Student Teaching... Welcome to Reality

Why do I want to be a teacher? That's a good question. It seems like everyone in my program has this idea of hopefully changing a child's life through teaching. Over the past year I have learned a lot about this thing we call teaching; and with that I have seen the reality of teaching.

One of the most annoying things that I have experienced during my observations and being around teachers is the question of "So... after being here do you still want to be a teacher?" or you get the comments such as "You should get out while you still can" or "teachers are so underpaid and there's to much paperwork...blah blah blah". And calling a student stupid as a stump is NOT okay. Giving up on a student becuase it's frustrating when they don't get it as fast as you want them is NOT okay.

So really... why do teachers have to be so discouraging to us younglings? Don't they know we know all this?? But we... I have so much passion for teaching, I still believe that I can make a difference in a child's life. I still believe that I can use my talents and knowledge to help students learn about things inside and outside of the classroom!

Now wait, not everyone I've been around is like this. The teacher who's class I'm in for student teaching is A-mazing! She taught in the most dangerous part of Chicago and her stories are crazy! She cares about her students SO much. She WANTS to see them succeed and she gives them so many opportunities to get help and she just genuinely loves her job even though there are some tedious tasks she has to do, or meetings she has to go through, or paperwork she has to fill out. I've been so blessed to be in her classroom.

Today my teacher and I went into the principle's office to talk to her about a student and the principle turns to me and asks me after seeing all these difficult situations with the students "Are you still motivated towards being a teachers after seeing what happens behind the scenes?" I said yes and she went on to say "Good! I think that if every teacher went into their classroom each day with the attitude that they could make a difference in a students life then our children would change tremendously. So even though there's drama and students getting in trouble, don't ever give up!" She's an amazing lady!

This is long so I'll talk about my students later. :)