why do you want to teach in your community essay

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How to Write the Community Essay – Guide with Examples (2023-24)

September 6, 2023

Students applying to college this year will inevitably confront the community essay. In fact, most students will end up responding to several community essay prompts for different schools. For this reason, you should know more than simply how to approach the community essay as a genre. Rather, you will want to learn how to decipher the nuances of each particular prompt, in order to adapt your response appropriately. In this article, we’ll show you how to do just that, through several community essay examples. These examples will also demonstrate how to avoid cliché and make the community essay authentically and convincingly your own.

Emphasis on Community

Do keep in mind that inherent in the word “community” is the idea of multiple people. The personal statement already provides you with a chance to tell the college admissions committee about yourself as an individual. The community essay, however, suggests that you depict yourself among others. You can use this opportunity to your advantage by showing off interpersonal skills, for example. Or, perhaps you wish to relate a moment that forged important relationships. This in turn will indicate what kind of connections you’ll make in the classroom with college peers and professors.

Apart from comprising numerous people, a community can appear in many shapes and sizes. It could be as small as a volleyball team, or as large as a diaspora. It could fill a town soup kitchen, or spread across five boroughs. In fact, due to the internet, certain communities today don’t even require a physical place to congregate. Communities can form around a shared identity, shared place, shared hobby, shared ideology, or shared call to action. They can even arise due to a shared yet unforeseen circumstance.

What is the Community Essay All About?

In a nutshell, the community essay should exhibit three things:

An aspect of yourself, 2. in the context of a community you belonged to, and 3. how this experience may shape your contribution to the community you’ll join in college.

It may look like a fairly simple equation: 1 + 2 = 3. However, each college will word their community essay prompt differently, so it’s important to look out for additional variables. One college may use the community essay as a way to glimpse your core values. Another may use the essay to understand how you would add to diversity on campus. Some may let you decide in which direction to take it—and there are many ways to go!

To get a better idea of how the prompts differ, let’s take a look at some real community essay prompts from the current admission cycle.

Sample 2023-2024 Community Essay Prompts

1) brown university.

“Students entering Brown often find that making their home on College Hill naturally invites reflection on where they came from. Share how an aspect of your growing up has inspired or challenged you, and what unique contributions this might allow you to make to the Brown community. (200-250 words)”

A close reading of this prompt shows that Brown puts particular emphasis on place. They do this by using the words “home,” “College Hill,” and “where they came from.” Thus, Brown invites writers to think about community through the prism of place. They also emphasize the idea of personal growth or change, through the words “inspired or challenged you.” Therefore, Brown wishes to see how the place you grew up in has affected you. And, they want to know how you in turn will affect their college community.

“NYU was founded on the belief that a student’s identity should not dictate the ability for them to access higher education. That sense of opportunity for all students, of all backgrounds, remains a part of who we are today and a critical part of what makes us a world-class university. Our community embraces diversity, in all its forms, as a cornerstone of the NYU experience.

We would like to better understand how your experiences would help us to shape and grow our diverse community. Please respond in 250 words or less.”

Here, NYU places an emphasis on students’ “identity,” “backgrounds,” and “diversity,” rather than any physical place. (For some students, place may be tied up in those ideas.) Furthermore, while NYU doesn’t ask specifically how identity has changed the essay writer, they do ask about your “experience.” Take this to mean that you can still recount a specific moment, or several moments, that work to portray your particular background. You should also try to link your story with NYU’s values of inclusivity and opportunity.

3) University of Washington

“Our families and communities often define us and our individual worlds. Community might refer to your cultural group, extended family, religious group, neighborhood or school, sports team or club, co-workers, etc. Describe the world you come from and how you, as a product of it, might add to the diversity of the UW. (300 words max) Tip: Keep in mind that the UW strives to create a community of students richly diverse in cultural backgrounds, experiences, values and viewpoints.”

UW ’s community essay prompt may look the most approachable, for they help define the idea of community. You’ll notice that most of their examples (“families,” “cultural group, extended family, religious group, neighborhood”…) place an emphasis on people. This may clue you in on their desire to see the relationships you’ve made. At the same time, UW uses the words “individual” and “richly diverse.” They, like NYU, wish to see how you fit in and stand out, in order to boost campus diversity.

Writing Your First Community Essay

Begin by picking which community essay you’ll write first. (For practical reasons, you’ll probably want to go with whichever one is due earliest.) Spend time doing a close reading of the prompt, as we’ve done above. Underline key words. Try to interpret exactly what the prompt is asking through these keywords.

Next, brainstorm. I recommend doing this on a blank piece of paper with a pencil. Across the top, make a row of headings. These might be the communities you’re a part of, or the components that make up your identity. Then, jot down descriptive words underneath in each column—whatever comes to you. These words may invoke people and experiences you had with them, feelings, moments of growth, lessons learned, values developed, etc. Now, narrow in on the idea that offers the richest material and that corresponds fully with the prompt.

Lastly, write! You’ll definitely want to describe real moments, in vivid detail. This will keep your essay original, and help you avoid cliché. However, you’ll need to summarize the experience and answer the prompt succinctly, so don’t stray too far into storytelling mode.

How To Adapt Your Community Essay

Once your first essay is complete, you’ll need to adapt it to the other colleges involving community essays on your list. Again, you’ll want to turn to the prompt for a close reading, and recognize what makes this prompt different from the last. For example, let’s say you’ve written your essay for UW about belonging to your swim team, and how the sports dynamics shaped you. Adapting that essay to Brown’s prompt could involve more of a focus on place. You may ask yourself, how was my swim team in Alaska different than the swim teams we competed against in other states?

Once you’ve adapted the content, you’ll also want to adapt the wording to mimic the prompt. For example, let’s say your UW essay states, “Thinking back to my years in the pool…” As you adapt this essay to Brown’s prompt, you may notice that Brown uses the word “reflection.” Therefore, you might change this sentence to “Reflecting back on my years in the pool…” While this change is minute, it cleverly signals to the reader that you’ve paid attention to the prompt, and are giving that school your full attention.

What to Avoid When Writing the Community Essay

Avoid cliché. Some students worry that their idea is cliché, or worse, that their background or identity is cliché. However, what makes an essay cliché is not the content, but the way the content is conveyed. This is where your voice and your descriptions become essential.
Avoid giving too many examples. Stick to one community, and one or two anecdotes arising from that community that allow you to answer the prompt fully.
Don’t exaggerate or twist facts. Sometimes students feel they must make themselves sound more “diverse” than they feel they are. Luckily, diversity is not a feeling. Likewise, diversity does not simply refer to one’s heritage. If the prompt is asking about your identity or background, you can show the originality of your experiences through your actions and your thinking.

Community Essay Examples and Analysis

Brown university community essay example.

