When becoming a teacher you have to first have a special interest and passion in the particular grade you want to teach. The special interest grade level we will be focusing on is Kindergarten through 12th grade. To teach this age specialization you have to earn a bachelor's degree in whatever college institution you decide to attend. Second you must engage in student teaching. Gaining experience in your particular field is a very important part of teaching to get a start in their teaching career path. Third you must get certified or licensed to teach students. Fourth, last but not least, you must continue with high education to continue to stay teaching certified.
All 4 of us (Maren, Ashleigh, Annie, and Valerie) are all education majors and are currently starting our teaching career path by attending Cincinnati Christian University because of their outstanding education program on campus. We all are in teaching to get a beginning basis of the teaching standard and experience. Then we will continue studying in the education program and will student teach to get hands on experience with students. Finally, we will then get certified in our acquired grade level and beginning teaching in whatever school we get a job in. Teaching has always been a passion of ours and we are so excited to be apart of future educators.
We believe teaching is not only a passion, but a gift to society. We believe we shape America's future by the way we educate our students to success in not only school, but in their future lives in society. Teaching is truly not a future job to us, it is a reward to us and with thrive to make it a reward to our future students. We are truly honored with a passion to attend Cincinnati Christian and to be apart of the amazing education program to shape our education career path and journey.
We start out our freshman year by taking basic courses. Such as: science, math, intro to teaching, and because this is a christian school we have to take a spiritual course (old testament). Also as freshmen when we take our intro to teaching class, we are required to get in class hours, and spend at least an hour a week with children. That is basically when we go and observe teachers at school. This is specifically unique to Cincinnati Christian University. Usually at other colleges you don’t start gaining in class experience until junior or senior year. The other great thing about freshmen year is that we have the option to have a mentor. It is usually an alumni from CCU who has been through the same program as us. They help you along the way with things like, holding you accountable for you getting your major assignments done, being there with any questions or concerns you have about college, and most of all to be part of your support system and encourage you throughout the way. Sophomore year kind of stays the same. We continue taking the basic requirements before we can start our education classes.
It really isn’t until junior year that we start taking classes for our specific field. For a couple of us ( Annie and Maren) we are majoring in special education so we do have to commute to Mount St. Joseph. Senior year is where all the pieces will come together and we will follow our individual career paths that we chose. Even though we all may want to teach different ages and different specializations, we all want to be educators and be mentors to our future students. We want to make a positive impact on our students educationally and personally. We want to get to know each student individual and get to know their special interest and passions. Each child learns differently and we want to make sure we find what ways our students learn best to make sure we instill the most knowledge possible into our students that they can truly understand. The process of becoming a future educator has brought forth our passion to become teachers even more and we truly cannot wait to educate our future students to our fullest potential. As said by Robert John Meehan, “We are not just teachers, we are the managers of the world's greatest resource: children!” We love teaching! Whitney houston has a song that talks about how important children are. “I believe that children are our future. Teach them well and let them lead the way. Show them all the beauty possess inside. Give them a sense of pride to make it easier.” For us this gives an idea of how important teaching actually is. The way we teach and interact with the children will impact them in and out of the classroom. Another benefit to teaching is to be Christ like to everyone. To show Christ in everything we do in hopes to show someone the love of God. To conclude it’s important to follow your passion. If it is to teach, make sure you find which grade works well for you. If you love working with children and are interesting in a career to teaching, make sure you have the qualifications from high school. Whether that be your high school diploma or your GED. Figure out which college you think offers the best education for you. And lastly, enjoy the process. Try to enjoy all the late night studying, the early morning 8:00am classes. And then when you become a teacher, enjoy everyday. Try not to get frustrated with the little things. Be the teacher that impacts and inspires children so much that they want to be something someday. Because one day once you’re retired, you want to be able to look back on your teaching days and smile, laugh, and have no regrets. It all will pay off in the long run, and that’s all that matters. “The main hope of a nation lies in the proper education of its youth.” (Erasmus)
