Prompt #1: Asking Questions and Breaking Assumptions

Up until about a year ago I had no interest at all in becoming a teacher.  It wasn't until I was accidentally placed in an elementary classroom through my high school career center I realized I wanted to be a teacher.  After my first day of working in the first grade classroom I knew this was the right career for me.  Like anyone else I did have some concerns and preconceptions about the field:

• How much will I get paid? Probably not very much.
• Becoming a teacher will be easy.
• It will be easy being a teacher and teaching students.
• There are good schools and bad schools.

As other teachers have told me and my education text books and classes have told me, education is a career you must love.  No one becomes a teacher for the money.  The average pay of a teacher is $42,216 but starting out it is way lower being around $36,000 (Teacher Salary).  A lot of teachers, including my own mother have told me "Do not become a teacher!", benefits are becoming less and less, teachers no longer receive pensions, and raises seem to be rare.  One teacher whom I worked with for a semester in her first grade classroom informed me that some states have better benefits and salaries than others.  I did some research and found how drastically the differences from state to state actually were as seen below:

Most people look down on teaching, they believe it is a simple job to have.  Teachers do not receive anywhere near enough credit for what they do.  Depending on the college attended required classes may vary, but Michigan States requirements are very prestigious including integrated studies courses, writing and math requirements, and depending on your focus (math, language arts, science or social studies) there are more requirements that follow (MSU Requirements).  Also, following the four years of undergraduate schooling, a fifth year of student teaching must be completed. 

I am learning right now teaching will not be easy.  In my current math class, elementary math, I am learning all of the different learning styles and how children take in new information. The math book I am using is "Elementary Mathematics" by Thomas H. Parker and it covers all kinds of concepts and shows you different approaches to math skills such as addition and subtraction--something that comes easy to us but is a foreign language to young children.  I never before considered how a teacher needs to think in order to effectively teach his or her students. Each student learns differently and the teacher is responsible for making sure their entire class understands what is being taught.  

There are all kinds of schools, some which are better off than others.  I am in the Urban Educators Cohort Program which teaches Education majors how to work with students of different cultures, races, and social classes.  Being able to relate and communicate with each student is extremely important in order for them to learn.  I did service learning at a Lansing elementary school and there were two children in my class who were learning English as a second language.  The teacher is responsible for overcoming these barriers and finding out how to best teach children that come from different backgrounds.

These are just a few of the things I have learned more about with my education classes and through talking to other teachers about my career choice.  Hopefully you learned something too, thank you!