Teaching - <span title="advantages/disadvantages/daily">advantages/disadvantages/...</span> routine etc?

Question

Hi there,

I'm trying to weigh up the pro's and con's of being a teacher...

i've applied for a PGCE and i have a day at school comming up but i cant figure out if it's something i want to do...i'm worried about the work load and the kids attitude as i'll be going for secondary! I've been looking around at other jobs and nothing really seems 9-5, there's pressure everywhere!

but i want to know :::

what do you enjoy/hate?

what's the advantages/disadvantages?

good experiences/bad experiences?

what made you decide it was what you wanted to do?

what should you be prepared for?

daily routine?

how can you lessen your workload at home? etc

anything else you can think of?!

thanks for the info - i'm really struggling with this!!!

Answer 1

teach 2ND grade- like: kids still like school, still like their teachers

dislike- meetings, parent teacher conferences at 7AM or 6 PM, work NEVER  ends, stress, changing curriculum, new programs that never work, no money for supplies or salary, summers are about 6 weeks long and you need a second job to stay afloat, report cards, interims, TESTING, teaching to the test, correcting endless papers, lazy kids, indifferent parents, parents who swear their kid is gifted, 28 kids in a classroom, SPED forms and regs, ESOL regs and forms, tattling, bathroom/ hall/ playground/ hall/ cafeteria fights, observations, pink slips, budget cuts, dirty classrooms, doing lesson plans, bulletin boards, being on committees, evening programs, involuntary transfers........shall I go on?

Look elsewhere for a job.

Answer 2

I am a teacher and love it most days.  I teach with a few people who hate it most days.  I could share numerous stories that would make you never want to be a teacher and just as many of things that would make you want to go to school and wait on students to arrive.  The fact of the matter is that teachers were born.  It is a tough job where you are always on call with little gratitude, where sometimes your hands are tied when you know how to fix a child&#039;s problem because of laws meant to protect children.  It is a job where you watch students fight the battle of social pressures, school pressures, and family pressures and if you are lucky, have the opportunity to help them bear the load.  It is a job that when done right can help improve our world.  It is a job where you often watch students suffer immensely, but see them soar to new heights.  I commend you for visiting a classroom, but understand that you are seeing a small portion of the school day.  Sign up to be on the substitute list, volunteer in a classroom for an extended period of time, and interview numerous teachers and students for a better picture of what being a teacher is really like.

Answer 3

I&#039;m not sure what a PGCE is???  

I&#039;ve taught for 6 years and I really enjoy teaching but I would say you have to have a certain personality for it.  Ultimately you have to be a leader.  Your students are looking for a leader to guide them.  Because you are a leader, you have to be willing to help individuals solve problems.  You should ask yourself when was the last time you were a leader.  Did you enjoy that role?  Do you like making tons of decisions?

I disagree with one of the previous writers.  I think teachers should be at least a little entertaining.  Think back to all of the teachers that you have had in the past.  What qualities made them great in your eyes?  I bet the best ones challenged you while making a subject matter interesting as well.  

Another quality that I think is really important to posses is the ability to organize.  Teaching is paperwork, books, supplies for 30-120 + yourself.  You have to find ways to create order.  I started reading Martha Stewart on how to organize.  Otherwise, you could be drowning in a sea of paper.  

When I introduce myself as a teacher, I get a lot of compliments.  It could be because I&#039;m in an area that really respect education.  I have heard of some people who are disrespectful to their teachers which is too bad.  

To answer one of your questions: I decided to become a teacher after I taught swimming one high school year and came back home ever day screaming, &quot;I love my job!&quot;    You should make sure you get into a classroom and spend some time before you go through with all the training.  You may decide that flourecent lights don&#039;t suit your skin or that correcting 30 papers is not your cup of tea.

Answer 4

I love teaching for a variety of reasons.  The following are not in any order.

I don&#039;t know of any other job where you know exactly where you need to be by the end.  That is you start in September and know exactly where you need to have the kids learn by the end of the school year.  That does not mean that the job is routine far from it.

It is essentially a job where you are your own boss.  If you do a good job, nobody bothers you, especially after a few years.  Its a well known fact that employers do not like to hire teachers who leave the profession because they are too independent.

For me the biggest disadvantage in teaching is the lack of respect that teachers face in the community.  It&#039;s really disheartening to hear &quot;oh, you&#039;re a teacher&quot; with a really dismissing tone.  Another one is the lack of money for adequate supplies.  A third, is the idea that teachers should somehow be entertainers. If I could act, I would be in the movies!



I love working with adolescents.  They think they are cool, but they are so vulnerable.  If you care for them as human beings as well as students, you usually get them to return the favor.

The good experiences far outweigh the bad.  I love seeing studenst &quot;get it&quot;. The don&#039;t always acknowledge it to you, but that&#039;s ok, they&#039;re kids, but you know.  Of course, that&#039;s a drawback too.  You don&#039;t always get the compliments you deserve, you have to find them on your own.  Quite often, administrators don&#039;t even acknowledge a job well done--they leave you alone.  For some that&#039;s difficult.  For me, it is great.

I wish I could figure out how to lessen the workload at home, although I must admit that as I get more experience, I don&#039;t have as much stress to work every minute.  I have become philosophical:  that&#039;s why I get these holidays.  

I became a teacher because I wanted to work with adolescents.  I wanted to have the knowledge that I had helped shape some of them into productive members of society.  (I stress the word &quot;help&quot;)  I believe I&#039;ve done that because some of my former students have come back and thanked me.

Answer 5

Like everyone else has said.  There are pros and cons to this job.  I&#039;ve been doing it for 3 years. I&#039;m not gonna lie. I don&#039;t want to be doing this job when i&#039;m 60 but for now it&#039;s perfect for me.  It&#039;s nice to get out at 3 in the afternoon and still have lots of sunlight.  Also, you are not constantly kissing up to a boss.  You are the boss in most cases.  I teach a subject where the lesson plans are written for me and because of the tech age, grading is easy.  The high school kids can be fun but they can also be annoying.  also the job isn&#039;t really condusive to meeting people since you are stuck in a building with teenagers and other teachers.  So here the the pros and cons of teaching high school. You couldn&#039;t pay me enough to teach a younger age group, so I don&#039;t know anything about that.