12 Wonderful Things About Being a Teacher
There is an old joke that the three best things about being a teacher are; June, July and August. In reality, there are so many wonderful things about this rewarding profession. I don’t think that it is a coincidence that the people that I know who love their jobs most are all teachers.
I can’t create a list of the “best” things about being a teacher, as that list would vary from person to person. However, I can share a list of things that I love about teaching. For anyone who is thinking about giving this incredible profession a try, I highly recommend it.
Teaching is a creative outlet. - Although I teach science, I also have a creative side. Teaching is a great way to tap into your creativity. You can create learning opportunities for your students, try them, and develop them over time. Coming up with new ways to teach old topics is quite exciting.
You have quite a bit of control over your work-environment. - Teachers seem to sometimes forget that they have bosses, because they usually enjoy so much autonomy in their own class, where much of the workday takes place. We get to set up our classrooms and structure our classes the way that we want. We set the rules of behavior in our workspace. We initiate interactions in the classroom. We get to decide when we want our students to work on a group project and when we want them to take an exam. You get to plan and “control” the pace of your day.
You have many opportunities to collaborate. - Even though I am the only teacher in my classroom during each class, I find many opportunities to collaborate with teachers, inside and outside of the school building. I like to talk to other teachers about lessons and labs, and share ideas for making them better. You can tap into the creativity of other teachers and be inspired to create better learning opportunities than you could on your own.
You laugh every day. - No matter the age group that you teach, young people tend to be silly and goofy. They take life less seriously than many of their adult counterparts, in general, as the responsibilities of life haven’t weighed them down yet. Working with the younger generation seems to help teachers stay young. In 30 years of teaching, I don’t think that I have worked a day where someone hasn’t made me really laugh heartily.
You get to help people. - This is not unique to teaching, but people in fields where they get to help other people usually find it quite rewarding. No matter your reason for going into teaching, you are there to help your students to learn and to love learning.
You get to celebrate the success of your students with them. - When you give a graded exam or project back to a student and they see that their efforts have been rewarded with a high grade, you often see an expression of pure joy on their face. It can be very satisfying to share in these positive interactions.
You get to witness real growth. - You often get to see a student go from struggling with your subject to developing a real mastery and confidence with it. Other times, you get to see real character development taking place over time. The assignments that you create can literally help your students grow. For example, If you assign a group project, students get to develop important skills, such as; leadership, cooperation, collaboration, responsibility, trust, discipline, time-management and patience. You can guide them through the project and help them to see which skills they might need to work on.
You get to learn and grow along with your students. - As a teacher, I learn so much every year. Even after 30 years of teaching, a student will still ask me a question that I never thought of and don’t have the answer for. I’m not embarrassed when I don’t know an answer, and I think that it is important to model that we are all still learning. Aside from the academic questions, my empathy for and understanding of people grows each year, as I see the variety of challenges that we all face in life.
You are often on the receiving end of expressions of gratitude. - Most people like to be told that they are doing a good job. Most people appreciate being thanked when they put in a good deal of effort. As a teacher, I feel like parents and students are thanking me all of the time. Many of my students are so polite that they thank me each day as they leave my class, even on exam days!
You have a built-in support structure. - Unless you work at a very small school, you usually have many experienced teachers or administrators to talk to when something is going wrong. Just having veteran educators around to get advice from makes it relatively easy to develop as a teacher.
You have time to recharge. - Ok. I had to add this one. Regardless of how much I love my job, I also like to take the summer off to recharge my energy and spend time with my own children.
You get to reboot. - Every year you start with a clean slate. You get a chance to correct the mistakes that you made the previous year. You get to rework the lessons that didn’t meet your expectations. You get to build on your successes and learn from your failures.
Now, it is your turn to share. What do you love most about teaching? What is missing from my list? Let us know and join our Team of Teachers.
