Teachers are underappreciated.

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United States
United States
Teachers are underappreciated.

I've had my complaints about teachers, but I've come to appreciate them a-lot more after one of the teachers I've worked with passed away recently.

Most teachers are some of the most understanding people that some people will meet in their adolecense and early adulthood. The teacher who passed away always listened to me, and spoke to me about situations that were currently effecting me while giving me advice. He made me think about the reasons why I was feeling such ways and made me look at problems in multiple perspectives.

Like our parents, teachers have to be there for us for multiple times in a month or week. They're trying to balance class room work, homework and test grading, administrative meetings, and home life. It can get very stressful. My parents are both teachers and it takes a toll on their mental energy. To make sure your students get the best education they can get with all of that takes dedication and patience.

I feel like many students don't realize how important teachers are in their lives, and how they are capable of changing their lives completely.

Does anyone here have any stories of really great teachers? Also, is anyone here a teacher or have a family member who's a teacher? I'm just interested in reading other's stories and experiences.
 
I've had some excellent teachers in high school. One would be my English teacher in senior year. He had this epic narrating voice, and got us so engaged while we were reading classics like Macbeth and Beowulf. I can honestly say that Macbeth was the first time I truly enjoyed reading Shakespeare, even though we went through Othello in my acting class.
 
Whenever I hear someone talk about something negative about a teacher, it is most likely because they weren't getting their way with the teacher.

I had a huge amount of respect for my IT: Multimedia Teacher, we had an assignment due in a Week and most were way behind schedule and Sir had enough and gave us a massive pipe bomb on how much focus we should put into the assignment. My Friend wanted to hit him with his Laptop but I had to give him credit for giving us that wake up call.

Some of my friends (especially the male Friends), clearly don't respect any teacher and throw hissy fits when something doesn't go their way. All a former friend of mine did was purposely not to attend class whenever nothing went his way or even when he thought a Teacher was going to tell him off (which he deserves since he is very lazy with assignments). Even when there is a bad teacher, I know that it is him who is at fault, not the Teacher.

I have had no issue with any teacher, they are doing their job and when I don't pay attention it is all on me for not being interested and not the Teacher for being "boring" or "unfair". With Senior Years I am able to focus more on the subjects I chose since I chose them out of interest.

This year, I am having a Teacher for 4 years in a row :lol:, Year 9 and 10 English and Year 11 and Year 12 Ancient History.
 
I hated most of my teachers when I was at school. Becoming a teacher was last on my list of jobs I would do.

I've now been a teacher for about 8 years and I do my best to not be like those teachers at school that I didn't like. Most of my kids love me and I do my best to make lessons fun and leaning enjoyable.

I know a lot of teachers who don't put in the effort I do, even some I work with currently, but the job is so rewarding when done properly. I didn't start out as a good teacher, it took time and experience.

I hope when my kids (students) are older and look back at their school years they will remember their time with me as a good part of their life. After all, I'm partly responsible for shaping them as humans, a role model if you like, so I treat them the way the best teachers treated me when I was at school.

I don't think teachers in general are under appreciated, because (I'd say) 80% are just in it because it's what they do. It's the ones that do it for the love of the career and the satisfaction of knowing they're giving back to the community and helping to develop the future that sometimes get lumped with the rest of the teachers that are under appreciated.

That's my two cents, anyhow.
 
Becoming a teacher was last on my list of jobs I would do.
I'm in the same boat. I had no idea what I wanted to do when I graduated from high school, and wound up teaching more by accident than by design - but I loved it from the moment I set foot in a classroom.

I've now been a teacher for about 8 years and I do my best to not be like those teachers at school that I didn't like.
Half of what I do is think back to the things that I didn't like my teachers doing, and trying something different. The other half is thinking back to the things that I did like, and trying to recreate it.
 
I wish I had good teachers when I was in school. Most of them ignored and/or disrespected me, the other teachers just felt like lifeless robots. The only good time I had with a teacher that I can remember was when some kid tried to fight me, he punched me and then I shoved him away, there were probably 3 or 4 teachers just watching but only 1 helped. The worst part is the other teachers wanted me to be suspended... And it's not like I was lazy or anything. I was silent for the most part but answered when I was called on, turned in all my work on time and never started any trouble. But I'm glad to hear there are good teachers out there.
 
We have a student teacher at my school that everyone complains about. She says that she is giving us challenging work because she wants us to be ready for college, and that they will not take the work of a 7th grader. I personally like her a lot and a lot of people don't realize how nice she is. I always get good grades from her and she respects me as a student. I totally agree that teachers are underappreciated.
 
The significance of a teacher's job is that they will influence how the children they teach will develop in the future. They have the responsibility of bearing that load.

A parent's job is also the same, and one of the biggest gripes I have with them is when they lose patience, cave and lash out on children. I get how stressful it can be to feed and/or manage 20-some kids each day, but making mistakes in raising children can have devastating effects.

That being said, those who chose and are passionate about being teachers have my respect for devoting their life to passing down knowledge and wisdom to future generations.
 
Teachers in the UK are often derided for their lengthy holidays (12 weeks a year). What many people fail to realise that teachers often bring marking home to do on evenings and weekends so the 9-3 day is often a myth (there are some examples). This wouldn't be so bad if the curriculum was fairly stable and so planning and preparation was a smaller part of their workload, but it seems to change every year.

If I'm entirely honest, I think a teacher's ability to influence a child's future career is very limited. My best teachers were not in subjects I pursued as part of my career, and when people say teachers inspired them into a career I think it's often the teacher being positively associated with a subject, when otherwise they'd be quite forgettable.
 
I had some teachers I liked, some that I hated. I never wanted to be a teacher but I am just filling in an application to become a teaching assistant.
 
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