I used to hate the NYC subway. I’ve taken it since I was six, going up and down Manhattan, to and from school. By high school, it was a daily nightmare. Spending so much time underground, underneath fluorescent lighting, squashed inside a rickety, rocking train car among strangers, some of whom wanted to talk about conspiracy theories, others who had bedbugs or B.O., or who manspread across two seats, or bickered—it wore me out. The challenge of going anywhere seemed absurd. I dreaded the claustrophobia and disgruntlement.

Yet the subway also inspired my understanding of community. I will never forget the morning I saw a man, several seats away, slide out of his seat and hit the floor. The thump shocked everyone to attention. What we noticed: he appeared drunk, possibly homeless. I was digesting this when a second man got up and, through a sort of awkward embrace, heaved the first man back into his seat. The rest of us had stuck to subway social codes: don’t step out of line. Yet this second man’s silent actions spoke loudly. They said, “I care.”

That day I realized I belong to a group of strangers. What holds us together is our transience, our vulnerabilities, and a willingness to assist. This community is not perfect but one in motion, a perpetual work-in-progress. Now I make it my aim to hold others up. I plan to contribute to the Brown community by helping fellow students and strangers in moments of precariousness.

Brown University Community Essay Example Analysis

Here the student finds an original way to write about where they come from. The subway is not their home, yet it remains integral to ideas of belonging. The student shows how a community can be built between strangers, in their responsibility toward each other. The student succeeds at incorporating key words from the prompt (“challenge,” “inspired” “Brown community,” “contribute”) into their community essay.

UW Community Essay Example

I grew up in Hawaii, a world bound by water and rich in diversity. In school we learned that this sacred land was invaded, first by Captain Cook, then by missionaries, whalers, traders, plantation owners, and the U.S. government. My parents became part of this problematic takeover when they moved here in the 90s. The first community we knew was our church congregation. At the beginning of mass, we shook hands with our neighbors. We held hands again when we sang the Lord’s Prayer. I didn’t realize our church wasn’t “normal” until our diocese was informed that we had to stop dancing hula and singing Hawaiian hymns. The order came from the Pope himself.

Eventually, I lost faith in God and organized institutions. I thought the banning of hula—an ancient and pure form of expression—seemed medieval, ignorant, and unfair, given that the Hawaiian religion had already been stamped out. I felt a lack of community and a distrust for any place in which I might find one. As a postcolonial inhabitant, I could never belong to the Hawaiian culture, no matter how much I valued it. Then, I was shocked to learn that Queen Ka’ahumanu herself had eliminated the Kapu system, a strict code of conduct in which women were inferior to men. Next went the Hawaiian religion. Queen Ka’ahumanu burned all the temples before turning to Christianity, hoping this religion would offer better opportunities for her people.

Community Essay (Continued)

I’m not sure what to make of this history. Should I view Queen Ka’ahumanu as a feminist hero, or another failure in her islands’ tragedy? Nothing is black and white about her story, but she did what she thought was beneficial to her people, regardless of tradition. From her story, I’ve learned to accept complexity. I can disagree with institutionalized religion while still believing in my neighbors. I am a product of this place and their presence. At UW, I plan to add to campus diversity through my experience, knowing that diversity comes with contradictions and complications, all of which should be approached with an open and informed mind.

UW Community Essay Example Analysis

This student also manages to weave in words from the prompt (“family,” “community,” “world,” “product of it,” “add to the diversity,” etc.). Moreover, the student picks one of the examples of community mentioned in the prompt, (namely, a religious group,) and deepens their answer by addressing the complexity inherent in the community they’ve been involved in. While the student displays an inner turmoil about their identity and participation, they find a way to show how they’d contribute to an open-minded campus through their values and intellectual rigor.

What’s Next

For more on supplemental essays and essay writing guides, check out the following articles:

How to Write the Why This Major Essay + Example
How to Write the Overcoming Challenges Essay + Example
How to Start a College Essay – 12 Techniques and Tips
College Essay

Kaylen Baker

With a BA in Literary Studies from Middlebury College, an MFA in Fiction from Columbia University, and a Master’s in Translation from Université Paris 8 Vincennes-Saint-Denis, Kaylen has been working with students on their writing for over five years. Previously, Kaylen taught a fiction course for high school students as part of Columbia Artists/Teachers, and served as an English Language Assistant for the French National Department of Education. Kaylen is an experienced writer/translator whose work has been featured in Los Angeles Review, Hybrid, San Francisco Bay Guardian, France Today, and Honolulu Weekly, among others.

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Home — Essay Samples — Life — Personal Goals — Why I Want to Be a Teacher

Why I Want to Be a Teacher

Categories: Career Goals Life Goals Personal Goals

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Published: Mar 18, 2021

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19 Top Ideas for a “Why I want to be a Teacher” Essay

Here are the 19 best reasons you would want to be a teacher that you can include in your essay:

To help children learn more effectively.
To ensure children have positive mentors.
To improve children’s lives.
To help future generations solve the problems of today.
To help the future generations become good citizens.
To inspire future generations to create a more equal world.
To give back to the community I grew up in.
To be a part of helping my community thrive.
To be a part of my community’s decision-making processes.
Because you have the patience for working with children.
Because you have compassion for children.
Because you want to learn from children.
Because you’re enthusiastic about learning.
Because you are a generous person.
Because you’re interested in learning how to teach difficult students.
Because you’re interested in learning how to work with difficult parents.
Because you’re interested in learning diverse strategies for teaching,
Because you’re interested in learning to master classroom management.
Because you’re interested in learning what works and what doesn’t in teaching.

The ‘Why I want to be a teacher’ essay is all about showing you have thought in-depth about what a teacher does and what their role is in society. It’s also about showing you think you’d be a good person to conduct that role.

The 9 Tips are split into five categories. You can scan this whole post or browse through the categories here:

This essay is hard to get right.

Most students write the exact same thing as one another with the same old cliché statements like “because I love kids” (ugh, wrong answer!). If you do this, your teacher will just give you an average grade (or worse).

You need your essay on “why you want to be a teacher” to be different – indeed excellent – so it stands out for your teacher.

I’ll show you how.

Why should you listen to me? Well, I’ve been teaching university students in education departments for 8 years. In that time I’ve marked several thousand essays by people aiming to become teachers. I know what essays get top marks and which ones are average. I also know exactly what mistakes students make that make their essays seem … dull.

So, let me get you started out by introducing 19 points that you should make in your essay on why you want to be a teacher. I’ll break these 19 points down into 5 separate categories. Check them out below.

Read Also: Is Being a Teacher Worth It? (Why I Quit a Good Job)

1. Definitely do not say “because kids are fun”. Do this instead.

The word ‘fun’ is a big red flag for markers. Too many people want to become teachers because they think it would be a fun profession. Or, they might think that they want to help children have fun . No, no, no.

This is an incorrect answer in your essay about why you want to become a teacher.

Yes, teaching is fun a lot of the time. And it is really nice to see students having fun based on activities you’ve set for them.

