Preservice Teacher Dilemmas
Should You Continue after Your First Year of Teaching?
Need some tips on how to make that decision to take up a full time classroom teaching post? Here are some practical tips that will help you with your decision.
Teaching is a hard enough profession as it is and preservice teachers do not have it any easier. Preservice teachers know very well they are now expected to become less dependent on their teacher mentors for support and advice as they approach the end of their final year in teaching college. It is very daunting to even think about it let alone make a decision.
Many teachers however, do not even begin a second year; they fear they might be stuck in a system or they aren't sure if teaching is a profession that speaks to them. Since many educational systems lack the proper resources to help and nurture a preservice teacher, a preserivce needs to know early before accepting a teaching post, whether to teach full time or not.
But there comes a time when a preservice teacher is stuck in the decision of "should I continue to teach full time? or "should I just finish up with the teaching program and do something else with my life?"
Sure the next year will be much more intense, more responsibilities, probably more classes and lesson plans to prepare and a lot more meetings and grades to figure out. But you will certainly know by then, if teaching is cut out for you. You get a slice of the real life and experience is a valuable thing that you can't get from teaching college.
So, if you are still debating whether to take that teaching job, consider the following:
- The first year of teaching is unlike any other. It is so completely new, uneventful and unique. Nothing can compare to it.
- Support continues after the first year. There are many online mentor support programs. Consider also asking your teacher mentor if she or he wouldn't mind visiting you as you still feel you can use his or her advice and support.
- Consider the possibility of carrying on in the same school. You have already made the necessary contacts with the homeroom teachers, the maintenance people, the principal, and others. You even know how to fix the photocopier! And of course, you know the students' backgrounds, levels and abilities. You might even be able to continue with a previous class. You have developed lesson plans and teaching materials so it is just a matter of ongoing development and training.
- Turn to your mentors for advice. Share with them this difficult decision. They have watched you grow as a teacher-in-training, and they can give you objective and valuable advice.
- Join preservice teacher forums - they are free and they can help you put your foot in the right direction.
- Make a list of pros and cons for yourself. This might be a very self-revealing experience.
If you kept a classroom journal or diary during your preservice year of teaching, try rereading it and see what impressions you can make. Where have you grown as a teacher?
