Volunteer for Teacher

From helping my youth pastor's wife, Mrs. Kelly Tolan, I have found that...I don't want to be an elementary teacher. There is so much cutting and pasting involved that my fingers would be too sore to eat with a fork at dinner. While I spent my four hours with Mrs. Tolan all I really had the opportunity to do was to cut flash cards and cut cut cut. Although this experience only lasted four short hours, I know I will do it again just to make myself more familiar with teaching and all of its aspects weather it's grading or cutting or becoming fluent with my students lives to understand what and who I will be working with.

My fingers became numb that day I completed my four hours, and yes, it was because of cutting those minute flash cards. Throughout my entire time in the elementary education system I would have never thought that a teacher did so much outside of the classroom. While completing my project I asked Mrs. Tolan how many hours did she devote to school in general (actual time at school, outside school, tutoring) and her response was 70-80 hours... a week. When I was sitting in my fifth grade classroom I just assumed that my teacher was just a teacher. I didn't comprehend that she might actually have or want a life outside of school. But then at middle school I finally understood that teachers have families, they go to church just like me, and they do things outside of school just like I do. And now, after this weekend, I understand that those things aren't always true. All teachers desire to do all of those things I mentioned, but they cannot physically commit to all of those extracurricular activities that I can. They have to stay home and "cut, cut, cut." The reason I use this term is because it can really describe a teachers time that they spend outside of school, while doing things for their jobs. Monotonous, tedious, boring, perpetual can all describe a teacher's life at some time. And it has kind of scared me finally figuring this out.

This involvement in a teacher's life for four hours has been very eye-opening to me. I have now seen one of the many things that are required to be a teacher, sacrificing most of your time and your life to educate your students and your friends. Some people may ask "is it worth it?" and all I can say is who couldn't desire to have that opportunity? Because I was shaped by three things, God, my parents and teachers, and I honestly yearn to be a huge factor in students' lives and change them for the better.