Top 10 Reasons to Become a Teacher

...and it's not just because of having summers off!

According to about.com, these are the reasons why one should consider a career in education...and of course, my comments about them...

1. Student Potential-Very student may not succeed in your class, but I still believe if I prepare these preschoolers correctly they have the potential to become good students and be all they can be.

2. Student Successes-When you witness a child learn how to write his/her name for the first time, or finally understand the difference between a square and a triangle there really is nothing like it. Working in a school for special needs students and a school for underprivileged children, the word "unteachable" is used frequently and I make it appoint to prove those nay sayers wrong!

3. Teaching a Subject Helps you Learn a Subject-Completing my student teaching in the 3rd grade helped me learn how to correctly add and subtract fractions (apparently I was doing it ALL wrong during grammar school..and I was writing my capital cursive Q incorrectly all along!)

4. Daily Humor-I intend to write a post one of these days titled "Kids Say The Darndest Things" because they really do. Including "Mommy plays on the pooter all day because she's a liar" Translation: "Mommy works on the computer all day because she's a lawyer"

5. Affecting the Future-Simply put, I wrote my 3rd grade teacher a letter before she passed away explaining what an impact she had on my life and how she influenced me to become a teacher. I hope one day I will hear something similar.

6. Staying Younger-FALSE. I found my first gray hair while teaching and my back and body have never ached so badly. Sure being in a school keeps you up to date with the latest lingo and styles the kids are rocking, but it in no way makes my body feel younger!

7. Conducive to Family Life-It sure is. The schedule speaks for itself. (Although the school I am in now has a daycare so I am stuck there until at least 6pm every night!) My best friends mother was a teacher in our elementary school which made us the "coolest" kids on the playground. Not to mention I got rides to and from school from her and she even let us help decorate her classroom before the summer and make bulletin boards.

8. Autonomy of the Classroom-It is nice being the conductor of creativity in the classroom. It is my job to teach children about their creative freedom and help them to express themselves in the appropriate way. I think that is one thing that really makes my job unique.

9. Job Security-Not so sure anymore. With this economy and rates of college students graduating increasing it is making it so difficult to get and keep a job anywhere really.

10. Summer's Off-Don't. Go. There. My school has a summer program and guess what...if I don't work it I won't have a job for September! Also, I always say, if teacher's didn't have some sort of break from the children, we'd all wind up in the same loony bins. But seriously, is there one young teacher you know that doesn't work in the summer? Whether its at a camp, babysitting, tutoring, or waitressing? Please, I'd love to meet her and be her.

I must put this disclaimer because I know what some of you must be thinking. I in NO WAY think that teaching is the best/only occupation that is important in this world. My whole family is full of business, sales, marketing, etc professionals who have important jobs and who help people in many ways. I'm just passionate about what I do and I hope all of you are too because after all it's not about what you do or how much you make or how glorified your occupation is, it's doing what makes you happy and waking up knowing you're doing what you want, isn't it?