There are many perks of being a teacher, believe it or not.
The perks of being a teacher: 6 benefits to choosing a career in education
You might not realize it, but there are some great reasons why teaching is an excellent career choice.
Perk #1 Career growth
There are so many ways to grow as a professional and as a leader when you are a teacher.
Experience and professionalism
First of all, there is the day-to-day growth in yourself as a educator. You’ll only grow stronger in classroom management by doing it every day. This means learning to embrace your failures and shortcomings, and then growing from them. The more times you teach a certain concept, the more data you can gather about which methods work best for your students and why. As you interact with colleagues and parents, you’ll even have opportunities for growth in those areas, too.
As you grow as a teacher, many school districts will compensate you based on your experience and expertise. For example, in most places, earning a master’s degree will also earn you a higher salary.
Leadership opportunities
As you continue to grow as an educator, you might find that you want to lead outside of a single classroom. For example, you might want to move into educational technology or administration. There are so many different ways to work with students and lead within education. These opportunities come with wider responsibilities and, usually, a pay raise.
Perk #2 It’s an active job and never boring.
Teachers don’t spend a lot of time sitting down. (This might be the understatement of the century.) Sitting for extended periods of time (such as all day at work) isn’t healthy for most people. Teaching keeps your body moving and could be beneficial to your health.
However, there are other aspects that make this job active. Naturally, teaching is very interactive. You’ll constantly be looking for feedback from your students, whether it’s verbal or non-verbal. As you’re teaching your objectives, you’ll be engaging your students and finding out more about how they approach their tasks. As humans, we don’t always understand concepts quickly. We obviously see this play out in our classrooms. Students need time, space, and support when working through tough concepts. Teachers are there to help facilitate learning and provide opportunities for their students to problem-solve. This is part of what makes teaching so active.
Perk #3 Job security
We’ve been hearing about a nationwide teacher shortage for a while now. Michigan, for example, experienced a lot of teacher retirements over the past few years. There will always be a need for teachers, and the skills that come with becoming a teacher are in-demand. As you can see, now is a great time to pursue a career as a teacher.
Perk #4 Variety
Variety in the workplace is definitely an overlooked perk of teaching. This all depends on where you teach and that school’s philosophies, of course. For a lot of traditional schools, teachers see a new group of students each year. If your school is departmentalized, you might even see a new group of students every hour. Additionally, teachers can teach a variety of subjects, which keeps prep time and learning time fresh for you.
Perk #5 Teamwork
When your work revolves around something as important as children and their learning, the people you work with matter. There are some incredible leaders in education, and you’ll find that some of the best ones are a few steps away from your classroom door. Staff camaraderie can make even the worst day on the job seem bearable. Teachers understand each other in a way that many others don’t. Your colleagues can support you and offer tips when you need help. They can listen when you want to bounce an idea off them, or be your test subject when you’re trying out some new tech.
Teaching has become increasingly more inter-disciplinary, so some of your teammates could be occupational therapists, special education administrators, social workers, nurses, reading specialists, technologists, counselors, and the list could continue.
Perk #6 Making a difference
This is by far the most important perk of becoming a teacher. When you teach, you’re impacting each child consistently and over time. You might not realize it, but teachers have so much power to be difference-makers for their students. Being a teacher is shockingly similar to being an influencer: you have a lot of impressionable people watching you and learning from you. The most important thing they need from you is to be accepted and cared for. If you can remind them that they’re valued every day, you’ll have a better time trying to teach them how to print their name or the quadratic formula.
Want to know more?
If you want more information about Concordia University’s School of Education, you can visit us here.
This blog was originally published on 09/01/2021. It has been updated to reflect current information.
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