How to Become a Teacher

The Path of Education
The career that I really have a passion for is being a teacher. A teacher requires a person to have a lot of responsibility. The reason why I want to become a teacher is because I want to give the gift of knowledge to others. It takes a lot of hard work to become a teacher, and I can 't just say I want to be something and wait for it to come to me. I have to chase after it and complete all of the steps necessary to achieve it. I choose this career by doing a lot of thinking and reflecting on myself. I really went deep inside of me and thought why I would want to become this and I realized that I want to teach because I feel great around students and teenagers who have intelligent minds and are very unique and creative.
The Dream Job
Being a teacher could mean a variety of things. One who shows people how to ride a bike could be called a teacher. Even parents are teachers to some extent, teaching their kids how to survive in the world. But, I am talking about a secondary school teacher. There are many things that this job entails. For example, a teacher needs to be knowledgeable about a subject and be able to teach others about it in detail. They should be able to help people who at first don’t understand to grasp the concept of the lesson. A teacher should be able to communicate well with others even if they disrespect them. These jobs are located in high schools across the world. High school teachers can make anywhere from $30,000-$80,000 depending on the location of the job. For instance, a teacher in New York would make more than a teacher in Hayward. This is important because the location depicts whether a teacher could be financially stable or unstable. But, usually the salary complies with how much it costs to live in a particular area.
Education Needs Going to college is necessary to become a teacher. Finishing all of the a-g requirements is required to go to college. One would need about a 3.0 or above to go straight into a 4-year university. Another way if their grades weren’t that great would be to go to community college and then later transfer to a 4-year school after 2 years. This would also be a good option if they didn’t have the money to pay for all 4 years. CSUs are great schools to become a teacher because they are relatively cheap and have good education programs.
A teacher needs a secondary education with a major in subject area with a minor in education. If they wanted to become a math teacher they would need to major in mathematics and minor in education. The major would educate them about what the subject is about and the minor in education would teach them how to properly conduct a lesson and the skills they need in order to become a teacher. Education is necessary because no one can teach a class if they don’t have anything to teach.
Next Steps My next step to get the job is to be ready. You have to have your portfolio ready, this is where you put all your certificates, transcripts, rewards you earned during high school, and any special clubs or events you were in. It is basically what you were involved in before you went for the job. Next I can 't just wait for someone to come to me to give me the job I have to look around. For example Monster.com is one cite where you can find teaching jobs around your area with ease. It is also recommended that before you actually start teaching you have to consider being a substitute teacher for a while. This will help you gather your skills and your weaknesses as a teacher and get ready for the real job. I will also have to look for availability through many sites like Monster and other job sites. Sometimes there are only available positions in other states or cities so you have to be flexible and be ready for what is coming at you. In other words you don 't know where you will get the job it can be a mile from you or in another state. Another step I have to take is what kind of teacher I want to be. There are many different types of teachers for example: History, English, Math, Science, and many other types. I have to know what specific skill I am well taught in and know about. That is the degree I will have to major in. So these are some steps I need to take to be a successful teacher and how to find a job as a teacher in my area I have to use different sites and look for availability it just doesn 't land on my head.
Reflections
Before researching what it takes to become a teacher and what a teacher really is I thought it was a simple job where you just teach the same stuff for 20 years. I thought all you had to do was sit back and give the students as much work as you want. But, after researching more about this job I discovered that it is much more complicated than that. You have to be very flexible and you need a lot of skills to be good at this job that I first thought was easy. My idea of a teacher was just teaching the curriculum and giving a boatload of work to your students to do. But then I realized it is even more stressful to grade homework especially essays. My English teacher said, “All of the essays haunt me in the night.” This isn’t meant to be taken seriously but this shows how stressful teaching actually