“Seven-thirty”, you peek at the time stamped in bold across your phone’s half-cracked screen, your first dreaded morning greeting. You reach out to pick it up and silence for good the cycle of alarms you’ve been snoozing for the past half an hour. It’s another early Monday morning, the ones you dread, something you somewhat expected to come out of your first semester of college schedule. What you didn’t expect, although, is how upon arriving to class the feeling of dread doesn’t waive away. It seems to almost get stronger. Class by class, week by week, the continued feeling when faced with another week of courses that you swore that summer prior would be “the most exciting of your life” is depleting. You were convinced this major was your true calling, your perfect fit. You envisioned yourself dressed head to toe in scrubs, even making bets post-graduation which hospital you would land your first job at. The thoughts of failure, confusion, and doubt begin to pour into your head: where do I go from here?
Freshman year of college, I too faced the question “where do I go from here?”, feeling stuck in a major that didn’t fit me, and pulled towards uncovering a new path for my future. I was convinced the medical field was my calling of career, and without a second look applied to college strictly as a major centered around that. Three months later, nearly failing the classes I swore I would love, I requested to change my major to exploratory studies, or undeclared, my first step in starting over. As I navigated a new educational path, I found myself drawn to a career I had never quite envisioned myself in: teaching. I took the initiative to look further into the programs offered at my school, followed by taking the risk of applying to my schools’ middle grades education preparatory program. Three years later, I am two semesters away from officially graduating and completing certification to become an educator!
The past three years I have spent as an education major have been years of growth, reward, and excitement in where I am going. To the college student confused on what option next to pursue in their career journey, there are vast reasons to consider education as a major:
Variety of Options
Working towards a career in education, options are endless for specific concentrations of teaching you can work towards! Universities, such as West Chester, include a variety of majors such as elementary education, middles grades education, secondary education, and special education. The options of major bring with them options of diversity for the particular age group of students as a teacher you work will with. Elementary education extends from grades first to fourth, middle grades education ranges from grades fourth through eighth, and secondary education includes all high school level grades. Students within the education program can additionally minor in areas that pair well with their teaching goals, such as literacy or science education. In choosing a major in middle grades or secondary education, you are able as well to choose an area of concentration to teach, including science, social studies, English language arts, or math. Secondary education students typically chose a double major route, working towards a degree in education and their preferred specialty. With the variety of options presented in educational programs, you are bound to find a place fit for you, and your aspiring career goals.
Teachers will always be needed
When you think of careers that are essential not only in our country but throughout the world, you immediately think of teaching. Teaching is a career that will never not be necessary, for children will always be brought into the world and require an education. This leads teachers to job opportunities throughout the world, allowing them to freely choose areas of their interest, if personally able, to live and work in. In addition, the current state of job demand in teaching is high, making way for the next generations of graduates to encounter a wide range of job opportunities.
Interactive and diverse environment
As a teacher, you are constantly working hands-on with your students, leading a class of learners in a way that works to produce high levels of engagement. Every day you are experiencing new interactions with your students, faculty, and materials in order to achieve goals set forth for the class, leading to an interactive and diverse work environment. Many people dread the typical nine to five in which your typical day is spent confined to a desk, with limited levels of socialization and chance at leadership positions. Teaching goes against these stereotypes. Teachers are constantly moving throughout the classroom, ensuring the lesson is running smoothly and checking up on student’s progress. Teachers are the leaders of the classroom, directing instruction and setting forth new agendas and goals to be followed and reached. Teaching is guaranteed to be a career that leads you to never experience the same workday twice, as well as never be boring!
Impact on yourself and others
Teaching is a career that leaves implications on both yourself and the students you teach for the entirety of your life. As a teacher, you build connections within the classroom as you watch your students grow further into their education. You hold the responsibility to guide students step by step through the material needed to be learned in order for them to accomplish their grade goals. The journey you take each year with your students will be forever valued by them, and valued by you. As a teacher, you will not only watch your students grow but will also grow yourself. You will come to further understand what works for your instruction and what doesn’t, constantly working to become the most efficient teacher you can be. Teaching is a career that will lead you to the reward of constantly working to be your best self.
Summers off
Endless beach trips? Cocktails by the pool? Sleeping in past nine? From June to August this could be your typical day by day! All jokes aside, teaching is a career that comes with the gift of summers off. Many teachers chose to take the freedom of a jobless summer up, prepping for the next school year to come, while others chose to pursue other short-term areas of work. All in all, summers off allow teachers the choice to follow further passions and interests, work-related or not!