Teaching: The Joys and Challenges of the Profession
The ideal personality for teaching can vary depending on the age group of students and the subject being taught. However, there are some common traits that are often associated with effective teachers.
These include patience, flexibility, enthusiasm, creativity, strong communication skills, and a genuine passion for their subject matter.
Additionally, successful teachers are typically able to build strong relationships with their students, provide constructive feedback, and create a positive and engaging learning environment.
Teachers are responsible for developing lesson plans, delivering instruction, assessing student learning, and providing feedback to students and parents.
Overall, a teaching job offers job security, consistent hours, guaranteed holidays off, and it is never, ever boring! There's a lot to love about the profession, but there's a lot that's unknown to the public.
From fulfilling to frustrating and everything in between, here's an insider's look at a few joys and challenges that teachers commonly face.
Let's start with the challenges.
Managing Behavior and Learning Styles
Becoming a master of your content area and expert at the art of delivering instruction is only a small piece of the puzzle. Teachers must also manage dozens, and in many cases hundreds, of students on a daily basis.
It's a tall order.
Amid the myriad of personalities, exceptionalities, backgrounds, and influences in one classroom, teachers are charged with reaching and engaging every student while ensuring that no individual or incident interferes with the learning of another.
Experienced teachers develop an adeptness at appealing to learning styles, differentiating instruction, and handling behavior issues with grace, but even the most seasoned educator will tell you it's a daily challenge to keep a steady balance.
The Emotion of Education
Sometimes, teachers have to check their human emotions at the door. It's hard. Teachers are in a position where building strong relationships and meaningful connections are vital to success; however, with this comes an emotional element.
Sympathy for students
Homelessness, food insecurity, abuse, and neglect just scratch the surface of some of the major issues that students face. It's natural to feel compassion and even heartbreak in some situations. Students can keep teachers up at night. It can be frustrating to come to the realization that there's only so much they can do for students, especially outside of school hours.
Taking it personally
While there are countless stories of funny statements students have made in the classroom, sometimes their comments do not come from a place of good intentions. They can be insensitive and, at times, seem downright cruel.
The part of the brain responsible for emotional control and decision-making is still developing well into an individual's twenties. (1) This means that regardless of what grade level, teachers will encounter students who don't think before they speak or act.
Teachers have to be well informed of the social and emotional development of young people and recognize that their apathy is a part of their immaturity and part of the job.
Funds and Finances
Money is part of the equation in education; most would agree there's not enough of it. Lack of funding and low salaries are typically major talking points when it comes to improving the state of education.
Funding
Although funding is allocated to individual schools using a complex formula of federal, state, and local dollars, it's clear that the money doesn't keep up with the demands of a 21st-century education. According to Urban Institute, education funding in the United States has generally increased since the 1990s, but overall progressivity has largely been flat. (2)
Schools and individual teachers are constantly presented with tasks, directives, and expectations but aren't provided the funds needed to implement most programs or curricula fully.
For this reason, many teachers take it upon themselves to provide monetary support to students. Whether it's buying their supplies, making snacks and sustenance available, or offering to cover the costs of extracurriculars, teachers pay out of their own pockets more often than they should.
Teacher Pay
This is a big one. It's a widely discussed topic, and due to concerns about staff shortages since the pandemic, many states have made increasing teacher pay a priority in recent years. (3) It's no secret that educators have always been some of, if not the lowest, paid professionals, but in recent decades, salaries have become positively stagnant.
The challenge posed here is not one of a low salary in and of itself but of trying to earn a living wage as a professional while facing the lack of potential for any significant vertical movement.
The majority of school districts base their pay on longevity and experience. Many states do offer performance-based bonuses that are determined by test scores, but the overall salary is determined by years on the job.
Unlike corporate jobs where your own performance can yield higher pay, the money made teaching is based on how long individuals stay and mainly on how the students do on standardized tests, a concept that's controversial at best and harmful to schools at worst.
While these challenges can make for difficult days, the perks of the profession are numerous and profound. Here are some of the most common joys educators get to experience.
