People always say, “Teaching is easy, anyone can do it!” And not to mention the amount of times I’ve heard “You don’t want a job that pays more?” I am sick of defending my career choice and I’m going to lay it all out on the table for everyone. No, teaching is not easy and no it’s not the highest paying job in the world, but it is rewarding and teachers get to make a difference in the lives of children. Where would we be without teachers? Everyone person you admire, every person of power, heck every person in this world went to school and do you know who taught them what they know? TEACHERS!

Here are 5 reasons why I want to be a teacher:

1. Children are the future and as teachers we are able to positively influence the future of our society!

2. We have a passion, a passion to teach and we get to share this passion, show it off and use it to help others.

We get to wake up early, deal with children that come to school cranky and are disruptive, calm them down, teach them, then stay up late planning a lesson for the next day. But this is the stuff we love to do, we love working with children who come to school cranky and we help to make their day better and we love creating fun lessons that the students will enjoy and bring home to their proud parents.

3. For us, it isn’t about the money, it’s about making a difference, not only in one child but in many

4. When people say “You’re too smart to just be a teacher” I think to myself, yes I am very smart, that is why I want to be a teacher, to share my knowledge.

Why would we want anything less than a smart individual teaching our future generation? Beats me.

5. Our reward, which is worth more than any amount of money, is the look on a child’s face when they have their “Light bulb moment.”

When they finally understand something they have been struggling with for days, they get that look of excitement and a huge smile comes across their face and that’s when you know you have reached them.

In closing, if any of you educators or future educators out there are ever approached with the question “What do you make” regarding your *low paying teacher’s salary*, respond with “I make a difference. What do you make?”