Have you thought about teaching as a career option for you? Teaching is not the right calling for everyone, as you have to have a number of skills and traits in order to be good at this. For example, you have got to be compassionate, understanding, and most of all, you have to care about the children. Of course, there is more to teaching than this as you need fantastic communication skills also to get your messages across. In this article, we’re going to be taking a look at some of the things that you need to be considering when deciding if teaching is the right career for you. Keep reading if you would like to find out more.
A Passion For Kids
One of the main things you need when going into teaching is a passion for children. If you already have a background in looking after children then you may already know you will enjoy teaching. Children will automatically know if you don’t want to be around them and this is when they will act up. You don’t want to have a class full of 30+ children all messing around and disrespecting you.
If you go into teaching then you certainly aren’t doing it for the money, as teachers don’t make as much as other similar professions. You do it because you enjoy seeing the children in your care grow and develop. You are helping to nurture them and teach them valuable life lessons that they will never forget. It can be a lot of work to go into teaching, but once you have completed all training and gained the right amount of experience, you’ll immediately start to reap the rewards.
A common misconception is that if you love having your own kids, you’re going to adore teaching other children. This is far from the case. In reality, plenty of people think the world of their own children, but wouldn’t want to spend more than a minute with anyone else’s. Ultimately, it depends on your personal preferences. You need to think about how being around other children makes you feel overall.
Creativity
It can not be understated how few people have the right level of creativity required to be effective at teaching. Without the right level of creativity, every class is going to be dull, and dreary and you’ll struggle to maintain the attention of the kids.
There are lots of ways to ensure that you are as creative as possible. For instance, you might want to explore free printable worksheets. These can be fun for kids and provide building blockers that you can use to set a strong lesson plan.
The trick here when setting lesson plans is to make sure that you think outside the box. For instance, if you are working on creating history projects, then you might want to think about injecting certain elements of role play. This can help children learn what it was like during a certain time period.
Authority
When it comes to teaching and looking after children you need to have the right amount of authority. The saying firm but fair is very much for those in the teaching field. Children can be impossible beings and they will test your patience. It is important you remain calm while getting your point across.
There are many different discipline techniques used by teachers, finding the one that works for you is key. Children thrive on discipline and praise, one system that works particularly well is the traffic light system. All children start the day on the green, if they get three warnings then they are moved to the amber light, a further three warnings, and they are moved onto the red light. The children can, of course, move down as well as up. If they have been good since being on red then moving them down to amber might give them the confidence boost they need.
If there are particularly troublesome children in your class then they could have something else going on in their lives. They might also have some form of special educational needs (SEN), this needs to be addressed and the children get the help they rightfully deserve. Alternatively, if there is nothing wrong with the child, they are just being difficult then it might be worth a trip to the head teacher’s office to reflect.
Atypical Scheduling
The final thing that you should know about is the fact that teachers typically have an atypical schedule. When you work a 9-5 job, you know when your work day starts and ends. The only time this is going to be different is when you actively choose to complete over time, but you don’t have to. When you are a teacher, you work typically from around 8 am-3 pm, but then you have to take your work home with you as there is marking to do, and lesson plans to prepare.
As well as this, instead of having a set amount of holiday that you can take off through the year, this is already decided for you. You will be off at the same time as all of the children every single year. While this gives you some kind of routine that you can get used to, some people don’t like trying to have their holidays while all the kids are off school as it makes everything more expensive. As such, as a teacher, you have to be okay with this kind of atypical schedule.
We hope that you have found this article helpful, and now see some of the things that you should consider when trying to decide if a teaching career is right for you. It’s not a career for everyone, so don’t beat yourself up if you don’t think that you could handle this type of pressure. You have to keep in mind that you are responsible in the eyes of the parent for their child’s learning and that alone is a lot of pressure for one person. Think carefully before committing to teaching, and make sure to consider all of these things.
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