is. Not to mention all of the troublemakers in the class that act like fools. I can’t believe what it is like to deal with all of the parents nagging me about why their child is failing my class. I also learned that to be a teacher you have to be very organized and you can 't just forget about something and come back to it. I am very much unorganized and I will have to improve my organization starting now, with AVID. You need to know where everything is at all times or you will be very lost. I found out a lot of new things after researching what a teacher really is and I regret nothing about what I did because I sure learned a lot. You need various different skills like communication, organization, and speech skills like giving lectures and projecting your voice out to others. So this was not what my idea of being a teacher was and reality is way too much different from imagination.
So I asked myself after learning all of this stuff about being a teacher the skills, salary, and how you have to be very flexible. Would I be happy with my job? My answer was yes because I love to teach. I love it when someone doesn’t understand something and when after I help them they say, “Oh! Now I get it!” That just makes me feel great on the inside. This is my dream job I want to have my own classroom and teach other kids what I learned in high school and college. The work load will probably stress me out since I will have to grade a lot of work and I’ll have to be very well organized. But, the thing is every job has its pros and cons and I look more forward to the pros of being a teacher then the cons because the cons can be dealt with. Another reason I will enjoy this job would be that I will get summers off. That may sound immature but I love the feeling when that bell rings and a three month vacation begins. I want that feeling to carry on through my adulthood. So I think I would be very happy working as a teacher because it is what I want to do.
My plan is to have a 3.5 or better GPA in high school and get all B’s or above. Colleges get very competitive so I have to strive to get the highest GPA I can. I already took the PSAT to get ready for the real one so I know what it will be like. High SAT scores are great if you have a little bit lower grades and vice versa. I will graduate from high school to start, then move on to a CSU, preferably San Jose State because I want to be relatively close to home. Secondly, I will major in my field of preference and minor in education to gain the skills I need to teach. Then I will have to get certified for the state I want to teach in. Next, I will be a substitute teacher to gain experience for a permanent teaching experience. Experience is important because the employers don’t want someone who just graduated college with no experience actually teaching. Next after I substitute for a while I will create a resume which I will show to my employer to gain the all-time goal, a permanent teaching job.
Research Reflection The process I went through writing this essay was I first had to choose a career that I was interested in and wanted to commit, which was being a teacher. Then, I went online and researched my career on websites such as Monster.com. I also used Job search websites which helped me find out on average how much a teacher gets paid and the skills and educational requirements needed to be a teacher. I also had to search up teacher jobs near me to get the idea of where I could possibly be working in the future. I also planned out on which days I was going to do like October 15th. This was the day I was going to search the educational requirements to become a teacher. I planned early to what I was going to do so I would not do it all last minute. This was much easier and it saved me a lot of time in the long run. Planning ahead also avoided helped me from procrastinating until the last day which was a relief because by the time this research project was due I was almost done so it went much smoother. I worked on this essay with my partner, Gurjit. We used Google Drive to edit the essay to what it is today. Since we are interested in the same field our essays are very much similar, but our reflections talk about our own experiences.

Works Cited
"18 Teacher jobs in 94536, Fremont, CA matched your search." Teacher Jobs in 94536, Fremont, CA. Monster. 28 Oct. 2013 .
"California Commission on Teacher Credentialing." California Commission on Teacher Credentialing. 22 Oct. 2008. California Government. 28 Oct. 2013 .
Hart, Kevin. "Six Steps to Landing Your First Teaching Job." National Education Association. NEA. 28 Oct. 2013 .
"Pepperdine University GSEP - Programs." Pepperdine University. Pepperdine University. 28 Oct. 2013 .

Cited: "18 Teacher jobs in 94536, Fremont, CA matched your search." Teacher Jobs in 94536, Fremont, CA. Monster. 28 Oct. 2013 . "California Commission on Teacher Credentialing." California Commission on Teacher Credentialing. 22 Oct. 2008. California Government. 28 Oct. 2013 . Hart, Kevin. "Six Steps to Landing Your First Teaching Job." National Education Association. NEA. 28 Oct. 2013 . "Pepperdine University GSEP - Programs." Pepperdine University. Pepperdine University. 28 Oct. 2013 .