Teacher

A teacher plays an important role in the education of a child, be it at any level in the school.  A teacher career can be extremely satisfying as it gives you the chance to nurture young minds and groom them into responsible and mature adults.  The teacher plays a pivotal role in various spheres of a child’s growth, including educational, social and intellectual development.

In the class room, a teacher is expected to establish a rapport with students coming from multi cultural, multi racial and diverse backgrounds.  You must be able to facilitate better understanding of one another’s culture and transform the class into a homogeneous group.  This plays a very important role in today’s times, when the world is becoming a global village.

Besides being an educator, a teacher’s career ideally requires certain personal qualities like patience, enthusiasm and zeal to teach.  You must also be ready to learn, unlearn and relearn to keep up with the changing trends in modern times.  A positive career outlook plays a major role in grooming yourself into a good teacher.

How to become a teacher

Teaching career offers you the choice of being a pre-school teacher, kindergarten teacher, elementary teacher or a secondary school teacher.   The basic pre-requisite for any of these positions is a bachelor’s degree.  It can be enhanced with a professional teaching qualification from colleges offering such courses.

On the educational qualifications front, a person who wants to opt for a teaching career should have a basic Bachelor’s degree in the subject they wish to teach.  In addition, you must have completed an approved teacher education program.  Special degrees or courses in teaching can add to your qualifications.

To work in public schools, the teachers have to be licensed.  Private schools are flexible about this rule in their schools.  Many States also offer alternate licensing programs, so that, those who are interested can take up hard to fill teaching vacancies.

Education Career Work-Life Balance

The working conditions of a school teacher can vary with the school you are teaching in.  Studies have shown that there exists a noticeable difference between private and public school students.  Generally, private school children are found to be more enthusiastic about learning and are better motivated than the public school students.  One of the many reasons could be the selection procedure the students have to pass, to gain admission in these schools.

A career in teaching can be highly satisfying, but the downside could be, that you may have to sometimes deal with unruly and disrespectful students.  Other causes for stress could be large workloads or lack of modern amenities in some schools.

Thework scheduleof teachers varies depending on the school you are teaching in.  You are generally expected to work more than 40 hours a week.  For pre-school and kindergarten teachers this may be different because of the part-time schedule they normally follow.

Most schools work the traditional 10 month schedule, with a summer vacation of 2 months.  However in some States, they follow the year-round schedule, in which case, you can take one week’s vacation after 8 weeks of work and also enjoy a 5 week break during the winters.  These breaks or vacations can be best utilized to take up courses, or enhance your personal experiences by travelling.

However, pre-school teachers who opt to work in day care schools would have to work year round.