But society isn’t paying you to have fun, or even to make children have fun. You’re not going to be a child minder, aunt, uncle or clown. You’re going to be a professional who has a bigger social purpose than having fun.

Now, a lot of students say to me “But, students learn more when they’re having fun.” Sure, that might be true – but it’s not a central reason for teaching.

If making learning more fun is genuinely a reason why you decided to become a teacher, then you need to frame it in a way that shows the importance of teaching for the good of students. Here’s three better ways to say ‘because kids are fun’; for each on, we can start with “I want to become a teacher because…”:

I want to help children learn more effectively. You could say something like: …When I was in school, learning was hard and I therefore hated teaching. There were a lot of teachers who seemed uninspired and uninterested in whether their children are learning. I was inspired to become a teacher so I could help children like myself to learn in ways that are engaging, motivating and inspiring.
I want to ensure children have positive mentors. You could say something like: …Many children in the world don’t have positive mentors at home. A teacher is often the one person in a child’s life who is a stable mentor that the child can lean upon. I chose to become a teacher because I believe all children need a positive mentor that instils in them an interest in the world and a belief that they can make something of themselves.
I want to improve children’s lives. You could say something like: …Being a teacher will give me the power to make children’s lives better. Learning opens doors to new opportunities, ways of thinking and paths in life that children wouldn’t have had before me. I am inspired by the idea of helping a child who is sad, uncertain and lacks confidence to see their own potential for creating a fulfilling life for themselves.

All three of those ideas still skirt around the idea that helping children have fun is something you want to see happen, but they also point out that there’s something deeper here than the idea that children should have fun: they should have fun for a reason. That reason could be so they learn more, develop an interest in the world, or see that their lives are full of potential.

Note that in my three examples above, I never used the word ‘fun’: it’s too much of a red flag for your markers.

2. Explain how teaching helps the world! Here’s how.

Have you ever heard someone say that ‘Teaching is a noble profession’? Well, it is. And this is something you really should be talking about in your essay on why you want to become a teacher.

Your teacher will be impressed by your understanding that teaching is a profession that keeps the world turning. Without teachers, where would we be? Probably back in the dark ages where people couldn’t read or write, technology wasn’t advancing very quickly at all, and people mostly lived in ignorance of their world.

So, being a teacher is has a bigger social purpose. As a teacher, you’ll be an important piece of society. You’ll be one of the army of tens – no, hundreds – of thousands of people helping future generations to propel our world towards better days. Below are some ways teaching helps the world. You can start these off with “I want to become a teacher because…”

I want to help future generations solve the problems of today. Being a teacher gives you the opportunity to propel students to greater heights. The children in your classrooms will be the people who solve climate change (oh, goodness, I hope so!), create the technologies to make our lives more comfortable, and get us out of the ecological, economic and political messes we seem to have gotten ourselves into!
I want to help the future generations become good citizens. There’s a concept called the ‘ hidden curriculum ’. This concept points to the fact that children learn more at school than what’s in the tests. They also learn how to get along, manners, democratic values and the importance of sharing. These soft skills are more than just a by-product of education. They’re incredibly important for showing our students how to get along in our society.
I want to inspire future generations to create a more equal world. A lot of what we talk about at school are moral issues: what’s the right and wrong thing to do? How do our actions ensure or hinder equality of races, genders and social classes? As a teacher, you will be instilling in children the idea that the decisions they make will lead to a more or less equal world. And of course, we all want a more equal world for our children.

These points are some higher-order points that will help you teacher see that you’re becoming a teacher for more than ‘fun’. You’re becoming a teacher because you see the noble purpose in teaching. If you do this right, you’ll surely impress your teacher.

3. Discuss your commitment to community. Here’s how.

Teachers are at the center of communities. Parents take their children to school, drop them off, then go to work. They busily get on with their jobs: architect, shop assistant, nurse, builder, and so on… Then, they all come back at the end of the day to collect their children from school.

School is one of the few things that brings all of these different members of a community together. Parents gather around the pick up location to gather their kids, and there they stand around and chat about sports and politics and community issues.

School is at the heart of community.

And you, as a teacher, will be one of the respected members of that community: there to serve all the members of the community by helping to raise their children with the values of the community in which you live.

You can talk about this as a central reason why you want to be a teacher. How about you start off with: “I want to become a teacher because…”

I want to give back to the community I grew up in. You could say …I grew up in a close-knit community where we all looked out for one another. Being a teacher will give me the opportunity to give back to my friends and mentors in the town who need someone to raise their children who they trust will do a great job.
I want to be a part of helping my community thrive. You could talk about how you are from a growing community that needs good quality, respectable people who will educate future members of your community. As a teacher, you will be at the heart of ensuring your local town remains a great place to live.
I want to be a part of my community’s decision-making processes. Teachers hold a certain authority: they know how students learn, and they usually have a very deep understanding of what is best for children in order to ensure they thrive. You can talk about how you want to become a person with deep knowledge about the children in your community so you can help guide you community’s decisions around how to raise their young people.

Note that in this group of ideas, ‘community’ represents the close-knit town in which you live, whereas in point 2, I talked about ‘society’, which was the bigger picture of the future of our nation or world rather than just your town.

4. Discuss the personality traits you think you can bring to the role. Here’s how.

You should show how you have reflected on the requirements of the role of teaching and thought about whether you have the personality traits that are required.

Why? Well, you need to be able to show that you know what being a teacher is all about… and that you think you’d be good at it.

So, let’s dive in to 5 personality traits that teachers have, and how you can show you have those traits:

Patience. Patience is an enormously popular skill for teachers to have. You’ll have kids who just don’t understand concepts one iota, and you’ve got to sit there and work with them until they get it. It’s tedious, let me tell you!
Compassion. Patience and compassion go hand-in-hand. If you don’t feel empathy for the kid who’s struggling super hard at learning, you’ll get pretty mad and just give up. You might also say some mean things to the kid! So, compassion is really necessary if you want to become a good teacher.
Open minded. Teachers always need to be learning new things. We often talk about the importance of learning with students more than directly teaching If you set a student a task, you’ll be sending them out to gather as much information on the topic as possible. They’ll often come back with new knowledge and you will want to praise them for teaching you something new.
Enthusiasm. Let me tell you, when it’s Wednesday afternoon in the middle of a hot school week and everyone’s depressed and flat there’s one person to rally the troops: you! Teachers need to wake up every morning, put their happy face on, and march into the classroom with boundless enthusiasm. It’ll motivate your students and make them feel welcome in the learning environment.
Generosity. You need to be generous with your time and praise. You need to be constantly thinking about the students in your care and doing anything you can to help them learn, instil in them a love of learning, and give them the confidence to try anything. Teachers need to be very generous people.

There’s a ton more traits that make a good teacher that you can talk about. These are just a few. Go forth and learn more, and add them to your essay!