Teachers Are Lucky to Be Life-Long Learners
The field of education is innovative and ever-changing. Teachers must be students themselves. The most successful teachers embrace new ideas and approaches and also recognize that their learning and development are ongoing.
Tech
Now more than ever, much of new learning is based on technology. There are constant updates to instructional aids and teacher tools. Being a little tech-savvy is certainly a plus when becoming a teacher, but being willing to learn new tech is an absolute necessity, and learning opportunities abound.
New advances are made regularly in:
Learning management systems
Interactive lesson delivery platforms
Gradebook programs
Behavior management systems
Multimedia presentation software
Methods
Theories and strategies regarding best practices for instructional delivery, classroom management, and student success are constantly being developed. There's a continual element of research and study involved in improving education, and teachers continually take steps to be knowledgeable of the latest research that can impact classrooms. (4)
Professional Development and Recertification
Districts have specific expectations for professional development. Often, there are a particular number of days or hours that teachers must log in order to meet professional development requirements. Likewise, each state has its own process for maintaining a teaching certificate. This could mean taking college courses, passing a state exam, or attending a certain number of training sessions each year.
Embracing a growth mindset is a wonderful part of teaching. It's also a way for teachers to model a love of learning for their students and stress its importance throughout one's life.
The Autonomy and Artistry of Teaching
Any teacher will tell you that they don't have complete control over every aspect of their instruction. There's an amount of oversight, and depending on the district, there are varying degrees of curriculum mapping and expectations to meet certain benchmarks at certain points in the year.
However, within the scope of their district or state-mandated goals, the procedures, daily lessons, activities, and the general atmosphere of the classroom are left to the teacher's discretion and imagination!
Creative Freedom
Engaging lessons, exciting visuals, and dynamic group projects are all the brainchild of a creative teacher. Teachers get to exercise their creativity on a daily basis.
They may use technology, group work, hands-on activities, role-playing, and other innovative techniques to engage their students and make the learning experience more interesting and enjoyable.
Teachers can tap into their own passions and interests to infuse creativity into their lessons. For example, a history teacher who is passionate about music could create a lesson plan that incorporates songs from a particular time period, or a science teacher who enjoys art could use drawing or painting to help students understand complex scientific concepts.
Teachers can also leverage the power of storytelling and use anecdotes to make their lessons more relatable and memorable. By experimenting with new and creative teaching techniques, teachers can challenge themselves and their students to broaden their perspectives and develop a deeper understanding of the subject matter.
Inspiring and Witnessing Growth and Achievement
Witnessing student success is one of the most rewarding experiences a teacher can have. The feeling of pride and joy that comes from seeing a student achieve a goal they've been working toward is unmatched. It's a reminder of why teachers do what they do - to inspire and guide students to become the best versions of themselves.
There's nothing quite like watching students thrive while exploring their talents and areas of interest.
Seeing a student succeed or enjoy learning and exploring can also be a source of motivation for teachers, as it validates their hard work and dedication to the profession.
Educators Care and Invest in Students
Educators take the ups and downs of their profession in stride. They learn to celebrate and embrace the joys and face the challenges armed with professional integrity and the success of their students at heart.
Every day, they invest in our children's futures and present them with learning opportunities that prompt growth and achievement.
You, too, can invest in a worthy student whose educator has recognized a unique potential. Partner with The Michelle Young Foundation to provide afterschool programs and scholarships for underserved students.
"Understanding the Teen Brain ." University of Rochester Medical Center, www.urmc.rochester.edu/.
"How Has Education Funding Changed Over Time?" Urban Institute, apps.urban.org/features/education-funding-trends/.
"The Right and Wrong Way to Raise Educator Pay." NEA Today, www.nea.org/nea-today/all-news-articles/right-and-wrong-way-raise-educator-pay.
Terada, Youki, et al. "The 10 Most Significant Education Studies of 2021." Edutopia, 9 Dec. 2021, www.edutopia.org/article/10-most-significant-education-studies-2021.