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Bailey Cameron

EDUC 250 –D

Julia Rheaume

January 19, 2011

So You Want to Be a Teacher

The idea of becoming a teacher is a new one for me. It was never something I had

planned or desired to do; in fact I swore I would never become one. And yet, here I am, pursuing

a Bachelor of Education. I discovered this new passion halfway through my pursuit of a nursing

career. I learned that sometimes it takes the wrong choice to figure out the right one. So why did

I choose this? During my nursing courses, the part I was most passionate about was when I was

able to connect with a client through educating them. It was being able to reach out to someone

in their most vulnerable moments and to see them grow and learn right in front of me. So, when I

realized that nursing was not the right career choice for me, education provided me with my best

option where I could still follow my passion of educating, connecting, and working with those

who are vulnerable through an elementary education degree and a minor in special education.

Good teachers make good teaching. A good teacher is not just anyone; they have

compassion, knowledge, competence, strength for the bad days, and joy for the good ones. Good

teaching is when there is learning from the students. The learning doesn’t necessarily have to be

subject matter daily, but it can be learning about respect, responsibility, tolerance, empathy. A

teacher is a role model for their students; they watch every move you make, so every move has

to be one of good teaching.

As an education student, I’ve been looking at my personal qualities and attributes that

will help and hinder me as a teacher. The attributes that I believe will help me are my intense

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love of learning, compassion and empathy, patience, tolerance and an open mind, and my

passion for guiding youth to become global citizens. Attributes that may hinder me as a teacher

would be a lack of confidence I fear I will have in front of a class. I need to become more self-

assured when dealing with peers, parents and management. It is important that I believe in

myself. When looking at this combination of both helping and hindering qualities I understand

that there is much to learn over the next three years, and that excites and encourages me.

Teaching will be like a cup of hot tea. There is a cup, which could embody either the

teaching profession as a whole or perhaps the classroom you teach in. The tea bag would be the

students, it holds all the flavour, it is the reason you are drinking the tea. Maybe, you like to put

some sugar or honey in your tea, this could be when there are new opportunities in the field of

teaching, new research breakthroughs, something that changes or enhances the profession. There

is the spoon that you stir your tea with, this could be the parents. If you stir too erratically, the tea

could spill over the edge, much like pushy parents, but there are also the parents who can help

make the classroom go round with support, questions, and volunteering. The plate that you use to

support the cup is the administration, you don’t always need to use a plate for your tea, but if it is

too hot to hold, much like a situation that is difficult for a teacher to handle, it will provide

support. When you drink tea before giving it a chance to cool, it can scald your mouth leaving

you with a burnt tongue. This can represent those teaching days where you feel hopeless, at a

loss, like you made a bad choice with a career in education like making the bad choice of

drinking the tea too soon. However, with time, your tea cools down, and when you take another

sip you are filled with warmth and joy. This represents why you became a teacher, because even

if you burn your mouth every once in a while, with time, it cools down.