Benefits of Becoming a Teacher

Teaching
is definitely a noble profession. It gives you the opportunity to
change lives. That's one of the greatest advantages of being in a
teaching job. In this article, we tell you the benefits of becoming a
teacher.

The job of a teacher is exciting and rewarding. There
is less stress involved. This job gives you a platform to connect with
inquisitive, young minds and bring a positive change in their lives. As a
teacher, you get to play a key role in developing basic learning skills
in children, inculcating good values in them, cultivating their minds
and teaching them not just lessons from books but lessons of life. At
that young age, kids consider you as their role models; you inspire
them, influence them. And that's a great benefit of being a teacher -
having a chance to play an important role in someone's life.

Teaching at the School Level

You help kids develop basic reading, writing and verbal skills.
You teach them basic math, science or language.
You teach them to express themselves, interact with people, make friends and thus help them develop social skills.
When they are in school, you are their parent. You play a key role
in cultivating them and making them the kind of human beings they
become.
An added advantage of being their teacher is having the opportunity to see them grow.

Teaching at a Higher Level

You are instrumental in helping your students master the subject you teach.
You help them hone their skills in the subject and develop subject expertise.
If you are good at what you do, you earn your students' respect, their admiration.
You get a chance to share their aspirations, a chance to build their dreams and a chance to give them wings.

The
role of a teacher in the life of his student actually never ends. Henry
Brooks Adams has rightly said, "A teacher affects eternity; he can
never tell, where his influence stops." With your students, you grow.
You grow from parent to friend; from caretaker to mentor and continue to
influence students who admire you all their life. They remember you for
what they have got from you, they are thankful to you for what you have
taught them. That's one benefit of being a teacher - you are remembered
for long years.

Benefits such as a less hectic work schedule,
less job stress, a decent salary and job security are inherent to the
teaching profession. Let's look at this aspect of teaching and
understand how becoming a teacher can be beneficial in this regard.

Less
Working Hours: A teaching job requires you to work for about six hours a
day, which is less compared to those working in the corporate sector.
You don't have to be on the job for nine and ten hours everyday, except
for days of after-school activities and student tours. This way, you get
more time for your family and to pursue other interests. Basically, you
have a life outside work and being in a teaching job, you can maintain
good work-life balance.

Vacations: Winter vacations, spring
breaks, days off in summer and festival holidays come packaged with a
teaching job. Quite a few times of the year, you get a chance to enjoy a
two or three weeks' vacation. Perhaps no other profession is blessed
with so many holidays. You can spend your vacation time with family,
friends or in pursuit of your personal interests. The holidays can also
be used for professional growth. Many teachers opt for higher education
or take additional courses for better career prospects. Some use this
time to earn extra money by taking activity classes or taking up other
jobs.

Salary and Other Benefits: The pay packages of teachers are
quite competitive. Teacher salaries range anywhere between $40,000 and
$45,000. Besides the perk of holidays around the year, teachers are
eligible for various insurance and pension plans, which are paid for by
their schools. Many schools offer comprehensive health and medical
insurance to teachers. The government offers pension plans to teachers
in public schools. In addition to these monetary benefits, teachers are
funded for school supplies as also scholarships and teaching programs.
True, the teaching profession promises financial security.

Being
in this profession, you get an opportunity to develop as a person. To be
able to impart knowledge to the students, you need to continue with
your pursuit of the same. You need to be abreast with the changing time
in order to keep your students updated. To be able to teach a subject,
you need to be an expert in it. As a teacher, interaction with students
(mostly kids or teenagers) becomes a part of your job, for which you
need to possess specific skills. And in fulfilling these demands of the
teaching job, you grow as a person.

As a teacher, you are
someone your students look up to and derive inspiration from. Realizing
this makes you a more responsible human being.
To teach well, you
need to know well. It's wise to teach what you know and important to
know what you teach. Your teaching job requires you to keep pace with
the time; keeping yourself updated on the subject you teach is what your
job demands. This encourages you to become a subject expert.

Another benefit of becoming a teacher is that you get the opportunity to
be a part of the constant process of learning. Someone has said that
every student teaches his teacher, a new teaching style. True that is.
In changing your ways while teaching students of different intellects or
varying abilities, you get to learn so much.
Teaching involves
oratory, spontaneity and presence of mind. This calls for great
communication skills. Being a teacher, you have to speak to a class of
fifty odd students coming from different backgrounds. It does take a lot
of confidence to do that day in and day out. Impromptu questions from
students, some weird, some witty, are an everyday affair. As a teacher,
you are expected to know all the answers. This demand of your job makes
you more aware, more confident, more spontaneous.
As a teacher,
you are surrounded by bright yound minds, curious to know everything
about the world, especially if you teach in a school. You get to spend a
majority of your time of the day, with children, talking to them,
understanding them, teaching them, learning from them. Time spent with
kids is time put to good use. As a teacher, you are with children for
five to six hours everyday, laughing with them, crying with them, at
times becoming their friend, at times their guardian. Yes, there's very
little stress involved in a teaching job, as spending time with children
in itself is a great stress buster.
As you teach a new set of
students every year, there is less monotony in a teacher's job. What you
teach may repeat but those you teach it to, are new. If your
school/institute allows, you can get an opportunity to devise new ways
of teaching, formulate different teaching strategies and invent ways in
which learning can be made fun for the students. This makes you develop
creativity.

One of the most important benefits of becoming a
teacher is that you can contribute to the shaping of future generations.
You get a chance to nurture young minds and make a difference to the
society.
By Manali Oak