5. Conclude with the things you still need to learn. Here’s how.

One more thing: good teachers are constantly learning. As someone studying to be a teacher, you need to remember that there’s a long way to go before you have all the answers. Heck, I’ve been a teacher for nearly a decade and I’m not even half way towards knowing everything about being a good teacher.

So, conclude your essay by highlighting that you understand what the role of a teacher is in society and the key competencies required of a teacher; but then go further and mention your enthusiasm to learn more about the profession over the coming years.

Here’s 5 things you can mention that you still need to learn:

How to teach difficult students. Some students hate school – mostly because of their terrible experiences in the past. You need to learn to get through to difficult students, and this takes time and patience to learn the art of inspiring the uninspired.
How to work with difficult parents. Oh boy, you’ll have a lot of these. You can highlight this as one of the key things you want to work on in the coming years: again, you’ll need to draw on that skill of patience (as well as the skill of diplomacy ) when it comes time to deal with an angry parent.
Diverse strategies for teaching. There are a lot of different ways to go about teaching. Over the years you’ll pick up on the various strategies and tricks different teachers have to help children learn.
Classroom management. This is one of the hardest things young teachers need to learn. And really, it just takes time. Discuss how this is something you want to focus on, and how you’ll use mentors to really work on this skill.
What works and what doesn’t. Great teachers have this intuitive knowledge about what works and what doesn’t, all based upon their deep experience and trial-and-error. The only way to learn to teach is to do it. Over the coming years, you’ll be learning about this. A lot.

You’ll only need one or two paragraphs on this final point, but it’s a great way to end your essay on why you want to become a teacher. It’ll show your humility and eagerness to take on one of the noblest professions in the world.

If you want to learn to write a top notch conclusion, you might also like my post on the 5 C’s Conclusion method .

Before you finish up your essay, you might want to check out my awesome posts on how to improve your essays, like these ones:

How to write a killer Introduction
My perfect paragraph formula , and
How to edit your essay like a pro .

I promised 19 thoughtful points to make in your essay about why you want to be a teacher. Here they are, all summed up in one final list:

Say you want to help children learn more effectively.
Say you want to ensure children have positive mentors.
Say you want to improve children’s lives.
Say you want to help future generations solve the problems of today.
Say you want to help the future generations become good citizens.
Say you want to inspire future generations to create a more equal world.
Say you want to give back to the community you grew up in.
Say you want to be a part of helping your community thrive.
Say you want to be a part of your community’s decision-making processes.
Say you want to share your patience with your students.
Say you want to share your compassion with your students.
Say you want to learn from your students (be ‘open minded’)
Say you want to share your enthusiasm for learning with your students.
Say you want to share your generosity with your students.
Say you’re interested in learning how to teach difficult students.
Say you’re interested in learning how to work with difficult parents.
Say you’re interested in learning diverse strategies for teaching,
Say you’re interested in learning to master classroom management.
Say you’re interested in learning what works and what doesn’t in teaching.

Chris Drew (PhD)

Dr. Chris Drew is the founder of the Helpful Professor. He holds a PhD in education and has published over 20 articles in scholarly journals. He is the former editor of the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education. [Image Descriptor: Photo of Chris]

Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ 10 Conditioned Response Examples
Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ 25 Humanistic Psychology Examples
Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ 17 Behaviorism Examples
Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ 25 Positive Psychology Examples

7 reasons why becoming a teacher might be right for you

Teacher sitting in circle with preschool students

Teachers have a profound impact on students, molding their futures and imparting life lessons. This guide helps answer the following questions you may have about why you should become a teacher, including:

Why is teaching a good career?
Why should someone want to be a teacher?
How do I answer why I want to be a teacher?
Why teaching is a good career?
Why is it important that we are teachers?

This guide has seven great reasons to help you find the answer you need and also explores the perks that make teaching a rewarding profession beyond the classroom.

Is becoming a teacher right for you?

If you’re thinking of becoming a teacher, you’re likely weighing the pros and cons of the job. No job is perfect, life and careers have unavoidable stressors and tasks that you may like less than others. But if you’re considering a career in education, it’s important to ask yourself why you want to become a teacher. Luckily for you, we’ve got seven great reasons to help you get started.

1. You can make a difference.

Becoming a teacher means you’ll be molding future generations through the curriculum you set and bits of personal wisdom you impart. You’ll have the ability and power to teach life lessons as well as core subjects. There’s a good chance that you may be spending more waking hours with these children than their own parents. This means you’ll be the one to help teach them social skills, time management, conflict resolution, how to cope with stressors and how to focus on a task.

If we were lucky, we had a teacher who is indelible in our minds. They showed how much they cared about us and their subject, they inspired us to be better, push harder, go further. Now is your turn to be that teacher for someone else.

2. You’ll get variety in your days.

If you teach high school, you may teach the same lesson content several times in one day, but with new faces and personalities each period, it’s unlikely that the actual lesson will unfold the same way twice. There’s always the chance that students will ask different questions, have different struggles and different reactions to the subject matter. Your days will likely be interesting and varied, making for days that don’t feel as monotonous or sluggish.

3. You can share your love of learning.

4. you’ll have great job security..

Teaching is also a skill that can transfer nearly anywhere. If you train and become a certified teacher, you’ll be able to work almost anywhere in the world. Whether you’re teaching English or a special subject, you could theoretically teach and explore the globe at the same time. International schools and education programs are expanding globally and look for instructors who have trained and are certified.

5. Fun is encouraged

Teaching is also a highly social job. Becoming a teacher means you’ll be joining a team of colleagues who you can lean on in hard times and laugh with during the good. You’ll be interacting with your fellow faculty members as well as students and their parents. Becoming a teacher means becoming a key member of the community as you get to know families.

6. You’ll have a pretty great schedule.

The holidays that teachers get are undoubtedly a pretty great perk of the job. If you become a teacher you may get nearly eight weeks off each summer, paid time off in winter and spring. Most teachers also get paid holidays in addition to the breaks and professional development days without students so that they can have a quiet work day.

7. There are intangible rewards.

But nothing can beat the moment when a student who has been struggling with a concept “gets” it. The sight of their joy when it “clicks” for them and they celebrate their accomplishment is likely one of the greatest rewards of teaching.

This is more than a job.

Whether you’re already an administrator looking for ways to advocate for yourself and your colleagues, or an aspiring school principal looking ahead for ways to fully prepare for the position, consider how an online master's in educational administration from a Top 10 Best Education School (among public universities) 4 can help you achieve your goals to the best of your ability.

Retrieved on September 23, 2019, from suttontrust.com/research-paper/great-teaching/
Retrieved on September 23, 2019, from forbes.com/sites/petergreene/2019/09/05/we-need-to-stop-talking-about-the-teacher-shortage/

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What Motivates You to Teach—and Inspires You When You Need a Boost

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Managing Yourself
Perspectives

E ducators have spent the last two years trudging through the muck and overcoming the various challenges thrown their way. Now many are soon to take a well-deserved break—which will end much too quickly, as they always do. So let’s relish this moment and reflect: What keeps you in this job, anyway?

