Volunteering

I recently started volunteering in a 2nd grade classroom. Oh my goodness, it is the HIGHLIGHT of my week! I'm NOT a morning person, but the days I wake up at 7 to go volunteer are easier then the days I wake up at 9 for class! I love those little kiddos. I love their energy and how excited they get to see me (honestly kind of a confidence boost when every time you walk in the room you have 25 kids scream your name in excitement). I really don't do much, usually help with projects, grade papers most of the time, but it is a really fun way to observe the classroom.

One thing I really enjoy is observing the way that the teacher is running her classroom. I think it is really interesting and I'm excited to go through and observe in more classrooms. Originally I thought I wanted to teach kindergarten, but as I have volunteered in a kinder and then a 2nd grade classroom, I REALLY prefer 2nd grade. A lot probably has to do with the fact that it was a 1/2 day kindergarten, but really I think I like having more of a teaching role then teaching them how to socialize and the rules. I know they learn a lot in kindergarten, but I really like teaching more things so I'm excited to volunteer in more classrooms and see which one's I prefer, not that I think I'll have a big choice. I'll take any job I can get because we all know that it is hard to get jobs right now.

Two Years!!!

It's hard to believe that I'm almost done with my sophomore year at Western, and just about halfway through school. I'm nervous as well as really excited to be a teacher. More nervous for the fact that there are many teachers out there that don't have jobs. Also every year more people are graduating with degrees in education and they might be just as if not more qualified than me and some of them will not get jobs. When you add this to the fact that less teachers are retiring because of the economy it makes for bad chances at a job. It saddens me and it frustrates me. If we could put more money into education we could hire more teachers as well as keep classroom sizes down, but I think we need to accept that it isn't changing anytime soon and as teachers do the best we can to help.

My school is a teaching school for the most part, and I work at the call center, updating Alumni on the University and making sure they are up to date, so I get to see it first hand as well. It is really discouraging to call people who tell me that I'm crazy to want to be a teacher in this economy and that I should switch my major while I still have the chance. I also get the good calls, the ones who have been teachers for 30 years and are still in love with what they do. I hope I'm that person and I'm pretty sure I will be. I've wanted to be a teacher since pre-school, my parents even set up a "school room" in our garage, complete with chalkboards, whiteboards, and computer at our disposal. In the beginning it was my older sister teaching me what she learned at school every day, but then it became my FAVORITE THING to do. I "played" school from ages 5-12. Since then, and 3rd grade when we got an "overhead projector" in our class (coolest thing since the whiteboards) I was hooked and I knew that was what I was meant to do!!!