Why I Want to be a Teacher
Ever since I was a little girl, my life long dream was to be a teacher. When I was six, I used to line all my dolls and stuffed animals on my bed. I would sit them all up in little lines so that I eventually had the attention of over fifteen pupils. I would spend hours teaching them their ABC’s and 123’s. I would pass out papers, and give them tests. I would then pick up the papers and grade them, adding little stickers if the grade was a 100% (not caring about the work I had to do creating these papers). I even had a pupil or two that misbehaved and got a phone call to the parents.
Moving into high school, my dream still remained. Directly after high school, my dream came to an abrupt halt when I became pregnant. I gave birth to my son at the age of eighteen. As most people know, having a baby changes your life. I raised him on my own, and therefore had to work a full time job to be able to afford to raise my child without the financial assistance of my family. I quickly worked my way up the ladder in the corporate world with no education past a high school diploma. Four years ago, I landed a job as an Office Manager for a company with 30 employees. At 29, with a little college under my belt but no degree, I was making more money than 60% of the employees that had a bachelor degree. I was making great money, but it was a sacrifice. I was putting in over 48 hours a week, and only getting paid for 40. I was dropping my son off at day care when they opened, and picking him up at 6:30PM when they closed. When I got home, we had an hour and a half to get homework done, get him showered, bedtime story, and then bed. I not only was loosing his childhood, but I was losing my dream. With the economy breakdown, my company closed its doors in April 2009, and I found myself jobless. It was so hard for me; it was the first time since I was 18, that I didn’t have an 8-5 job. It took me a couple days to gather my thoughts, and it occurred to me, now is the best time to pursue my dream. I had two years of college already, and only had two to go, so I decided to go back to school. Now I am back in school and learning the things I need to know to be the very best teacher I can be. So many people take teaching for granted. When you are a teacher, you hold many keys to so many student’s future success. That is an abundance of pressure!
I have had many teachers that I adored, and many that I despised. I had teachers that cherished their jobs, and I had teachers that had no business standing in front of students holding those keys to success. My desire is to be a middle school teacher. When I think back, and I think the hardest times in my life were in middle school. It takes a patient person to teach young elementary school students, but it takes an understanding person to teach middle school students. These students are at a very fragile time in their lives outside of the school. They began to feel the pressure of other students to fit in. They are going through puberty and personal struggles with who they are, and who they long to be. I can teach them to be responsible in their decisions. I can teach them that although peer pressure seems so hard now, the right thing to do is always the best thing to do. I will teach them to not only make the right decision, but to convince everyone else that it is the right decision. I will teach them they can have influence on others' mistakes. I will teach them they can be leaders, and lead struggling students to make the right decisions. I feel middle school students are still young enough that they love their teachers, but old enough that you don’t have to hold their hands.
I think the characteristics of an amazing teacher are absolutely necessary to achieve success in teaching middle school students. Middle school students can’t be treated like newborns; they are preteens and want to be treated that way. A middle school teacher should be energetic. She should make the subject of the Civil War, or American Literature exciting! If she loves it, they will love it! I had a teacher in school that made my worst subject my favorite subject because of her obvious love for what she was teaching. She transferred that love to me through her energy in her passion for teaching. A middle school teacher still needs to have boundaries. She needs to be strict and not let her students have control. If the students think they run the class, they will think they run the teacher. Students always need structure, they crave it. Students need to know the teacher cares. It isn’t just about teaching where a comma goes in the sentence. Students have a whole life outside of the classroom. Sometimes they may need guidance in that. Many students today are raised in homes with one parent, or even raised by grandparents. Teachers don’t always know the circumstances of the home life, but it is so important to be supportive and open to listening to the issues beyond the classroom. In middle school, students are still young. They may open up and ask for help from an adult on a situation that is going on at home. A good teacher doesn’t turn that student away.
I want to be a teacher because I want to make a difference. I want to teach middle school English. So many students are wrapped up in internet and cell phones, they don’t care much about reading and writing the old way. I want them to learn to love books. I want them knee deep into famous classical writers, and I want them to lose themselves in the words. I want them to learn to write with their hearts and minds. I will teach them to love it.
I want to be a teacher because that is what I am here to do. My heart has always been in teaching. Life is too short. It is important for there to be teachers that want to teach because it is what they love. They need to have the passion and the heart. I am here to hold the key of students' success, and am ready for that challenge. I believe I can reach students on a level that many teachers can’t or don’t want to. I not only want to be the teacher they learned the most from, I want to be the teacher they trust and respect. It is so hard being a pre-teen; teachers can have an influence in not only education but in personal growth. I can influence them to be better people and to reach for their goals. I can teach them they can be whoever they want to be.
It takes a special person to be a teacher. Patience, honesty, understanding, energy, the love of reading and writing, the love of students….these are all attributes I have and will use when I reach my goal in life of being a middle school English teacher. I will make a difference in these young students. I will show them passion they never knew they had. I will show them love they never thought they could achieve. I will teach them beyond the book, and show them respect as young adults. I will teach them diversity, and show them that everyone is equal. I will teach them to love students in the classroom with disabilities and without, and will show them how we can learn from each other. I will make a difference. I will hold the keys to their success, and I will teach them to turn it in the door of their future.
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