Welcome back from spring break, everyone! This week in Social Studies methods, we have already hit the ground running, with the teaching of our flipped lessons this week, and teacher education interviews this Thursday! Such a stressful, but mostly exciting week.
The article I found for this week, comes from neaToday and it is titled, "Survey: Number of Future Teachers Reaches All-time Low." This is a topic that is very dear to my heart, because I personally believe that teaching is one of the most important jobs that we have. However, why are students not wanting to become teacher anymore? the percentage of students enrolled in teacher education in 2005 was 9.9%, and in 2015, it dropped down to 4.2%. That is a staggering drop in enrollment. This article tells us, that students are asking the question, who can afford to become a teacher with all this student debt? Now, I must confess, I haven also asked myself that question plenty of times, and been asked by others, but teaching is my purpose. Teaching is what I want to do for the rest of my life, but I do worry if I will be able to afford it once I am out of college. Going to Gardner-Webb, I have a ton of student debt accumulated and I worry how I will pay this off, with only my teaching salary. Still, the fact that I know that teaching is the profession for me gets me through those thoughts. The article talks about how to get more students in the teacher education programs, and it mentions paying teachers more, and lowering the cost of college. This would for sure raise the percentage of students enrolling in teacher education, but is that feasible? As much as I would love for that to happen, I am not sure if anyone will budge on that motion, since we have been asking for that for what seems like forever. So for now, we need to try to get as many people as we can involved in teaching, because our students deserve a caring, committed and qualified educator.
This article ties into the North Carolina Teaching Standard number one of teachers demonstrating leadership. Being a teacher leader, we can persuade and talk to others about what it means to be a teacher and give them examples through our lives. Being paid a not so good salary will be hard at times, but we have to be the example or leader to show others that we can push through that, and do what we love.
http://neatoday.org/2016/03/15/future-teachers-at-all-time-low/
Amber,
ReplyDeleteI really found the article that you found interesting and saddening. Teaching is one of the most underrated professions out there. I believe that teachers don't get enough credit for all that their job requires. These statistics that are listed throughout your blog are very concerning, but I realize how true they are. Think back to freshman year and how many people were interested in education... The numbers have just dwindled down from there. It takes a very special and dedicated person to be an effective teacher, and that may sound cliché, but it is so true. Teachers have to be willing to look past the crappy pay and put in the time and preparation in order for their students to be most successful. Great post! You will make an awesome teacher one day!!! (: