Teaching is one of the most rewarding careers out there. It is a well-worn cliché, but when you decide to become a teacher and pursue an early childhood education degree at this school, you have an opportunity to make a difference.. And not just to children. Many adults go back into education, either to learn skills they were never taught in the first place, or to pick up new skills to enhance their life, confidence, and career.
Education is a wonderful career, but the teaching path is not for everyone. Some people dream of earning a masters in education, but when they enter the world of education, they discover teaching is not as easy as they thought. Even with an online masters in education, you may not be cut out to teach, so to help you decide, here are five signs education is the career for you.
You Have a Passion for Teaching
You need passion to teach. It’s a hard career at times, so without a real passion for the job at hand, you may not make it through the difficult times. Natural-born teachers are passionate about what they do. They have an innate ability to inspire others to learn. If you love to encourage others to learn new things, teaching is for you.
You Have Infinite Patience
You need to be patient to teach. Not everyone learns at the same pace and some people need a lot of help to grasp even the most basic of concepts. Great teachers are infinitely patient and they don’t get cross when a student fails to understand. You also need the patience to deal with students who fail to engage with education. Unruly, badly behaved, or disinterested students are not easy to teach, but if you are a born teacher, this won’t faze you in the slightest.
You Are a Great Communicator
The best teachers can explain anything in a way the whole class can understand. They make lessons fun and engaging. They don’t ask students to sit and read a textbook for an hour. Instead, they devise interesting ways to make a topic easy to understand. Communication skills can be learned, but great teachers have a knack for it.
You Are Organized
Teaching involves a lot of planning and administration. Disorganized teachers struggle in the workplace and end up getting stressed because they can’t stay on top of their admin. You need a strong sense of organization if you want to be in education. Sadly, it’s not always about teaching kids or adults. Very often, you must get through a pile of paperwork, too.
You Like People
Teachers instinctively like people. They enjoy chatting to kids and adults, discussing new topics, and inspiring others to want to learn more about a new topic. If you dislike engaging with people or can’t imagine anything worse than standing in front of a group with all eyes on you, education is perhaps not the best career choice.
Talk to other educators and spend some time in a classroom setting before you make your final choice. If teaching is your dream job, you will soon find out whether you are a suitable candidate.