Chapter 1: Becoming a Teacher

• One joy of teaching is the sense of satisfaction that comes after a struggling student understands a complex concept. This is called intrinsic rewards. I think this is the main point of teaching.
  
• I would find extreme joy from talking about a subject that I love everyday and getting paid for it. I do not know what could be a better combination.
  
• Another joy is having varied lessons to suit different learning needs and styles. No day is the same. This does not make teaching dull and mundane, unlike some professions in which the same remedial task is performed every day.
• One not so joyful task that teachers must go through is school accreditation. I remember my AP English teacher complaining about all the work she was going to have to do because she was under review by the AP Board of Educators.
  
• School assessments are necessary but the stress the students feel to do well and the stress the teacher feels for the students' success reflecting on the teacher are not a joyful thing. Most of my high school teachers thought assessments were an interruption in the curriculum instead of a bench mark to validate their success as teachers.
  
• Most aspiring teachers want to go back to their home towns and teach at the school they graduated from. However, the text makes it clear that does not happen often. I guess it was a wake up call saying that young teachers need to go where the jobs are. Young, inexperienced teachers get to brave the hardest teaching environments, which is daunting to say the least.
  

Thoughts on Becoming a Teacher

Well, this is my first entry and I might as well explain from the beginning why I decided to choose this profession. As any poor human being that has attended public high school in the U.S., you have been subjected to the horror of deciding what to spend the rest of your life doing. Too bad for most of us we were only 17 when we were bombarded with information and questions from well meaning but overbearing guidance counselors and teachers. I chose this field because it had always been in the back of my mind. I always had an inherent desire to impart knowledge to my peers, especially when we were in class and they didn't understand something. When I divulged my intentions to my friends, they gave me weird looks. Why did I want to teach history, a subject some despised and most thought irrelevant? I guess the best answer I can give is that I like challenges. This always seemed to be a big one in the education realm. How do I make the achievements of dead, white men important to America's youth? It seemed an endeavor worth pursuing to me for the rest of my life.