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Sarah Higley

Ms. Amanda Tibbits

Language Arts 12

8 March 2019

Elementary Education

When I was a little girl I knew exactly what career I was going to go into, and that was to

become a teacher. I know that this career will require work, dedication, and also patience.

Teaching is hard; you go throughout the day with kids that may not be on their best behavior or

they need extra help on assignments. Even though teachers don’t make that much money

teaching is one of the most important careers. In this research paper there will be information on

how to become a teacher, qualities a teacher needs, weekly number of hours, how much they

make, how you change child's life, classroom experience, and training.

Most jobs require post secondary education. Unless you want to work at McDonald’s for

the rest of your life.​ “All states require K-12 public school teachers to have at least a bachelor’s

degree. Kindergarten and elementary school teachers must hold a bachelor’s degree in

elementary education (How to become a teacher).” T​his means that you have been trained in

order to maintain your own classroom with kids. If all you needed was a high school diploma

then you couldn’t make much of a difference in a child’s life. You need more experience outside

of your secondary education. This is important because you are teaching the next generation on

this earth. The students parents are relying on teachers to make a difference in their child’s life so

they can be successful in their futures. If all we needed was a high school diploma then our

world would be a different place in education.

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Future teachers really don’t know what to expect until they are in the classroom teaching.

If they don't get the experience then they wasted time and money becoming a teacher; not

realizing in the end they could be trying to find another profession. According to ¨How to

Become a Teacher¨ it says, “Gaining classroom experience is a must for teachers. Aspiring

teachers must have a certain number of hours of supervised educational experience in order to sit

for licensure; the amount of experience required depends on the state.” ​This means most students

don't know what a teacher really is. With the classroom experience it helps fill in the gaps that

haven’t been filled. This is important because the only time they learn is in a classroom with

kids. Many teachers quit because they really didn't know what a teacher is required to do, and

they also don't know how much work has to be done. With gaining classroom experience it gives

them the knowledge that they need.

In order to be a good teacher there are a lot of qualities a teacher needs to have in order

to make their teaching more a success. These qualities could just be a simple thing to make a

difference in a students life. According to ¨Elementary School Third Grade Students,” “The

quality and proficiency of the teacher are directly related to the quality of education. The teacher

needs to adopt a role of someone who facilitates the acquisition of the necessary information and

prepares the suitable environments. In order to fulfill the requirements of this role, the teacher

must be interested and willing.¨ This means that a teacher needs to interact with their students in

the classroom. In the earlier years like a 5 year old or even an 8 year old the lessons you prepare

need to be fun and interesting. This is important because you need to provide the best learning

environment, to interact with the students, and to make the lessons fun and interesting. The

reason for these things is they will learn and grow with a greater knowledge in this world. The
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more fun that you have in a classroom the more it connects to what the teacher is trying to teach.

Many teachers work long and hard hours each week preparing for upcoming lessons,

grading assignments, and working with their students. How long do teachers really work in a

week? According to “Why Teachers Hours Must be Reduced,” “In Australia, 31 percent of

employees, or 1.8 million Australians, work more than 48 hours a week, and 1.6 million work

more than 50 hours. You can count the majority of teachers in this bracket (Bantick).” This

means that teachers are working hard to help their students, and that means that they care about

their students. This matters because teachers will take time out of their day to help their students

by grading their assignments that they turned in, and also helping them with anything that they

don’t understand. Teachers show dedication when they take individual time for each of their

students.

A child's life can be changed by a teacher, and that is possible. A teacher is a friend that

can help them in this world; to teach what they need to be taught. ​“Teaching is a profession

where you really can make a difference in a child’s life, oftentimes profoundly. You are with

children for a good part of the day, longer than their parents are, in most cases (Bean-

Mellinger).¨ What this information means is you are with them for around 8 hours a day from

Monday to Friday. The child will look up to their teacher because they are around them more

than anyone else. Why this is important is a child is in your hands for a majority of the day. They

are learning while they are in your care. You are teaching them what they need to know to live in

this world that is surrounding them.

