1. You feel like you've finally found your calling.
There is no better feeling than starting your new journey as a person with a future instead of being undeclared. You can’t help but jump up, click your heels and smile at a fact that you feel destined to be a teacher.
2. Family members and all other adults are surprised when you say you’re an education major.
Unfortunately, you might have to deal with family and friends being confused that you picked teaching and not a career that will allow you to vacation in the Caribbean every year. But it isn’t all bad because while your family is complaining about their jobs at Thanksgiving dinner, you will be telling them how wonderful your students are and that you have no complaints.
3. You hate on all the business majors.
Ah yes, the people who will do better than you in life with less of a workload in college. Get use to being up doing lesson plans while your business friends got their work done three hours before you, and you envy every minute they get to sleep while you are in the library.
4. You’re happy that the valueS of teachers are changing.
Teaching has come a long way from what it used to be. No more nuns with bony fingers smacking students’ hands with rulers. Today, teaching is full of people who are very considerate of every need the students have and always try their best to accommodate those needs.
5. While student-teaching, you sometimes disagree with your corresponding teacher.
Your first practicum might be the most nerve-wracking experience you will ever have as an education major. Sometimes it isn’t the students you need to worry about but your corresponding teacher. You might get along with him or her well, but there could be the moment where his or her negative thoughts on students make you want to scream internally.
6. You closely observe your professors teaching styles and what they do.
You’ll love some, you’ll hate some, but in the end, you will definitely get something out of every professor you have by taking notes on what they did, good or bad, and then integrating those thoughts into your teaching. Just don’t go too deep or you will end up laughing in the front row of civ at something your professor is doing and no one else is noticing.
7. Your friends tell you to be a certain kind of teacher.
It’s a fun little game all you and your friends play when they first find out you declared. Whether it’s Bill Nye if you choose a science, John Keating (AKA the late, great Robin Williams' character from "Dead Poets Society") if you love English or the infamous Mr. Feeny as a history teacher, all your friends have their opinions. You just hope that you’ll be the "cool teacher" and that your students will refer to you as, "Oh Captain, My Captain."
8. Your former teachers give you “advice.”
As soon as you decide to visit your old school, you know that it was a bad decision. You get the ‘Do you really want to be a teacher?’ talk from a few teachers, and you don’t know if they are trying to scare you or warn you about what is to come. In response, you say how excited you are to be a teacher, but, after a few of these talks, you begin to get fed and start wishing you could cover their mouths with your hand.
9. You learn standardized testing is completely pointless.
In your future education classes, you will find out that, yes, standardized tests are pointless and you might become an advocate of getting rid of them in schools. Also, you become frustrated because of all those SATs, ACTs, PSATs and Praxis tests you took were pointless and have nothing to do with your education.
10. You realize that you have a rewarding future career.
Although there are some struggles that come with being a teacher, there is no better feeling than seeing a student succeed in what you are teaching. You may have introduced them to their favorite subject or even their future career through your curriculum. You could have the creator of the future cure of a disease or a poet who will be the voice of a generation in your class, and you will know it was you that helped them find their calling.
