final field post

My last visit was bitter sweet to say the least. The teacher I shadowed was amazing and so appreciative of me being there and just wished I could have stayed longer. Looking at the school and the fact that she taught in an open classroom many would think as overwhelming but to her it was just another day. Even though she had the occasional misbehaved kid she held it together and still did a phenomenal job each and every day. Throughout my observations of her classroom and the student’s gym class I learned a lot about the first grade age group and the discipline you need to give and how you need to give it.

I hope that once I become a teacher after college that I can be as good at my job each day in the same way the teacher I observed did. She was able to embody so many positive characteristics that the children could all benefit from and that it the kind of teacher I want to be. In addition, she never ignored the kids that where harder to handle and keep focused but instead she kept them engaged and taught everyone the same rules. Finally, she taught in a way that was positive for everyone to learn and helped them slowly grow up and get out of some of the little kid things that that age group comes with. My observations were so helpful in the sense that they were able to show exactly what kind of a teacher I want to be and helped me get closer to the age group I hope to teach one day. Throughout this experience of all my observations I can now step back and realize that this wasn’t just an assignment I had to complete but it was something that genuinely taught me.

This i believe blog, introduction and problem statement

Blogpost 10

Throughout my experience in education so far and I have found myself falling more in love with the idea of becoming a teacher. The kids I have been with so far have really shown me what to expect and really makes me look forward to my future. However, the more I learn about what all each grade is taught, it makes me wonder what the right age group for me is. Through each observation, I question the idea of teaching high school English or early education. I love the idea of working with young kids everyday but I also love English and the idea of reading creative writing papers.

 I think the thing about my observations that I’ve learned the most thus far would be the idea of maybe teaching middle childhood education. The idea that I might be able to be able to teach a little bit of English and still work with young kids seems like it might be the perfect solution.

The biggest theme I have noticed so far is that I know that I definitely want to teach and work with kids. I believe that through my nine posts so far that education is defiantly the filed for me to go into. Through my observations I have learned a lot about teachers and different types of teaching styles which I want to try and incorporate into my future career.

This I Believe introduction:

I believe that teaching is an underpaid labor of love. Education is where the future of all of society lies. Since this is the case everywhere, I believe it is extremely important to make teachers feel more appreciated and give them a salary in which they can actually live off of. In many cases I have heard of and researched, some teachers end up having to do something called moonlighting. Moonlighting is something people do when their primary job does not offer enough money for them to live off of what they are making. Unfortunately moonlighting is an all too common reality for many teachers because of how little teachers make and how much they pay to get their own education. I believe that we as a society need to fix this problem. We need to make teaching a career that is feasible to those who would be good at it rather than a backup plan for those who can’t do anything else. As of right now, people who would be good teachers choose not to be teachers because of how little money they make and how hard it is to make a living only while teaching. I believe that if we change the way educators are thought of and treated financially then we would end up with more, better teachers. It is my belief that the sooner we treat teachers with the respect of the financial support they need the sooner education as a whole will improve.

 This I believe Problem statement:

Through my observations thus far of education I have noticed the problem of low income amounts teachers and educators all around. My belief of teachers being underpaid stems from the idea of me being almost scared to choose it as a career because of my fear of not making enough money to live the life I want to be able to. A salary is supposed to be something in which one can genuinely live off of especially when it costs so much to be able to make that low salary in the first place. The biggest problem with teacher’s low salary is that the expenses of getting an education in order to be a teacher in the first place is extremely high which means it can take a really long time for teachers to be able to pay off their student loans and college debts in general. After many conversations with many different teachers and other people who know teachers or who have family members who have taught have all told me not to go into teaching because there is no money in it. In addition, all of those people have told me how teaching is such a labor of love and how you really really must love teaching to even think about going into it as a career. The thing is with teaching is a teacher who is working extremely hard to help each and every student in their classroom has enough going on and for them to also have to worry about how little money their making is absurd. On top of that most teachers right out of school have a lot of debt which they worry about so adding their small and inadequate salary to that laundry list of things ot do is completely unnecessary. When looking at many other professional that make so much more money when their work load is comparable or less than that of a teacher it is hard for many pole to justify the idea of spending a lot of time and money of something that very rarely pays off. It is my hope that teachers do in fact start earning a more substantial pay check in order to overall help them as teachers and make it something more accessible to become better in. Becoming a bed teacher takes time and money which a lot of teachers don’t have the luxury of doing do to the fact that they are not making enough money. I hope that teaching in itself is pay off enough but I think all teachers would benefit from a more substantial pay check to how that their work is in fact being noticed and not taken for granted. Thinking about all of the great teachers I had it is very sad to think that they make so little money and yet work so hard. Teachers are the start of almost all children’s education and introduction to the real world for so many. Teachers low wage is something that cannot wait much longer before the department of education loses too many teachers or can no longer higher enough teachers. The sooner we fix this urgent problem the better everyone’s children and our future will be.