To start that conversation, we recently asked you to share what motivates you to come back to the classroom each term—no matter the challenges—and what strategies you use to give yourself a burst of inspiration when needed. Here’s what you had to say.

Q. What motivates and inspires you to keep teaching, no matter the challenges?

Exequiel Hernandez, Max and Bernice Garchik Family Presidential Associate Professor, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania: More than anything else, it’s the students. I think of the love and responsibility I have toward them. They’re putting an enormous amount of trust in me, hoping that they’ll learn something useful for their professional and personal development. They’re also paying a lot of money for each minute of class. If I can make it about them and not me, it’s really motivating.

Lilian Ajayi-Ore, adjunct professor, New York University School of Professional Studies: I am inspired by my passion for teaching and my intrinsic commitment to supporting students in the classroom and in navigating their careers post-program.

“More than anything else, it’s the students.” Exequiel Hernandez

why do you want to teach in your community essay

Pedro Monagas Asensio, STEM education professor and research professor, Polytechnic University of Catalonia: Being a reference and a guide to my students—while avoiding being a theoretician without practical resources—is what motivates me. I always try to ensure my syllabus has content and practical meaning to stimulate my students. I also try to set an example for my students, both as a person and as a professional, and connect with them as much as possible. After graduation, many of my students working in the industry consult me and inform me of their professional advances.

I am also motivated by having the ability to make educational visits to industrial companies and to invite professionals to my classroom to give my students a master class.

Susan Lee, lecturer at the Centre for English Language Communication, National University of Singapore: Meeting new students, testing iterations of teaching approaches, and refreshing and customizing content that reflects dynamic changes in reality are all immensely rewarding experiences of teaching term after term. It always excites me to motivate students to learn and apply skills in their world immediately.

It’s a priority for me that students recognize the relevance and usefulness of classroom learning in authentic settings. This includes integrating examples that are current and of interest to my students. Often, these are drawn from research and reflections of related trends and news. Last year, as the demand for office space fell during the pandemic, I created a proposal-writing task that required real estate students to suggest ways to re-configure office spaces for lease. Discussing real-world challenges and relevance motivates students to communicate their ideas more persuasively.

Nellie El Enany, assistant professor, School of Business, The American University in Cairo: I get excited about learning new things—whether it be through podcasts, documentaries, or the news—and always want to share what I learn with my students. I want to not only teach my students and pass on invaluable information, but also inspire them, particularly when it relates to how they can be activists—social or corporate—and changemakers in society.

Before the start of term, I always think about classes that were fantastic. I wonder if they will be the same and hope that they will be even better, and perhaps that desire to make each term more exciting and innovative than previous ones is what drives me to start all over again with a new dose of passion.

Q. What strategies do you use to give yourself an extra boost of inspiration when you need it?

Hernandez: I find a quiet place a few minutes before class where I can ponder and pray to focus my thoughts and emotions. I express gratitude for the opportunity to be with my students for a few minutes that day. I visualize the students, imagine what they might need, and anticipate what the most positive interaction with them might look like.

I also plan exactly what will happen during the first moment of that day’s class—if I can get that right, the rest flows more easily. If it’s a particularly hard day to get motivated, I remember past successes: students from prior semesters who expressed gratitude, conversations in which we learned deeply from one another, and stuff like that. It’s all about getting into a student-focused mindset instead of a professor-focused mindset.

“I became more active in participating in academic events and programming—working with my departments on critical initiatives and offering myself as a resource.” Lilian Ajayi-Ore

Ajayi-Ore: Teaching through the pandemic wasn’t easy emotionally for me, and I know it was the same for my fellow educators. For an extra boost of inspiration, I became more active in participating in academic events and programming—working with my departments on critical initiatives and offering myself as a resource.

The other thing I did was increase my coping mechanism knowledge by being proactive in reading interviews and articles about how other faculty cope with various academic situations.

Asensio: Some of the projects my students work on in class become real products for the market. The satisfaction of knowing that my students go out to the labor market giving work and not asking for it, and that they leave my teachings generating and licensing industrial properties such as patents and trademarks, makes me proud.

Lee: I take breaks and get inspired by trekking (long hikes), reading resources on professional sharing platforms like The Marginalian , news sources, and thoughtful sharing from individuals like Susan Cain , Simon Sinek , and Adam Grant .

I am often refreshed and recharged with a mini routine change or engagement in novel challenges. Learning something new is my energy booster. A quick way to do this is to try a new recipe or navigate a different hike. During vacation, I do workshops like pottery. These activities give me the headspace to distance myself from the day-to-day thinking patterns, which are geared toward completing work-related tasks. My own struggle to learn also develops empathy for challenged learners.

“I am often refreshed and recharged with a mini routine change or engagement in novel challenges. Learning something new is my energy booster.” Susan Lee

Enany: I’ve been lucky at my university to be able to teach so many different courses and integrate new and up-to-date research and topics into existing ones. Many of my students, past and present, know that I am passionate about community work with stray dogs in Cairo, the natural environment, teaching children in my community, and visiting orphanages. This always keeps me energetic and humble, and I love getting my students involved in any community work I do.

I am really proud of so many of my students for being social activists and coming along to events and activities around a whole range of community initiatives. Seeing them do this always keeps me inspired.

Staying grateful and happy, as cliche as it sounds, is something I always try to focus on. I’m grateful for being able to be back physically in the classroom post–COVID-19, for being able to learn from my students, and for being connected to so many fantastic educators around the world.

You’re Not in This Alone

Although we weren’t surprised to hear that your passion for ideas and your deep respect for your students are the main reasons many of you stay motivated to teach each term, we were touched by the depth of your responses. If anything, they remind us that we are all in this together, even if we have different ways of managing stress and rejuvenating our energy.

For those of you striving to reignite that spark, try reaching out to colleagues or friends who can share their own stories and motivation tactics. You may just find another tool to help keep you going.

Join the conversation by letting us know how you stay motivated to teach.

Exequiel (Zeke) Hernandez is the Max and Bernice Garchik Family Presidential Associate Professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He studies how global networks created by human migration and corporate partnerships affect the innovation, internationalization, and performance of organizations. He has won three Emerging Scholar awards and was selected by Poets & Quants as one of the Best 40 Under 40 business professors in the world. He also provides training to executives from leading companies globally.

Lilian Ajayi-Ore is a faculty member at Columbia University and New York University School of Professional Studies. She teaches digital marketing, interactive marketing, and data analytics. She is also a digital marketing strategist and big data analytics executive with over 16 years of industry expertise helping brands and organizations identify key market trends and implement marketing strategies.

Pedro Monagas Asensio is a STEM education professor and research professor at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, Spain, CRESCA Food Safety and Control Research Center.

