A once highly noble career choice, is now surrounded with negative connotations. I can’t tell you the number of times that someone has tried to steer me away from teaching, including teachers themselves. No matter how much people try to persuade me into making a “better” career choice, they will not succeed.
There are many reasons I want to be a teacher. First of all, I am so excited to be able to spend every day with kids. While, that would make some cringe, it makes me happy. Kids are absolutely crazy at times, but that means there will never be a dull moment. Yes, it will be my responsibility to teach them, yet I will never fully have to grow up for work. Get ready, because this might offend you, but I’d rather be surrounded by kids than adults any day…sorry. Kids are open to new things and ideas that many adults are close minded to. I’m just as excited to learn from my students as I hope they will be to learn from me.
This might seem trivial, but I can’t wait to have my own classroom. I’m excited to decorate it, build my classroom library, place name tags on desks, make fun bulletin boards, and I’ll stop there because I could keep going forever. I already have a Pinterest board with classroom ideas, and when I think about my future career, I often wonder what my classroom will look like.
Beyond all of these things, I want to be a teacher because I want to make a difference every single day. I know that I will have students from all backgrounds, some that may feel unloved from their family at home. I want to be a friend to the student who has few, a mentor to the one missing good parental guidance, and a positive impact on every student I cross paths with. As a teacher, I want to go beyond the everyday curriculum and teach my students how to be good citizens. I want my classroom environment to be an uplifting and safe place that any child feels welcome in. No student should ever hate school, and I only hope the students in my classroom will love school.
Children are the future, and to know that every day I will be helping into shaping and molding each student of mine is rewarding in itself. These tiny humans will run the world one day, but they won’t achieve their own dreams if it isn’t for their teachers along the way. Next time you try to talk someone out of teaching, think about all the amazing teacher’s you had, because you wouldn’t be where you are today without them.
I couldn’t imagine myself doing anything else. Yeah, I’ll have to be up before the sun, take the time to make countless lesson plans, and deal with students on their off days, but those are just minor things in the grand scheme of it all.
