5 things I love about being a teacher
For future teachers, current teachers, and anyone who is just curious.
I am a teacher.
Now I should really say “I work as a teacher” or “Teaching is my job”. But as we know, an occupation can form a large part of our identity and self-image. And I think this is especially true of teaching.
To give a little more detail, I have been teaching high school mathematics for just over ten years. Below are the things I enjoy most about it.
1. Helping people feels good
This can sometimes get a little lost between enforcing rules, correcting tests, and all the administrative tasks. But most teachers would probably agree that our primary motivation is to help young people and make a positive impact in their lives.
Not just because it makes us feel better “about” ourselves in some abstract way. It actually feels good in a concrete and physiological sense. It could be helping a student overcome a problem in mathematics, answering random questions about life, or even just saying “hello” to a quiet kid who doesn’t get much attention. These positive interactions can be literally energizing.
We’re social creatures. It’s natural to feel uneasy when we see other people struggle and feel happy when we see them succeed. Just ask the Father of Economics:
“How selfish soever man may be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortune of others, and render their happiness necessary to him, though he derives nothing from it except the pleasure of seeing it.” — Adam Smith
2. You get to teach the subject you love
This one is more specific to secondary school teachers, who choose to specialize in one or two subjects. I have great respect for my primary colleagues, who teach the whole curriculum and often spend more time each day with their students than the parents!
I love mathematics. The idea of getting paid to talk about maths all day was one of the main reasons I chose this career. To some of you, that probably sounds like a nightmare. I get that. But maybe you have a passion for art, history, music, science, or physical education. And it’s funny how the deeper you dive into any subject, the more value and beauty you discover.
I also had an inspirational maths teacher in my final year of high school. Mr Daniel would get very excited when teaching us calculus, vectors, and complex numbers, and it rubbed off on me. I remember being impressed, not only by the way he engaged us during the class but also by how much he seemed to enjoy it too.
During my teacher education, the professor told us a joke that probably contains just enough truth to be funny:
“Primary school teachers love the children, secondary school teachers love their subject, and university teachers love… themselves”.
3. The joy of learning new things
Human beings seem to be wired to get a thrill from learning. I guess it makes sense from an evolutionary point of view.
Today I was teaching my Year 10 students how to factorize quadratic equations. Now I don’t think there is any career, apart from teaching mathematics, where this skill would actually be used in practice. But seeing their pride and excitement when they finally overcome their confusion and “get it”, you can’t help but smile.
It’s not so different from the excitement I saw in my 2-year-old son when he first learned to take his shoes off by himself. “I did it! I did it!” he squealed. The next thing to look forward to is when he can put them on by himself. And use the potty.
I still love learning too. Learning more about mathematics, technology and psychology is all part of the job. So I also get to do the happy dance from time to time.
4. Every teacher is someone’s favourite teacher
If you were to ask all the students in a single school which teacher is their favourite, I guarantee that they would not all give the same name. My sense is that every teacher’s name would come up at least once.
There are no hard and fast rules on what makes a “good” teacher. Some teachers are funny and some are not. Some are militantly strict and others are more casual. Some are charismatic and some are more quiet and introverted (like me).
But there are as many flavours of students as their teachers. Different students tend to gravitate towards different teachers, for reasons that are not always clear. Hopefully, every student has at least one teacher that they respect and connect with. If that teacher happens to be you, it’s a pleasure and a privilege.
“Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else.” — Margaret Mead (?)
5. The cycle of the school year
Each new school year is a fresh start. Students are wide-eyed, optimistic, and keen to succeed. Our lessons are well planned and designed to maximize student engagement. We sometimes call these first few weeks the “honeymoon period”.
After a month or so, the workload starts to get on top of us. It’s not easy to plan, deliver and reflect on 4-5 classes a day, while also finding time between meetings and administration to develop and correct assessment tasks and give feedback to students and parents. It’s impossible to avoid working nights and weekends.
The end of the school year is frantic too, but students need us more than ever as they prepare for their final exams. As the weather warms up through Spring and Summer, we can see the finish line.
The final graduation ceremony is one of my highlights of the year. Completing high school is a huge milestone for a young person, which deserves to be celebrated. Seeing the students overflow with pride, excitement, nostalgia and gratitude, it seems to me like this is the closest thing we have in our culture to a traditional “rite of passage”.
Summer holidays are not bad either 😉. I can take a break from being a teacher and just be a person. Do things I enjoy and remember things I had forgotten. Reflect and recharge for when the cycle begins again…
All the ten thousand things arise, and I see them return. Now they bloom in bloom but each one homeward returneth to its root. Returning to the root means rest. It signifies the return according to destiny. — Dao De Jing — translation by D.T. Suzuki and Paul Carus
So there it is. Take it with a “grain of salt”.
Just a few disclaimers at the end here…
- Of course, teaching is not all smiles and sunshine. I could easily write another article called “5 things I hate about being a teacher”. Perhaps I really should do that, to be fair and show both sides.
- This Top 5 list is just IMO (here that stands for “In My Opinion”). If you are interested in the other IMO (International Mathematical Olympiad), check out these articles…
