Now that you have completed this course and the Service Learning component, what have you decided about becoming a professional teacher? Do you think this is the career path for you? Has the Service Learning helped influence your decision? What are your next steps? Write a thoughtful, 3-5 paragraph response to express your position.
This service learning has really made me decide that teaching is what I want to do with my life. This has been a hard decision. I have gone back-and-forth for many years as to whether or not I wanted to be a teacher -- the money has always been a deterrent for me. Right now, I am paying money to go into a profession that will be paying me less than I make right now. However, every time I left the school for service learning I felt so fulfilled. My soul was filled with joy and I left EVERY TIME knowing that is where I am supposed to be.
Yes, I saw how hard it is for teachers as they try to maintain the focus of the students in the class and keep them on task. Yes, it is sometimes a thankless job and no one really care about the work you do but the administration -- and even they do not see all the work the teachers put in after hours. Yes, lesson planning and preparation is more time consuming than I had ever imagined. Yes, there are so many restrictions on you now that it seems hard to have fun with the students and find creative ways to involve them. Yes, there are going to be students who don't care, feel like they will never be able to succeed, and just have bad attitudes.. Yes, there will be days that I want to just crawl into a ball and be left alone. BUT, the look on a student's face when it clicks, or the students that are happy to be there and want to do well just make up for it.
During my elementary years, I was a problem child for many reasons: I was bored because it was too easy, I loved to talk because socializing was so important to me, I had issues at home, and I didn't have the structure in my life to understand the need to behave. So, I may be able to understand those children as they go through those same struggles. One of the biggest things I learned in service learning was that I needed to be able to meet the students where they were. If you cannot reach them on other levels besides educationally, you cannot reach them in that way either. I love the psychology of human development and I love the psychology of helping students learn. That is probably what I am most excited about. Teaching is not 2+2=4, or 1776, or what an earthquake is. Teaching is helping to develop leaders for the next generation. It is helping children identify who they are and what they can do in this world -- which is pretty much anything. Because of that I want to be a teacher.
My next steps are taking the Praxis, finishing my prerequisites, and entering the program. This is what I want to do. This is what I was born to do. This is where I need to be in my life. I am glad I am doing this at this point in my life instead of earlier because I probably would not have the same outlook and maturity, I would be burnt out in three years, and I would have looked for another profession. This is going to be a rough journey, but I am ready for it.
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