I'm going to teach elementary school.

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I made the decision this past weekend. I had intended to return to my undergraduate and work towards my Master’s degree in Music for Music History while getting my Master’s in Teaching, but after looking around and hearing from some friends, I’m realizing that music is becoming increasingly more difficult to find a job in, especially since there are a lot of places cutting music programs. And when I tried to settle on what age I wanted to teach, I kept coming up with elementary school because while I wouldn’t mind teaching high school, I do not want to teach marching band and would in fact rather teach orchestra, although those positions are even more difficult to find. I also don’t really find that I relate well to teenagers unless they’re related to me (I was a shy, awkward teenager and pretty much hated my teenage years). I’m also positive that I wouldn’t want to teach middle schoolers as half of them fall into the ‘teenager’ category and the other half have raging puberty hormones. And since my piano skills really aren’t good enough for an elementary position (although that’s my preferred choice to teach music), I looked into another option.

My future sister-in-law just completed a 12-18 month program for teacher certification here. It took her 18 months, but I’ve looked over the requirements and I’m pretty sure I can complete the program in 12 while holding down a full-time job (I’m the girl who took 21 hours every semester, including about seven 1-hour rehearsal classes that met for 2-3 hours per week each, and maintaining a high GPA at the same time so I’ve been used to being completely hectic during school) which means that I would be able to be out and teaching by the fall semester of 2004. The program would certify me to teach elementary school, and I can also receive my music certification. And I’d be able to teach in more than just the state of Virginia, which is important to me as the SO and I would like to move out West at some point after we get married.

I really never considered becoming an elementary school teacher. For one, many of the students in college who went into elementary ed in college were those who went out partying 5 out of 7 nights of the week. The major was considered a joke by a lot of people. But now that I’ve watched my S-I-L complete the program and teach a 2nd grade class on a long term sub assignment, I’m getting more and more excited about it. I love kids, I’m the cousin who used to send books to every child born in the family, and it just seems perfectly natural. Instead of b*tching and moaning about the state of the educational system, I get to do something about it. I get to teach kids while they’re still impressionable, while they still get excited about learning.

I’ll admit, I know this isn’t going to be a bed of roses. It’ll be low pay (although the schools here in Richmond start on a decent salary and SO has a good job, so the two of us will get by fairly well), I’ll have difficult administration and parents to deal with, and the kids won’t be easy. But actually going into a profession that excites me will make up for that. And add that to the fact that I’ll have summers and holidays off to spend with my family and be able to spend more time with my kids when I have them, it seems like a pretty good trade-off to me. And since I’m still planning on trying to get my writing career going, I’ll still be able to put some time and effort into that.

It’s taken me a long time to figure out what I wanted to do with my life, and I feel like while it’s not my first choice, this is the best choice for me and I think I’ll be happy doing it. Am I nuts? Any teachers out there who can give me a little advice?

Ava

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You have my prayers. (Really, this takes a lot of guts!)

You should be proud that you’ve made this decision. Sometimes you just have to be practical. I studied both music and environmental science in school, planning to teach. Never got through the student labs for teaching, it just wasn’t for me. So I went from double major to Envi Sci major, double minor. Works for me!

Good Luck!

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My mother was a career teacher, and my wife is a music teacher. ( Eaaaaaaaaaasy there… :slight_smile: ). I’ve done quite a bit of Sub Teaching at all grade levels.

You are going to love it. Advice? Gosh. Use your colleagues early on. If you are a natural teacher, you will know it by the time you hit your Student Teaching rotations. Your colleagues in Student Teaching will have tons of interesting ideas, useful techniques ( the hardest part of teaching, from what I can see, is classroom management ). Don’t be afraid to look weak. You’re new, not stupid. Ask tons of questions, read up, think outside of the box.

If your district uses older methods or older textbooks and isn’t terribly enlightened next to what you have just learned, and what you have just done in Student Teaching, then remember- it’s your job. You will find ways to function within the parameters laid out by your employer AND teach the kids AND get them to feel good about learning, and attending daily. I love Subbing Elementary, I feel like I TAUGHT something that day. ( Subbing in Middle and High school is frequently about babysitting ).

If you see teaching as a compromise, you will have to fight yourself first to convince yourself to love it. If you see it as an avocation that you simply MUST pursue…why then, you’ll be aces !! Good luck.

Kids love riddles. :wink:

Cartooniverse

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Thanks, DeVena! You know, I did take some education courses as an undergrad, but changed my major halfway through. I student taught both elementary music and middle school music and I loved the elementary student teaching. It was the middle school teaching that made me change my mind. But I’ve always remembered how much I loved being in that classroom with the little kids, and how much fun it was, and how much of an impact it seemed to make on them every week. I liked that:).

And cartooniverse, thank you for the advice! My sister-in-law will have a year of teaching over me, so I’ll definitely be leaning on her for help. And what’s funny is that my old kindergarten teacher is now a principal at one of the schools around here. She was my absolute favorite teacher ever, and she remembers me! She told my SIL to have me come by and say hi. So if I can get her on my side, I’ll have some contacts when I finish school since I still talk to several teachers and family friends who teach. It’s funny, while I once would have seen this as a compromise, it doesn’t feel that way. It feels like a natural progression. I spent four years in NYC chasing after a screenwriting career, and when that didn’t happen, I started looking around for something else to do. And I kept coming back to teaching. And now that I’ve thought about teaching elementary school, it just seems to fit, you know? I just needed to get everything else out of my system first, but this is where I was always supposed to end up.

I definitely appreciate the advice:). I’ll keep that in mind for when I get into a classroom.

Ava

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Luck and joy in your new career