Teaching Profession As A Career Choice Of Mine

In order for me to meet the requirements of “the maximum for each question is one page,” I must first share how unique my situation is and how beneficial Fundamentals in Methodology and the book “Excellent 11” are to me at this time. I am pursuing teaching as a second career, after spending over a decade in corporate American and over 12 years as a stay home mom, school and church volunteer. I was encouraged to become a certified teacher by a friend who an educator and entrepreneur in her own right. It was my friend, Sheila Newton-Moses, who took me to Saint Peters University, introduced me to Dr. Doria and encouraged me to do this. I am now finishing the second semester in the program and am very excited at the prospect of teaching.

Fifty percent of new teachers quit with in the first five years of teaching (NEA, 2015), with this number being so alarmingly high it begs the questions: Why do so many teachers leave after going through years of college for this profession? Were teachers not prepared for the job, through college training, what should colleges teach in order to better prepare teachers?

I interviewed a teacher from Seckman High School named Lori Bunting. I asked Lori several questions and she gave me more insight on the teaching career. Lori graduated from Southeast Missouri State in in 2000 with her Bachelors in Secondary Education and Mathematics. She then received her masters in classroom teaching in 2008 from Missouri Baptist University. With student teaching in my near future I thought asking her about her student teacher experience would give me some advice on what my next steps are. Lori student taught at two different schools and for eight weeks each. The first place she student taught was at Oak Ridge High School in Oak Ridge, Missouri. Lori stated that the school was very small and only had one math teacher. She said this gave her an insight of what it would feel like to teach in a small school. On the other hand, she also taught at Cape Central High School in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. She said she really enjoyed this experience because the school was much bigger and she felt more involved in the school. She said that unlike today, she had no choice of where she student taught but she was grateful for the experience she had at both Oak Ridge High School and Cape Central High School.

Many states across the country are experiencing teacher shortages. Without enough teachers, we can not successfully educate our children. According to Glori Chaika “Forty-two states issue emergency credentials to people who have taken no education courses and have not taught a day in their lives. Many teachers are hired based solely on their experience leading church or camping groups.” (Chaika) Due to the shortages, States are allowing those who are not even qualified to teach. One can not believe that children are being educated as best as they can be, if those teaching them have no experience or training before hand. Another problem is that teachers are not being place in the fields were they can perform at their best, Glori Chaika also states that “One-fourth of new teachers -- if they are licensed -- are not licensed to teach in the field they are teaching.” (Chaika) Many teachers have very little knowledge on the subject they are teaching, “About 55 percent of students taking physics in the United States, for example, are taught by someone who never majored or minored in the subject.” ( Asimov) As a result of the current teacher shortage, the quality of America’s educational system has gone down. People are being hired with no teaching experience and teachers are being forced to teacher subjects that they are not familiar with. Adding to the current teacher shortage is the problem of teacher

46 percent of teachers leave the profession within the first five years on the job. This is a result of disrespect to teachers in regards to their salary. Those who educate and shape the future generations should not be on the lower end of the pay scale; teachers are not being compensated well enough for the work they do. Teachers not only provide instruction in a number of academic areas, but they offer encouragement and inspiration to the future generations. Teaching is the profession that teaches all the other professions, but yet our educators are still undervalued and underpaid.

Most parents want their children to have a better educational experience than they received including having a memorable teacher. You remember that one teacher who made history come alive or provided real life examples for the use the Pythagorean Theorem. Maybe your special teacher made grammar meaningful as you expressed our ideas through writing. Imagine if your favorite teacher poured their wealth of experience, knowledge, and magical know how into one of your child’s teachers. However all this educational wisdom becomes like a vapor as teachers relocate or retire which has becomes a reoccurring event in the Arizona public schools. According to the Arizona Department of Education 35.3% of classroom teacher left their teaching position

The issue of teacher shortage today is continuing to grow. The effects of the achievement gap are reaching the teachers, not just the students: “...good administrators and teachers, who are doing their best under difficult circumstances, will be driven out of the profession…,” (Boyd-Zaharias 41). The achievement gap is part of the reason teachers feel they are underpaid, which happens to be one of the leading cause in teacher shortage considering, “Teachers were paid two percent less [than comparable workers] in 1994, but by 2015 the wage penalty rose to 17 percent,” (Long). Being a teacher requires passion in order to stay in the field, especially if the money in teaching is decreasing. Money is an important aspect for people when it comes to their careers, therefore, fewer people want to become teachers. This lack of teachers and the lack of college students studying to become a teacher leads to unqualified teachers and larger classroom sizes (Ostroff). Both of these causes are eventually affecting students’ learning environments. I chose this issue in education for my project because I have personally felt these effects, and I know others who have as well. As a future educator, I want to see better wages and better benefits, but this can only happen with qualified, passionate teachers. I plan on being one of them, and I plan on sparking a change. I am a future educator fighting to end teacher shortage.