Susan Lee is a lecturer at the Centre for English Language Communication, National University of Singapore. She designs and facilitates workshops on English as a medium of instruction, professional communication, job interviews, networking, and internship preparation. Besides communication-related subjects, Lee is currently teaching a Critique and Expression module she developed on film adaptation.

Nellie El Enany is an assistant professor in the School of Business at The American University in Cairo. El Enany teaches human resource management, entrepreneurship and innovation, international business, and entrepreneurial leadership for solving critical global issues. El Enany’s research interests center on issues of identity, including identity construction, stigma, legitimacy, and identity work.

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Our Mission

Doing Life in the Community Where You Teach

Engaging with people who live around your school can help you build the strong relationships with students that are so helpful to their learning.

Teaching and leading, specifically teaching and leading well, is hard work—even more so amid a global pandemic. Educators and students at various levels are spent, and some are on the brink of burnout. However, I’ve witnessed a renewed commitment and excitement from my colleagues with their return to full-time, in-person learning with students.

Certainly, remote learning, while not the most optimal of solutions, was necessary to protect student health and safety. But humans are social creatures. Although relationship building can happen remotely, it’s better when it’s in person in order to generate true fellowship with each other. Being back in school buildings allows educators to build relationships even more to support student learning.

Build Relationships for Fellowship

For teachers on the cusp of burnout, relationship building with students and families may be a way to remain encouraged despite the challenges this year. For some, that may not be enough. But it’s really important not to abandon our natural desire for fellowship. Therefore, I believe that teachers can take the extra step to build relationships with students and families, and a great way to do that is to “do life” with the community where they teach—especially for teachers who don’t live in the neighborhood.

Where I teach, in Camden, New Jersey, many of the teachers are White; that’s the case for public, charter, and private schools. All our White educators, in addition to some educators of color, live outside of Camden and are only in the area when they come to work. Meanwhile, our students live, learn, and play in the city. Personally, although I am from Camden, I live in the suburbs of Camden County.

How can we say we can relate to our students if we don’t engage with their communities? How can we say we’re employing best practices for crafting a pedagogical stance and instructional methodology when we don’t account for the communities where we teach? When we fail to understand the dynamics of where our students live, we fail to account for the things (politics, culture, and socioeconomics) that shape students’ and their families’ experience of teaching and learning.

Without an understanding of where we teach—the politics, economics, and culture of the community, and how systemic and institutional racism has shaped those things—we can’t understand who we teach. But if we commit to doing life with the community where we teach, we can strengthen our pedagogy, instructional practice, and understanding of the students and families we serve daily.

What Doing Life Looks Like

Doing life in the community simply means substantively engaging with the community where you teach. It’s not as complicated as it sounds; however, it does require that you step outside of your comfort zone, particularly if you’re a White educator teaching in a Black and Latino community, like many of my colleagues. You may not be used to the role of minority, but if you’re willing, your engagement will go a long way in making you a better educator. Below are some ways to do life where you teach.

1. Learn about the politics and culture of the community by spending time there. Attend events and happenings to gain a sense of the community. Participate in community, grassroots, city council, and city planning meetings. You could sit in with a community group discussing issues of the day or maybe attend your local school board or board of trustees meeting. Attend a faith service or a cultural event, or volunteer with a nonprofit organization. Being an educator is your entry point to engage with community members, as someone interested in knowing the community better in order to understand and educate their students.

2. Invest in the students and families of the community by spending some of your money there. Rather than just collect a paycheck and leave, take time to spend your money in the community. Patronize local eateries, use community pharmacies, purchase goods and services in the community (such as cell phones or other electronics).

As much as people speak about wanting to support small businesses, Black and Brown communities are filled with small businesses, from barbershops to corner bodegas. Many of the students you teach come from families that own and operate those small businesses. Take time to give back and invest in the community outside the classroom as you do daily inside the classroom.

3. Partner with community stakeholders; collaborate on developing (and executing) lessons and/or units. One of the great things about being active in the community—patronizing businesses and attending local events—is that you connect with others, thereby building your network. Building your network means having a host of community stakeholders and activists with whom you can collaborate to make lessons and units more meaningful and empowering for students. Normally, teachers invite community members as guest speakers. But take the extra step to incorporate community folks in curating what and how students learn.

Engaging people from the community will go a long way toward building capital with the community and your students. Students may learn in school, but they also learn at home and in their communities. Our students have many teachers. We can work with them to show students that learning is fun and impactful and that collaboration strengthens the sense of community.

4. Take what you’ve learned about the community to your home community to decolonize the thinking of others. Folks often have preconceived ideas about communities they don’t visit regularly. You may work in such a community, and your friends and family might have preconceptions about the people of the community where you work. You can illuminate their humanity with your network of friends and family through casual conversation or critical confrontation. You may even invite them to join you when you participate in an activity. In any case, you have the power to use your breakthrough to help someone else see that we have more in common than we think, and yet systemic racism has caused fractures in society.

It’s important for your network of friends and family to be aware of what systemic racism looks like—using education as an example, it looks like a majority of White teachers, disproportionate disciplining of Black children, and funding inequities that negatively impact districts where Black and Latino students are the majority. Introduce to them the reality that schools are White institutional spaces, and challenge them to consider how such spaces oppress and deny people of color, particularly the poor among them. You can use this as an opportunity to build community by exposing your network to the truths of our society that they may have never considered.

Doing life with those who reside where you teach can illuminate the humanity of people you might not otherwise associate with.

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How to Write the “Community” and “Issue” Yale Essays

This article was written based on the information and opinions presented by Hale Jaeger in a CollegeVine livestream. You can watch the full livestream for more info.

What’s Covered

The “community” essay: choosing a community, structuring the “community” essay, the “issue” essay: choosing your issue, issues to avoid, structuring the “issue” essay.

In this article, we discuss strategies for writing Yale University ’s “Community” and “Issue” supplemental essays. Applicants using the Common App or Coalition Application to apply to Yale are required to choose one of these two prompts and respond to it in 400 words or fewer. The first prompt is the “Issue” essay prompt, which reads:

Yale carries out its mission “through the free exchange of ideas in an ethical, interdependent, and diverse community.” Reflect on a time when you exchanged ideas about an important issue with someone holding an opposing view. How did the experience lead you either to change your opinion or to sharpen your reasons for holding onto it? (400 words)

The second prompt is the “Community” essay prompt:

Reflect on a time when you have worked to enhance a community to which you feel connected. Why have these efforts been meaningful to you? You may define community however you like. (400 words)

In this article, we discuss choosing topics for each of these essays and strategies to structure them.

The Yale “Community” essay prompt clearly states that you can define community however you wish, which means you can choose to write about any kind of community that you feel you are a member of. When considering potential communities, start by brainstorming any groups you are part of that have defined boundaries, such as your town, school, team, or religious organization.

