rather difficult to choose only ten stories as my favorite but after much consideration and rereading I decided on the following stories because in many ways I could relate to the students as well as the teachers that are given life in these stories.

The major theme of the story was creating awareness in adolescents about what life has to offer. The nature of human beings of accepting the realities of life to such an extent that apathy and lethargy sets in, is what proves to be destructive for the social fabric of today’s world. In this stagnation, Mrs. Moore provides the impetus required for people to realize their god given right to something better. We are told that Mrs. Moore has a college degree, is well dressed most of the times, and has a good command on her language. She seems to be a kind of a person who has seen the world. She has experienced life, and wants to use that experience in providing the children with an opportunity to broaden

Both Rowan and Rose begin their essays by describing a particular teacher who left a strong impact during a pivotal point in their lives. In his piece “Unforgettable Miss Bessie,” Rowan sets up an impression of Miss Bessie as a highly respected educator who knew how to conduct her classroom in a way that “there was never a discipline problem” (168). With a firm hand, she guides them to the road of success. She once told Rowan to “make most of what you do have- a brain” (168). Miss Bessie reminds Rowan to not think about what he does not have; instead, he needs to embrace the one thing no one can take from him.

Even though I volunteered in different schools, I never had the opportunity to ask about the real feelings of a teacher. During the interview, I learned that there is more than just teaching in becoming a teacher. This is because she told me how one of her hesitation on becoming a teacher is the time one dedicates for the job. She told me that when one is teacher, one must prepare lesson plans, come to school early to prepare for the day, and even stay longer to grade papers. She said that her typical day starts at 7:30 am to prepare materials and school instruction starts from 8:00 am until 4:30 pm. Then, even though the class ends already, she needs to create lesson plans for the entire week. She said that all these things are part of a teacher’s job, but they do not get paid to do these things. Therefore, I learned that being a teacher is not easy because there are a lot of extra responsibilities beyond the job description and that being a teacher extend beyond the classroom. Additionally, her answer made me reflect on whether I want a job, where I have to work more than the “work hours.” However, despite this workload, what amazes me was when she said that if she could go back, she would still choose to be a teacher because of her passion to make a difference in the lives of the

I asked Tessa what made her want to go into teaching and she responded with telling me that she was originally in the finance industry. It only took a year and a half of working in finance for Tessa to realize that she was not a fan. So she went back to school, while still working in finance, and got her masters in secondary education. Tessa says that her main reason for picking teaching was the teachers that she had in high school. She said that she remembers the business teachers specifically making the most impact on

Upon first entering college, I struggled deciding at such a young age what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. Through babysitting and volunteering with pre-school aged children at my church and through a school program called STARS, it became evident to me I had a love for helping children. It fascinated me to see how they viewed the world around them and how quickly they learned new truths everyday. Nevertheless, I knew I would not get the full enjoyment interacting with children as a schoolteacher because the teacher to student ratio is so large. Classroom demands would make it much more difficult to devot individualized attention to each student, and I did not like that concept. So

Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve known what I wanted to do. I am one of those people who was blessed enough to realize my passion at an early age. As far back as I can remember, I’ve wanted to become a teacher. I can remember as a child sitting in my room, surrounded by my stuffed animals (or students, as I saw them) and forcing my younger brother to sit still and quietly do the work I assigned him. I even had two baskets which I kept on my little wooden desk; one for my “students” to turn in work, and the other for more work which needed to be graded. I spent many afternoons

I have always known that I wanted to make a difference in society by becoming a teacher, due to my love of children and helping people understand various topics. I have worked with children by babysitting, instructing karate, leading children’s Sunday school, and working at a summer camp. By doing these activities I have established bonds with diverse groups of children, but at the same time, I kept a professional and respectable boundary. I have successfully worked inside a planning department alongside people of all ages and personalities in planning activities and lessons for kids.

Some negative parts about being a teacher is seeing the children you have bonded with move on in their growth in development. Being a teacher, you will see many kids come and go and she explains it as seeing your own kids move on in life and not being in their life the remainder of their development.

She was unapologetic about treating her students, especially her honors ones, like adults. She was strict about plagiarism and demanded our full efforts. Within our social studies curriculum, she found ways to infuse valuable life lessons and talk

To say that "I am extremely passionate about working with children" would be an enormous understatement in regards to my personal experiences, ideologies and self-proclaimed purposes in respects to working in public schools. Being passionate about ones every day line of work is a huge deciding factor for most of us when it comes to “what we want to be when we grow up.” Conversely, it was quite simple for me, you see the rewards of teaching truly lie in the outcomes of one’s teaching. Knowing that from the first day of school, what I do and how I do it will have a domino effect on hundreds of lives throughout my career as an educator. In hopes to not only work in a field that I both admire and aspire to be a part of, I am also driven to one day be that teacher in which my students can look back and say “Miss. Chadwick really motivated me to be a better learner, artist, writer” and hopefully “a better person.”

She is so anxious how the society would accept her role as a teacher. She said

There are people who love to spend time with children, and some who loves to share their learning to others. But what if you love both children and teaching? Well, I must say that you are fit to become one of the teachers who will help these little children to explore the world and provide them with early education to help them acquire the foundation of knowledge and skills to become great individuals someday.

Her class of teachers take their jobs very seriously, and do not tolerate students who skip or disrupt their classes. These teachers are fun, because once you get them off on some irrelevant tangent, they will keep themselves going on it for entire class segments, trying to get out years of thought and consideration in just a short period of time. This is how I got to know my psychology teacher, because I was the one who kept her talking, so that the class could avoid taking the quiz that none of us had studied for. Teachers like her have the innate gift to educate and entertain, with their comprehensive lessons and subtle quirks.

The night before my first day as a teacher I was scared. It was something totally different for me; it was something I had never done before. Yes, I have made some microteachings at the university, but that was not the same as been in an actual classroom with kids observing you and waiting for you to teach them something. In my head, there were questions such as What am I going to do? What should I tell to the kids? Is this how it is supposed to be done?