My decision to be a teacher did not come easily to me. This choice was dependent on a reflection about what I was passionate about and how I could make a difference. I have chosen to become a teacher, as I believe teachers have the ability to provide future generations the stimulation for one of the most significant roles in life; to become a lifelong learner. Many teachers that I have had during my education have had a positive impact on my decision to grow and develop the skills that are fundamental to pursue a successful teaching career. My aim is to be a part of an honorable profession with the optimism that one day I will become an efficacious teacher who can provide future teachers with inspiration, as my teachers have provided for me. Through personal educational experiences and peer-reviewed academic literature, I am able to shape my approach to my pre-service teaching, as it will influence my future practice. As a teacher, there is not just one singular approach to educating students; there is a need for flexibility, diversity, adaptation and reflection.

One of my fondest passions is learning about the human body. I find the inner mechanisms of the human body to be extremely intriguing – the ability for so many intersecting faculties to form a cohesive, high-functioning organism is truly astounding. I am currently majoring in the Honours Behaviour, Cognition and Neuroscience program at the University of Windsor and throughout my time studying, I have developed a greater sense of not only the human brain, but the physiological and biological mechanisms involved throughout the entire body. I have been able to apply this knowledge throughout my experiences as a teaching assistant for multiple undergraduate courses. My role as a teaching assistant allows me to apply my knowledge of the human body

Of all the important things for teachers to do is to teach and to make students get into the things that they’re learning. That usually doesn’t happen as most of the good and enthusiastic teachers are in rich schools and the teachers that are under qualified and do not care about students get put at the schools that are underfunded. To remedy this you must make sure that equally qualified

As a student, people deal with teachers for at least twelve to thirteen years of their life and not all of them are bad, but then again they are not all good either. Most teachers fall into three categories; the I Am Just Here For the Paycheck, the Shut Up I Hate Children, and the Holy Grail. Now it is understood that teachers have a hard job dealing with snot nose brats and even snottier parents, but sometimes a teacher has to over look all that and do the job to the best of the teachers ability, and some do a great job of that, but others scrap the bottom of their barrels everyday.

After many years in the classroom and several as a facilitator, there were many situations that I have observed and or been a part of that did not make me happy I found myself saying what I would have said or done if I was the principal of the school. My heart began to break for those students that were in classes with teachers that did not seem to really care about whether or not the students actually got it but more so doing the bare minimum to say that the skill had been taught. I saw children struggle. I saw children and parents with hurt feelings and then angered by the way a teacher had treated or talked to them. I even saw some teachers that just did not care. I wanted that to change. For years I put off going back to school. I got my Masters in Education right after I

I learned quickly that being an effective teacher is an art that takes time and devotion. Many times, teachers are not provided with the necessary materials in order to maintain the various learning styles in a classroom. It is up to the teacher to create an environment where students can succeed. This is a full time job, meaning that a teacher’s work is not done once they leave the school. A teacher must contribute a significant amount of time and effort in order to see positive results in the school and in his or her own classroom. After observing my cooperating teacher’s strategies and learning more about the profession, I knew that I was going in the right direction with my life. I took a significant amount of knowledge away from this experience and have continued to strive to be the type of educator that I was blessed to work with during this experience. .

When I think about teachers that I have had in the past, several different ones come to my mind. Each of these educators stands out in my mind for a variety of diverse reasons. Whether it is their sense of humor, their tactfulness, their love of the subject matter, their fanatical and sporadic behavior, or their yearning to be childish themselves, I can still remember at least one quality of every teacher I have ever encountered. Every one of these teachers conveyed subject material to their students just as they were educated and employed to do. However, I trust that every professional in the world has an abundance of opportunity for improvement; teachers could discover and improve themselves merely by having

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