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Any Teachers here??

brtrude

brtrude

New member
Hey Guys.
I was just wondering if anyone on this site is a teacher or has ever tought?

The reason im asking is because im going to be applying to a couple of teacher training courses to be an Art teacher next month.
I did fine art in college and Iv just done a degree in animation and since finishing uni i have truly felt.....wel, lost and confused, about what to do next. After some thought i have decided that teaching would be a great path to go down.
The only thing is i will be applying for course 'next' september, so i would have a whole year to wait until it would even start. That prosuming i even get on.

If there are actually any teachers on this forum i would love to here anything you have to say, advise, tips, stories. Anything.

The last couple of months have been hard for me, finishing uni was really bad. I didnt realise how it would actually feel knowing that its all over. But i think i have found the light at the end of the tunnel if i can get onto one of the teaching courses. lol

Anyway.Anyone who wants to post feel free, any comments would help.
 
brtrude said:
If there are actually any teachers on this forum i would love to here anything you have to say, advise, tips, stories. Anything.
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Start paying attention to how you write and communicate. If the UK is anything like the US, many of your applications and tests, etc., will involve writing. How you communicate via the written word will tell a lot about you before you even get to meet with people. I sat in on my first interview board this summer, and 3 of the 6 candidates had resumes that were atrocious. :shrugs:

D80
 
oh ye i totally agree. I do pay attention to how i write things ect, When im writing a letter. If it was something like applying for an interview or something 'important' i would make sure it was top nosh. When it comes to writing on threads and stuff i just write what im thinking without really checking it, and then post it.
But your point is taken. When it comes to writing cv's and applying for jobs, i will spend a lot of time writing it.
 
talk to art teachers. I also went to college for fine art and then thought about going back for my teaching degree. I choose to speak to some localish art teachers in public and private schools of all levels. I quickly said NO to teaching. Art programs are the first to go, so job security sucks. Pay is low, you are undervalued and the worst to me was that the job competition is very very stiff. My closest high school had a position open and it only paid 25 grand a year and had over 45 quailified applicants. YIKES! Now it might be different over the pond, but here it is not a good choice. I am now getting my RN. No art...but if I only work 3 days a week *12 hour shifts* I get 4 days to make art and 3x the pay of art teachers! Woot!
 
brtrude said:
oh ye i totally agree. I do pay attention to how i write things ect, When im writing a letter. If it was something like applying for an interview or something 'important' i would make sure it was top nosh. When it comes to writing on threads and stuff i just write what im thinking without really checking it, and then post it.
But your point is taken. When it comes to writing cv's and applying for jobs, i will spend a lot of time writing it.
Click to expand...
Well, I guess that conflicts with my own personal opinion (or is it) that how you communicate, regardless of time and place, is a reflection of your education. As a teacher, I feel I represent a profession whose job is to educate others. How can I be in a position of educating others if I can't communicate effectively, or intelligently, myself?! A public forum is a perfect example of a place where an educator should be expressing themself intelligently . . . in my opinion.

:shrugs:
D80

PS. It's very embarassing for the profession when a letter goes home from a colleague (or even myself, I'm not perfect) that has grammatical errors in it.
 
Teaching is not for the faint hearted in my opinion. In my district, in the US, if you are the kind of person who cannot do the following things, then don't even consider teaching:

1. Be tolerant and capable of working with children (or young adults) of varying economic, racial and social background in a kind and respectful manner.

2. Be prepared to come in early and stay late most days, especially the first year while you are learning to teach (no matter how much time you spend in college classes or internships, NOTHING prepares you adequately for a class of your own)

3. Be a multi-tasker. You don't just teach. You coach, record, modify, clean, adjudicate disputes, calm people down, wake people up, grade, supervise, present and a whole host of other "duties" throughout the course of the school year.

4. Be good at adjusting on the fly. Sometimes the lesson you spent two hours meticulously planning the night before just won't work. So what will you do then?

5. Be realistic enough to know when to say no. Admins, kids, parents, fellow teachers... all will demand time from you, and you have to have the common sense to know when enough is enough. Sort your priorities out now and stick to them.

6. Be organized. You will be shuffling papers. Period. Organization will keep you from hating your life.

7. Be willing to learn from atypical sources. You can learn a better way to teach from any number of people. Even your students have things to teach you... if you are receptive to what they are telling you.

8. Be patient. Sometimes kids have bad days. Sometimes you have a bad day. When the two collide, 6.5 hours can seem like 65 years. But patience will help you get through it.

9. Be capable of forming strong bonds with other humans. I truly believe Dr. Comer when he says "No significant learning occurs without significant relationships." It's one thing not to fraternize with your students, but if you hold all of who you are inside, keeping it from them, they will not trust you, and if they do not trust you, they will not be willing to work for you.

10. Be the type of person who is a self-starter and doesn't need to spend the 9:00 hour sucking down coffee and chatting about the past evening with coworkers. There won't be time for that. Teaching and acting have a lot in common... you've got to be ready to go when the curtains open.... or else.

In answering your post, I spent time thinking about the many teachers I know who are successful, and the few that I have met who were not successful. Of the ones who are successful, they generally have those ten qualities down pat. The ones who were not successful struggled with at least a few of those.

Also... by successful, I don't mean "This teacher has warmed a chair at their desk for the past 30 years! Huzzah! What a success."

Successful teachers take strides to reach their students, and are generally liked by most members of the school community because they do their jobs well. They aren't the ones sitting around and griping about low pay rates, because they don't have time for that. Successful teachers aren't usually the ones who end up as admins either-- because they'd never chose to leave their students!

Again, these observations are only for my little area of the world, so I'd be interested to hear if other teachers find the same things to be true.
 
wow thank you so much for that post! That was very helpful to read. I will deffinately remember all of those points and try to put them all into practice!

I have got some good news as well,
I have got some work experience sorted in a school near were i live. I have to go in on monday to introduce myself and also take some of my work in to show them and show them the film i made at Uni.
Im looking forward to it, should be interesting and i will probably learn a lot while im there as well.
:cheers:
 
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