Implications of becoming a teacher

¶ … Teacher

Teaching can be a deeply rewarding and satisfying career that also can present a variety of unique challenges. Specifically, there are a number of significant personal, social, and professional implications of becoming a teacher. This paper will examine some of these implications, and also discuss the role that the teaching code of ethics plays in an education career.

The primary job description of teachers is acting as coaches are facilitators. In order to perform this function, teachers can use interactive discussions, practical application, and other approaches to help students learn concepts in a number of diverse subjects, including mathematics, English, the sciences, art and music (Bureau of Labor Statistics).

Teachers who instruct children in preschool, kindergarten, and elementary schools play a critical role in child development. Notes the Bureau of Labor Statistics, "What children learn and experience during their early years can shape their views of themselves and the world and can affect their later success or failure in school, work, and their personal lives." As such, teachers bear considerable responsibility.

The teaching code of ethics plays an important role in providing ethical guidelines for teachers. The Code of Ethics and Teaching Standards has been adopted by the Professional Teaching Practices Commission. Violating the code can result in disciplinary action. According to the code, an educator must fill obligations to students, the public, and the teaching profession. This includes a number of rules against physical abuse and harassment of students, and against restricting access to educational information and curricular materials (State of Alaska).

Becoming a teacher involves a number of personal, social, and professional implications. On a personal level, effective teachers tend to share a number of personality characteristics. A study by Susan Thompson, John G. Greer and Bonnie B. Greer of the University of Memphis attempted to assess such characteristics through interviews with under graduate students. The study revealed 12 personal characteristics of favorite teachers. These were fairness, positive attitude, preparedness, personal touch, since a humor, creativity, willingness to make mistakes, for giving, respect, high expectations, compassion, and sense of belonging. These characteristics all include an underlying theme of caring for students, and are related with recent research on characteristics of effective teachers (Thompson, Greer & Greer).

On a personal level, teachers must often deal with heavy stress, the stress can come from dealing with large classes, heavy workloads, the special challenges of dealing with students from multicultural or disadvantaged backgrounds, and high accountability standards. Further, teachers must often deal with isolation from colleagues, although some schools do encourage teachers to work in groups (Bureau of Labor Statistics).

One personal advantage to teaching can be the traditional school year, which includes a two-month break during the summer. In this traditional setting, teachers work 10 months, and take a two-month summer vacation. However, many teachers teach summer sessions, or take other jobs during the summer to help make ends meet. In addition, some schools have year-round schedule (Bureau of Labor Statistics).

The multicultural makeup of North American society means that teachers must be able to work with students from a variety of different backgrounds. In many areas of unite it states, minority populations are growing, meaning that teachers will be exposed to students with a variety of different racial, ethnic and religious backgrounds. As such, teachers must be able to deal with such social challenges, and be willing to incorporate multicultural programming into their lesson plans (Bureau of Labor Statistics).

There are number of important professional implications of becoming a teacher. One of these concerns tenure laws. In most American states, the tenure system prevents teachers from being fired without just cause. Tenure is usually given after approximately three years of successful job performance, and does not ensure complete job security (Bureau of Labor Statistics).

In addition, many teachers belong to unions. The main unions within the profession are the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers. Unions assist teachers in bargaining over issues such as ours, wages, and other conditions of employment. Only about 15% of preschool and kindergarten teachers were union members in 2002 (Bureau of Labor Statistics).