There are many teachers out there that I hear say they don't get paid enough for the

amount of effort they do in the classroom. As stated by ¨For Teachers Advancing Often Means
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Leaving the Classroom.¨ “As a teacher I was making $43,000 a year and I had a part time job

where I would work another 20 hours a week," says Campbell. "And that wasn't for the extras

that was just for the basics (Hale).¨ This means that teachers don't get enough money for the

necessities for living a happy life outside of the classroom. It matters because the reason for

paying them more is that teachers are one of the most important profession out there alongside

doctors. They teach the next generation of children. Without teachers most children will not

know how to read, write, and speak. This matters because that there is a shortage of teachers out

there, and one of the reason for this is that the pay is not worth their time and money to go

through schooling. It's sad that we don't have enough teachers out in the world, and one of the

reasons we don't is because of the pay.

Most employees need to be trained once in awhile to maintain and to learn more in their

career. Education is important for everyone to receive, and is changing constantly. However, if a

teacher is not caught up on the things that need to happen; their students will not learn what is

required for them. The article ¨How to Become a Teacher,” it also says,​“Virtually all public

school teachers are required to complete a minimum number of continuing education or

professional development course hours in order to maintain their state license or certification.”

This means that even after you get a job in teaching you are still required to get course hours

during the time you are teaching. You need to show that you are still qualified and wanting to

teach. Another reason for this is to get caught up in how they want subjects taught to the

students. The curriculum has changed over the years, and will continue to change in the future.

The teachers who have been teaching for many years need to also be caught up on what is

required for teachers to teach now. This is important because the world is always changing and
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also the curriculum that is taught in a school must be changed, too. A teacher needs to be caught

up, so it only makes sense that they need to maintain a license, and to be taught often enough to

know what is required of them to do.

This research paper has helped me have a better understanding of what a teacher needs to

do and how to make a difference in someone’s life. Teaching is still what I want to do with the

rest of my life for my career. I may not have the complete understanding of what teaching really

is, and probably won’t until I’ve taught for several years. However, I have a pretty good idea of

what it entails. I may not know where I am going to teach, but I know that I want to change for

good the children that will walk into my classroom. As long as I am giving the children the

education that they deserve and need to succeed in life, that is all that matters.
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Works Cited

Bean-Mellinger, Barbara. “Advantages & Disadvantages of Becoming a Teacher.” ​Chron.com,​

Chron, 15 Mar. 2018,

work.chron.com/advantages-disadvantages-becoming-teacher-4302.html.

​Christopher Bantick. “Why Teacher Hours Must Be Reduced.” ​Age, The (Melbourne),​ 13 Feb.

2002, p. 12. ​EBSCOhost​,

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=n5h&AN=SYD-4YIDK7MX1C417D

KS751I&site=ehost-live.

By LEE HALE - KUER-FM. “For Teachers, Advancing Often Means Leaving the Classroom.”

AP Regional State Report - Utah,​ Associated Press DBA Press Association, 5 May 2017.

EBSCOhost​,

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=n5h&AN=AP37b6d1d6d99149caa3b2

46e39b782404&site=ehost-live.

LOFTUS, MARGARET. “Fast Track Into the Classroom.” ​Best Graduate Schools​, Jan. 2018, p.

98. ​EBSCOhost​,

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f6h&AN=126028244&site=ehost-live.

Sidekli, Sabri, et al. “Elementary School Third Grade Students’ Expectations of Their Teachers

in the Course of Language Education.” ​International Journal of Evaluation and Research

in Education​, vol. 7, no. 2, June 2018, pp. 159–166. ​EBSCOhost,​

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=EJ1183747&site=ehost-live

Writers, Staff. “Teaching Degrees & Careers | How to Become a Teacher.” ​How to Become,​
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LearnHowToBecome.org, 3 Feb. 2019, www.learnhowtobecome.org/teacher/.