There are also informal communities that you could choose from, such as your friend group, family, coworkers, or neighborhood. Even though these groups have less of a formal definition, they are still communities. What matters most is that the community that you choose is important to you, that you have contributed to it, and that you have learned something from it.

When structuring this essay, think about it in three sections. The first introduces the community, the second demonstrates your contributions to the community, and the third explains what the community has given and taught you. As you write, keep in mind that this essay is a two-way street; you want to show what you have given to your community and what it has given you.

Introduce the Community

The first step in writing this essay is to introduce the community. Explain who is part of the community and what the community is like. Highlight the community’s structure by demonstrating how you are part of it and how you interact with your peers, superiors, or inferiors within the group. It is also important to depict the community’s dynamic in this part of the essay. For example, is it fun, relaxed, and loving, or is it rigorous, challenging, and thought provoking?

Show What You’ve Contributed

The next section of this essay should discuss your engagement with this community and what you’ve contributed to it. Consider what you’ve done, what initiatives you’ve brought to the community, and what your role is within it. You can also highlight anything that you had to give up to be part of the community.

Show What You’ve Learned

The last part of this essay should discuss what you have gained and learned from this community. For this portion, consider things that the community has given and taught you, as well as ways that it has helped you grow. Think about how this community has shaped who you are and who you are becoming.

The other prompt option is the “Issue” essay. The first step for this one is to define what your issue is. It doesn’t matter what you choose, as long as it’s something that has enough nuance for you to talk about it in a complex and intelligent way.

Make sure it’s an issue of some relevance to you; otherwise, it will come across as dispassionate. As you write this essay, you should show that you are somebody who cares about an issue that they think is significant.

Grand Issues

When selecting an issue, you can either choose a grand one or a local one. Grand issues are big, unsolved problems that are common in society, such as cancer, homelessness, or food insecurity. If you do choose a grand issue, remind yourself of its personal importance. While grand issues are full of nuance, they may lack personal meaning. Examples of personal connections to grand issues could be if you have encountered homelessness, lived with food insecurity, or have lost someone to cancer.

Local Issues

Another topic option is to write about an issue that is local. For example, maybe your high school has a teaching staff that doesn’t represent the diversity of the student body. While this is not a global issue, it’s something that strongly affects you and your community.

Perhaps you live in a town that is directly suffering from the opioid crisis, or you have divorced parents and have started an activist group for children of divorced parents. Both of these examples of local issues also have personal importance.

When choosing a topic to write about, avoid issues that you don’t have any connection to and that aren’t personally important. These are often problems that are too grand and can’t be made personal, such as world peace.

Another category of issues to avoid is anything that doesn’t align with Yale’s values. Yale, like most universities in the United States, generally has a liberal lean. As such, it is likely not in your best interest to write a strong defense of socially conservative values. While there are values that you are free to hold and express—and Yale welcomes people of all backgrounds and ideologies—this essay is not necessarily the best place to express them.

You are most likely applying to Yale because it’s a place that you want to be and have something in common with. This essay is a great opportunity to emphasize the values that you share with the university rather than the things that divide you. Since a reader only has five to seven minutes to go over your entire application, you don’t want them to come away with the sense that you are somebody who won’t thrive at Yale.

Define the Issue and Highlight Past Experiences

When writing the “Issue” essay, start by identifying the issue and sharing how you came across it. Then, provide insight into why it is meaningful to you and your relationship with it.

Next, show the reader how you have already engaged with the problem by detailing your past with the issue.

Discuss Future Plans to Approach the Issue

After this, you can look forward and discuss your future with this issue. A great strategy is to write about how your Yale education will address the problem and how your field of study relates to it. You can also highlight any Yale-specific programs or opportunities that will give you insight or context for tackling the issue.

Alternatively, if there is something about this issue that Yale’s academic flexibility will enable you to explore, you can share that in this part of the essay. For example, maybe you are interested in health policy and plan to take classes in the sciences. You also want to take classes in the history of health, science, and medicine, as well as political science and economics courses, which you plan to utilize to write new healthcare policies.

Another option is to focus on an aspect of Yale’s community, such as peers, professors, or mentors who will help develop your ability to navigate the issue. Ultimately, you want to demonstrate in this essay that what (and how) you learn at Yale will prepare you to take action and move forward with confronting your issue in the future.

What it Means to Serve Your Community

By David Nungaray

January 29, 2019

On Serving My Community

When David Nungaray (San Antonio ‘10) joined the corps, he knew he wanted to teach in a community where he could use his bilingual skills to build deep connections with students and families. As an alum, his experience in the classroom continues to fuel his passion for serving his community.

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What Is Teach For America All About?

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An Unforgettable Lesson From My Corps Experience

When I applied to Teach For America, I knew I wanted to work somewhere in the southwest. I'd heard incredible things about the city of San Antonio, and I also knew that there would be a place where I could use the Spanish that had stayed with me.

Teach for America, especially here in San Antonio, some of the work we were doing was both about how to have high academic standards for students, while also recognizing the need for us to be culturally responsive to the community that we were serving. It's one thing to drive in and out of a community every single day, go to a school building and then leave. And it's another thing to really immerse yourself in the community that you're serving.

The way that I think about Teach For America's mission and vision is how do we bring some of the strongest leaders into the classroom to really help kids who are oftentimes underserved, so that then wherever they go — education, law or counseling or bio and medicine — that they have the opportunity to always carry the stories of their students and the communities that they served with them.

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Teacher interview questions answered: Why do you want to be a teacher?

Each of us has some values, ambitions, fears and worries . These things determine to a huge extend our career choice , though we should realize that the ambitions and fears are also determined by something–our upbringing, role models, things we experienced in our childhood. You can talk about all these things when the hiring committee inquires why you want to become a teacher , or when they ask you a similar question, for example “ What attracts you to teaching? “, or “ Why did you choose teaching as a profession? ” But what do they really want to hear from you?

First and foremost, they want to hear some enthusiasm in your voice . They want to feel that, regardless of the reasons why you opted for a teaching career, you are enthusiastic about your future, your teaching mission at their school. And they also want to hear a strong enough reason, something profound , since the strong motivation will help you get over difficult days in the classroom. And such days will undoubtedly come…

Let’s have a look at 7 sample answers to the question. The list contains some standard choices, but also a couple of strange and unconventional answers . Try to pick one that resonates with your values, and clearly explain the reasons why you want to be a teacher, and teach for many years to come.

