Becoming a teacher

I originally signed up for this class because it would give me some points needed in order to renew my inactive Utah Educator License. Although I didn't think that I would learn anything new from the course, I was hoping that it would direct me as to whether I should go back into teaching or not. I have to admit that all of the lessons, videos, readings, assignments and experiences taught me something new and answered questions I had about managing a classroom, relating to students, and developing a purposeful curriculum.

The Service Learning experience was particularly beneficial in helping me to gently get back into the classroom and interact with students and teachers again. Substitute teaching also helped me picture myself in front of a classroom as a full-time teacher. With these experiences, I learned more about myself--strengths and weaknesses--that I needed to fully inspect before making the decision to return to the teaching profession.


I was both surprised and delighted to conclude that I can return to teaching and be a successful and useful teacher and student advocate. I learned that I am much more confident, knowledgeable and wise than I was 25 years ago. The most important thing I learned is that a teacher is more likely to be a great teacher if she puts students' learning and well-being as the primary focus instead of worrying about how to manage students and a classroom.

My next step is to look for a teaching job that will best meet the needs of my family and accentuate my strengths. Although my certification is in secondary education, I found that interacting with elementary students gave me a fresh perspective that I wouldn't have had if I took a secondary ed class. I am surprised to realize that my strength would be to teach Spanish to junior high students. I guess my years of raising seven children and doing a lot of online teaching has given me a better perspective of this age group and I think that I would have the needed patience,compassion and skills that a less experienced teacher might have.