P1- Teachers!

Reading this was a little scary because I have recently switched my major to Middle Grades Language Arts. I am looking into being an English Teacher for Middle Schools. I don’t want to think that far ahead in the future because I understand that by the time I step foot into my own classroom the rules will be completely different. I can’t ignore it, though, I realize that while I intern and sub for teachers it will be difficult for me to watch other teachers suffer because of the choices each student makes. There will always be one student who thinks that school is a waste of his/her time. The teacher shouldn’t be at risk of losing his/her job because of that one student.

I think that the Obama Administration has a good idea, but I don’t think they are thinking clearly about how many people this is going to effect. If students begin seeing teachers leave because they aren’t getting high enough test scores they may begin to drop out or think that the government has too much regulation. That is a lot of pressure on the students, to get good grades and pass exams (which they should do anyways but the teachers job shouldn’t depend on the scores of each student individually). The teachers that are coming in now may also have the wrong idea of what teaching is. If they get their own classroom and teach it for the exam and not for the students learning, the point isn’t getting across either. School is a lot more than an exam. It’s where kids spend 13+ years of their lives. They learn how to get along with other people, work as a team, play nicely, share, they learn how to think, react, and pay attention. It isn’t all about the exam at the end of the year.

I believe strongly that it doesn’t matter what school a future teacher goes to, or the education a teacher gets, if they are meant to be a teacher they will know exactly how to do it by the time they get out of college. Teaching is a gift. I don’t know what my life will look like in 8 years, but I do know that I will be 26 years old and I’ll have seen a lot more life. I will watch a president go and new one enter office.  I will watch the rules and regulations change.