 |
|
|
|
Job Title: Teacher
Type of Company: Technical High School
Education: BA, History, Syracuse University •• M.Ed., Fitchburg State College •• M.Ed., UMass-Lowell
Previous Experience: I have worked as a camp counselor, a camp director and a coach.
Job Tasks: I am a history and health teacher at the school and an athletic coach.
Best and Worst Parts of the Job: The best part of my job is working with students in a carefully structured organization. The tough part is the grind you go through in trying to reach all students and helping them achieve down the stretch in the school year. Also, teaching has become more entangled with paper work requirements not connected to daily classroom activity. The state department of education has done a good job making sure that schools do their best but a teacher's job has become more clerical and procedural at the expense of instructional creativity.
Job Tips:
1. You need to like kids to like teaching.
2. Be prepared to move over and around some obstacles instead of spending all your energy on one daily issue.
3. Treat every day as a new day. Try to not let today be affected by yesterday. Often students and stuff get stuck on an issue and you can all make a mountain out of a molehill. All in all, it is a worthwhile career but there are a lot more hoops to jump through than there used to be.
Additional Thoughts: Being an educator is a rewarding experience. The years have gone by fast. What I have found surprising is my ability adapt to issues with students and still retain my own belief system. This did not come right away as I was often thinking that everything needed to be a certain way.
If I could change one thing, it would have been to take more chances in my career. Maybe this is where I always was meant to be but it would have been great to have been exposed more to other settings.
Important qualities for a teacher to possess are insightfulness, resourcefulness, flexibility and organization. You need to have clarity and focus to successfully work with fellow staff and students and make most days positive for all concerned.
The inside stories from people actually working in the field.
Click a story title to show the story, and click the title again to hide it.
All Types
Career Stories are concise, real-world career overviews written by people relating their personal career experiences and wisdom. They provide invaluable insights and mentoring advice to students and career changers.
Most stories include:
Please also see our detailed information about Secondary School Teachers, including:
Copyright © QuinStreet, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
