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What its like to be a teacher?

I am an assistant teacher at school. #teacher

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Michelle’s Answer

I have been teaching for 22 years and my career certainly has had its ups and downs. Some years have been magical: well behaved students, cooperative parents, and supportive admin. Some years have been the opposite, yet you are expected to be at your very best. I have taught grades from Kindergarten to Grade 8 and found that each grade has its own joys and challenges. Kindergarten children are open to new ideas and are excited to learn. They also tend to be very needy and if you have a weak stomach for snot or poop, you might want to find a different grade. In grade 8, you can joke around with your students and it's very rewarding watching them develop into young adults. It also requires a lot of time marking and chasing kids down for assignments. In any grade, good classroom management is key. You need to be prepared to communicate with parents on a daily basis and as a public figure, you need to keep your nose clean (especially if you live in a small town). I really enjoy being able to get a fresh start in September. How many jobs allow you to do this? Most jobs do not have a beginning and ending, they just follow one day after the other for years and years. Teaching gives you the entire summer to recharge your batteries so you can be at your very best. If you want to be a parent, teaching is a great choice because you have set hours and you will be off when your kids are (minus PA days) so you don't need to scramble for daycare when the kids are on vacation. Teaching gives you endless opportunities to be creative and make a big impact in the lives of others. It can also be very stressful when you have one or two behavioral students who can be so disruptive that it throws off your programming or jeopardizes your safety and the safety of the other children. There is an overall sentiment that teachers have cushy jobs, and the public can often be resentful of our wonderful holidays, pay (as Canada pays 6 figures for seasoned teachers) and pension. Overall, teaching is a great profession, but you need to accept that some years are going to be more stressful than others and certain circumstances will be out of your control to change. My advice would be: get your teaching degree (as it takes only one or two years to obtain) but also have a back-up plan so if you realize it's not for you after five years, you still have time to build a carer in another field. The skills that you developed as a teacher such as time management, communication with the public and creativity will be sure to serve you in a different profession.
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Keirston’s Answer

Teaching brings with it many challenges as well as rewards. There are no two days that are the same while teaching. There is a lot of planning but also a lot of adapting to new changes. It can be unpredictable at times. As a teacher, I often receive updates from administrators at the last minute and many things come up that I do not see in advance so expecting the unexpected is a huge part of the job.

Teaching also requires genuine care and effort! It brings with it many tasks and skills that are outside of the job description. Students will open up to you about their personal lives, you may have to serve as mediator between students who are having a conflict, you may have to provide food depending on which populations you serve. You will have to learn new technology and so much more. Having good communication skills is also a must.

Overall I’d say teaching is hard to sum up but if I were to capture it I’d say it requires versatility and being able to learn as well as teach and that teaching brings many rewards and challenges. It will push you to grow as a human being and you will learn a lot about yourself as well as your students.
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Zahid’s Answer

It depends a lot on what grade levels you are teaching, what subjects you are teaching and what kind of a school you are teaching at. Your teaching responsibilities also vary greatly depend on what school level you are teaching. There is a lot more class management going at middle school level as the students at that age are more energetic. At HS it depends on the students too, some are mature will be easy to teach while others require more class management. The important thing is setting expectations and precedent early in the school year and how well rest of the year goes will based off of that. If you can't control your class early on then that's the battle you will be finding all year long but if you do then everyone will be aware of what is expected of them and most of your time will be spent on teaching and helping students. The teaching experience does vary person to person, but it is quite reward. It is also very time consuming. Unlike other jobs, your job doesn't end when the school ends, you have assignments grade, lessons to plan, and so much other stuff that you'll often most evenings and weekends, especially early on in the career.

It helps to ask the teachers you at the school you are working to get different perspectives. Also, check out these links:

These five teachers shared their biggest takeaways from decades in the field.
https://www.collegexpress.com/interests/education/articles/what-life-teacher/what-being-teacher-really/

What It’s Like to Be a Teacher in 2020 America
https://i.imgur.com/KzGBpKj.jpg
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alan’s Answer

So you want to be a teacher. A great profession. Teaching requires creativity, knowledge, planning, organization, and a willingness to work hard. On the negative side teaching requires you to constantly maintain good classroom management, willingness to bring work home, to engage low interest students, to be able to relate with frustrated parents, and to an awareness of administrative requirements. Good luck.
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Brittany’s Answer

Being a teacher is such a rewarding profession! You are helping to shape the minds of students. Your voice can impact their lives forever. That is a huge responsibility. But teaching is also challenging. There are so many aspects that families don’t see such a compiling and analyzing data, gathering community resources to help students and families, and many more things. I am a virtual teacher, but I’ll go over how my day went as a regular classroom teacher. I always got to school early to prepare for the day. I would go over my lessons, make sure I had all the materials I needed, and make sure my technology was working. After that, I prepared to welcome my students. When I greeted them, I would listen to their funny stories or riddles (I taught elementary). After that, we would begin our day with them in specials and me in my planning period. I used that time to eat breakfast, continue prepping, work with my partner teacher, etc. Afterwards, I taught my math classes. Then the day consisted of lunch, recess, more math, then finishing up with science! At the very end of the day, I had dismissal duty then that was it! It doesn’t seem like a lot but it is very exhausting, especially working with smaller children. They require a lot of guidance and emotional support to help them navigate through the day. Overall, teaching involves spending a lot of time instructing, counseling, nursing, sympathizing, listening, and many, many other hats teachers wear on a daily basis. I would say to make sure you are really in it for the right reasons because it very quickly becomes more than just a job.

Good luck!

Brittany

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