The teaching profession at all levels is among the most challenging jobs available. Teachers today are confronted with issues that could make one question whether they should ever consider entering this field in the first place. With the constant demand for substitute teachers while the pandemic continues to linger, debates about the curriculum, the flow and ebbs of school policies and practices, and the everyday working conditions that affect teachers’ lives, there’s no shortage of challenges facing teachers.
These circumstances can leave educators wondering: “Should I even teach in the first place?” “Is it worth the effort?” “Will these larger issues affect your experiences as a certified, credentialed, and committed educator?” For example, can a teacher employ methods based on research learned in my teacher-preparation course? Can I motivate and coach students and use my personal education experience to help pupils in my classroom?
Although these issues certainly present many problems, I often think about the vital role teachers and educators have for us in the modern world, specifically in the last two years. We know, for instance, that the most vulnerable communities disproportionately affected by the pandemic had already been left behind by political, social, and economic, as well as education and health-related discrimination before March of 2020. These facts make the academic promise and the function of teachers and educators significantly more crucial in our current context, especially for the nation’s most vulnerable.
In this regard, I came up with the twenty-five reasons for Teaching. Instead of letting potential obstacles to teaching obscure our understanding of why Teaching is essential today, let’s concentrate on the possibilities that Teaching offers every day to classrooms. This is especially important for teachers beginning in the new school year. Students in Teacher Education programs, as well as students who are thinking about becoming teachers in the future.
As a present or a future educator, your classes are likely to provide you with opportunities to accomplish these things:
- Create a meaningful relationship with your student.
- Reduce the harm caused to systemic students when a student is enrolled in your classroom by encouraging equity-driven methods.
- Build a community of teachers from your district, school, or community.
- Create a partnership with your family, particularly those who had previously struggled to form such relationships.
- It can spark enthusiasm for learning in students who seem to be disengaged.
- Find the leadership traits in the student who was required to be told, “You are an effective” leader.”
- Students will be provided with an appropriate space to hear and express their opinions in class.
- Engage students by showing them who they are and who they are and where they’re headed.
- Students can see their community’s outstanding qualities.
- It is important to consider a student’s humanity.
- Let students be creative every day.
- Flex to the maximum, particularly as we navigate this pandemic.
- Recognize the collective trauma of No. 4 and the ongoing effects on “being,” not only for the students but parents, teachers, and even families.
- Providing students with third, second, and fourth chances.
- Define academic excellence in the students’ diverse communities (peers, families, communities, and social structure).
- Bring to your students the historical, cultural, and community contributions.
- Be the teacher your students love meeting every single day.
- Offer your students instruction that is based on their own life experiences.
- Create pedagogical exercises that (re)position students as facilitators and teachers for learning.
- Define “knowledge” in your class. Students are the makers of information.
- Practice equitable methods in the classroom. Equity is more than just a principle, but it is also an action.
- The center (care) plays an important role in the educational process.
- Create hope for students in your class each and every day.
- Get up each day with the knowledge that you can contribute to the lives of students.
- Get the benefits of public education each and every day with your Teaching and determination.
It is natural that teachers and future teachers may be unsure or even doubting the teaching profession; I wish that all current teachers. And prospective teachers understand that they have the correct position and that our children, families, and communities require teachers. Teachers can’t complete this important job alone. Leaders in the form of policymakers, teachers, and professional development play a vital part in making sure that their success is assured, particularly within the larger context that the profession has to offer.
