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.
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