August 23, 2009

Got class? Becoming a teacher takes more than a desire for summer vacation

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Unless you have an open mind, a good sense of humor, patience and excellent people skills, teaching may not be your calling. Perks like job security, geographical mobility and lengthy holiday breaks often act as powerful incentives before prospective teachers realize the demands of the profession.

However, if you have what it takes, teaching can be an extremely satisfying career full of opportunities for personal and professional development. Few other professions allow you to make such a positive and lasting impact on people’s lives and help shape the minds of the future.

Whether you’re new to the job market or considering a change, having these five characteristics will increase your chances of a promising teaching career:

An open mind
Learning and adapting are two of the biggest parts of being a successful teacher. Each day will bring unexpected obstacles to overcome, so you must be able to handle a significant amount of adversity -- especially early in your career.

Lynn Columba, program coordinator of the College of Education at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa., says the best teachers consider themselves “lifelong learners” who are willing to explore new teaching strategies and methods as well as act on current research in the classroom.

“Effective teachers are not born, they are made after an enormous amount of hard work and dedication,” Columba says. “Just like their students become more academically mature, so must teachers expect to grow and develop as educational professionals every day of their career.”

Flexibility and patience
One of the core doctrines of teaching should be that everything is in a constant state of change. Interruptions and disruptions are the norm and very few days are “typical.” Therefore, Columba says, a flexible and patient attitude is important not only for your stress level but also for your students, who expect you to be in charge and take control of any situation.

“We must all be more and more flexible and have the ability to go with the ‘teachable moment,’ ” Columba says. “That’s not easy, especially after spending hours developing a highly structured lesson plan.”

Dedication
Sure, those extended vacations are nice. Any profession that offers paid summers off is going to pique the interest of many looking for a job.

But don’t schedule that three-month European getaway just yet. Summers are a time when many teachers learn new skills, teach at summer school, attend seminars or work on earning a graduate degree.

And being a teacher doesn’t stop when the final bell rings for the school day, says Phyllis Mendenhall, coordinator of advising in the teacher education department at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.

“I tell people that even though the bell might ring at 3 p.m., you are grading papers and preparing lessons at night,” Mendenhall says. “I tell them, ‘You’ll be taking graduate classes (from) mid- to late June, when school gets out, until early August, when you have to report back.’ ”

Positive attitude
You will be thrown many curveballs in life, and that can be especially true in the teaching profession. A positive outlook will help you deal with these in the best way.

At the same time, some of your students will likely come to class with a negative attitude, so it’s best to try to counteract that with a positive attitude and a sense of humor.

High expectations
An effective teacher should strive to raise the bar for his or her students. If you go in expecting less effort, you will likely receive less effort.

You should focus on an approach that says you know students can achieve to your level of expectations, thereby giving them a sense of confidence. This is not to suggest you should create unrealistic expectations. However, your expectations will be one of the key factors in helping students learn and achieve.

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6 Comments

Lisa G on August 24, 2009 12:13 AM | Reply

Although your article did well emphazizing the qualities necessary for teachers, it did contain one major inaccuracy: teachers do not get paid vacation. They get paid for the 10 months they work. Some districts spread the paychecks out over a 12-month period, but that is not the same as getting paid for time off. It just means that each paycheck is for 10/12 of what you are owed. Thank you.

EHHHHHH on August 24, 2009 9:05 PM | Reply

I have a lot of appreciation and respect for teachers. However, I have to say that the gripes teachers often offer about their salaries are tiresome.

Contrary to Lisa G's comment, the pay is not 10/12 of what the teacher is owed. Teachers have powerful unions negotiating for them; they get paid what they are owed (i.e., what they have negotiated to receive).

Also contrary to Lisa G's comment, as far as I can tell, teachers don't work a full 10 months of the year. During the 10 months (at MOST) school is in session, there are many breaks interspersed. So, if the argument is that the teachers are paid for 10 months, they are still getting some paid vacation time during those 10 months.

A couple of other points come to mind when I hear teachers complaining about their salaries:

1. I believe most teachers going into the profession knew (or should have known) that they would earn a salary for a portion of the year that corresponds to a job that they show up for and work at for only a portion of a year. Part time job, part time (very good for part time) salary. The teacher can always earn more money by working during the summer, either teaching or doing something else, if they teacher chooses to do that.

2. Teacher's get a generous pension if they put in their years. I don't know many private employers that treat their employees that well in this day and age.

3. When teachers complain about continuing education and/or working outside their regular work/class day, all I can say is welcome to the real world teachers. Many professions have continuing education requirements, with which professionals have to comply in addition to doing their "regular work." And, really, what successful professional puts in only the minimum hours required. Many professionals have jobs that require us to to put in time over and above to the regular 8 hour work day.

Chris on August 24, 2009 11:03 PM | Reply

Comments like the previous ones are incredibly foolish. The salaries and benefits offered to most teachers are too low to attract the quality of teachers we need. Whether a particular teacher complains about it or not is irrelevant. Change the system so you can pay them more and fire the lousy ones. Watch more talented people compete for the jobs. As teaching quality improves, so do outcomes for students. Or leave the system as it is: broken.

rewinn on August 26, 2009 11:31 AM | Reply

Teachers are among the lowest-paid of professions, that much is beyond dispute.

If we really value educating our children, basic economics says we should raise pay. And alternative would be to cut the workload, that is, make class size smaller.

It ain't rocket science, folks, it's basic economics.

jenn on August 27, 2009 10:10 PM | Reply

This is my biggest gripe...it has nothing to do with teacher pay. I earned a Master's in Teaching in May 2005-with a 3.96 GPA...
I applied for many (12) teaching openings to begin work that fall. I did not recieve ONE call for an interview. Now I've been subbing for 4 years in many districts. The interviews are far and in-between. Subs are treated less than human in some schools-almost like we are invisible. It almost feels like the powers-to-be want to KEEP me in the subbing pools because they know I'm like their little slave-worker. and don't get me started on the bilingual issue...that BITES!

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