7 sample answers to “Why do you want to be a teacher?” interview question

I chose teaching as a professions because I love the impact one can have on individual children , especially here at elementary level. Of course it’s a great responsibility , but at the same time I cannot imagine devoting my life to something else, especially since I love being around children –which is likely the second reason why I want to be a teacher. In my view, teaching is more a mission than a job really, especially in the uncertain times we live nowadays. I cannot wait to start working as a teacher.
I want to become a teacher because I believe to have the right skills, abilities, and attitude to become a good teacher. And I enjoy teaching, talking to children, listening to them , trying to understand their emotional world, and be a good role model for them. At the end of the day, we should do a job in which we see some meaningful purpose . I know that I could earn twice as much working in some big corporation analyzing some data or sitting at a computer programming another mobile application, the billionth on the app store…. But I just don’t see a point in such type of work. Teaching is a completely different story.
I just want to share my vast knowledge of history and geography with the students. I’ve been doing research in these field for years, publishing papers, going to conferences. At this stage of my professional career, however, I feel that I should hand the ball to the younger generation . It is time to share my knowledge with them, and perhaps have them better understand certain phenomenons of the modern day . History is the best teacher in this case, if you can look at it without prejudice. The proposition of helping them to see these things is highly motivating to me.
To be honest with you, my ultimate goal is to become a school principal , or even to establish a small private elementary school. But I am still young and inexperienced , and need to learn a lot from seasoned professionals. And I cannot see a better place than your school, which has an excellent reputation and renowned leadership. That’s why I want to work as a teacher here.
My goal to pay back a big favor attracts me to teaching as a profession . When I was young I struggled to find my place in life. I was a sort of an outsider, always attracted to strange ways, spending times with other outcasts. Had my episode with drugs, skipping school, and everything. But one teacher saved me from a path that would eventually lead me to a lie on the street. They showed huge confidence in my abilities , and they treated me as an equal. Certain things they said to me, and their trust, motivated me to change my ways completely. I became an excellent student, managed to quit drugs and lousy lifestyle, and eventually graduated from the university. Nothing of it would have happened, however, had I not met that one teacher… Now it is my time to help other struggling youngsters find their way. Or at least try my best to do so.
To be honest, I am very concerned about the situation in the world. The inequality of people, the widening gap between the rich and poor, the conflicts we have all around. And I do not believe that some Messiah from heaven will come and save us . We people are responsible, and education is the most powerful weapon we have in our hands–if used correctly. I want to help educate children, especially in rural areas. Help them develop the right values, the sense of self-worth, and of course an ability to think critically and question the religious and political leaders . In this way I can play my small role in helping to make the world a better place. Maybe it is just a drop in the ocean. But even the biggest ocean consists of nothing but water drops…
Teaching is a calling I’ve been following from a young age . I am not sure if I can explain it clearly, why teaching, why not social work, or healthcare. But sometimes you just hear this voice in your head, this calling in your soul, and you know that something is the right thing to do , or the right goal to follow. That’s how I have always felt about teaching, that’s the reason why I chose my school, and ultimately the reason why I sit in this interview with you right now.

Conclusion, other tough questions for your teaching job interview

Teaching is a mission, a calling. Sometimes a pleasure, and sometimes a cross you carry on your shoulders . As long as you know why you do it, however, why you are a teacher and not a manager, engineer, or doctor, you will always get over the difficult period, or over some bad words you may hear in the classroom, or even from fellow staff members.

Ensure the hiring committee that you have your reasons, that they are deeply rooted in your heart, and you won’t quit the profession after first few months. And remember that stories are the best interview answers . Narrating a story of a teacher helping you in your young age, doing something that eventually changed the course of your life, is a great idea. If you have such story, share it with your interviewers.

And if you want to simplify your interview preparation , check out my new eBook the Teacher Interview Guide , for brilliant answers to all 40 teacher interview questions (+ more). Thank you!

Other interview questions that may interest you :

What are your strengths and weaknesses as a teacher?
Teacher interview – Tell me about yourself .
Where do you see yourself in five years as a teacher?
Teacher interview – Tell us more about your teaching experience.
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Essay About Being a Teacher: Top 5 Examples and Prompts

If you are writing an essay about being a teacher, here are some examples to give you inspiration.

Without a doubt, teaching is one of the most important professions one can have. Teachers give children the lessons they must learn to face the future and contribute positively to society. They can be considered the gateway to success stories such as Oprah Winfrey , Adele , and John Legend , all of whom have cited their teachers as major inspirations to their careers.

Many educators would say that “teaching is its own reward.” However, it may be difficult to see how this is the case, especially considering the fact that being an educator entails massive amounts of stress and pressure. Teaching has actually been reported to be one of the most underpaid jobs , yet many teachers still love what they do. Why is this?

If you want to write an essay about being a teacher, whether you are one or not, you can get started by reading the 5 examples featured here.

1. Reflections on being a teacher … by Darren Koh

2. teaching in the pandemic: ‘this is not sustainable’ by natasha singer, 3. why i got rid of my teacher’s desk by matthew r. morris, 4. stress is pushing many teachers out of the profession by daphne gomez, 5. doubt and dreams by katheryn england, top writing prompts on essay about being a teacher, 1. what makes teaching so fulfilling, 2. what can you learn from being a teacher, 3. why do people become teachers, 4. should you become a teacher, 5. how have teachers helped you become who you are today.

“Although strictly speaking, based on the appointments I hold, I really do not have time to do much of it. I say teach, not lecturing. The lecturer steps up to the lectern and declaims her knowledge. She points out the difficulties in the area, she talks about solutions to problems, and she makes suggestions for reform. The focus is on the subject – the students follow. The teacher, however, needs to meet the students where they are in order to bring them to where they have to be. The focus is on the student’s ability.”

Koh writes about how he teaches, the difficulties of teaching, and what it means to be a teacher. He helps his students hone their skills and use them critically. He also discusses the difficulty of connecting with each student and focusing their attention on application rather than mere knowledge. Koh wants students to achieve their full potential; teaching to him is engaging, inspirational, and transparent. He wants readers to know that being a teacher is rewarding yet difficult, and is something he holds close to his heart.

“‘I work until midnight each night trying to lock and load all my links, lessons, etc. I never get ahead,” one anonymous educator wrote. ‘Emails, endless email. Parents blaming me because their kids chose to stay in bed, on phones, on video games instead of doing work.’”

Singer writes about the difficult life of teachers trying to balance in-person and distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. On top of the standard class routine, being a teacher during the pandemic has entailed the burden of handling students who opt for remote learning. They are faced with additional struggles, including connection issues, complaining parents, and being overworked in general- it’s as if they teach twice the number of classes as normal. This is exhausting and may prove detrimental to the American education system, according to the sources Singer cites.

“What it means to me is that I am checking (or acknowledging) my privilege as a teacher in the space of the classroom and in order to facilitate a more equitable classroom community for my students, erasing one of the pillars of that inequity is a step in the right direction. I am comfortable in my role as the head member in my classroom, and I don’t need a teacher’s desk anymore to signify that.”

Morris, an educator, writes about what teaching means to him, highlighted by his decision to remove his teacher’s desk from his classroom. Being a teacher for him is about leading the discussion or being the “lead learner,” as he puts it, rather than being an instructor. His removal of the teacher’s desk was decided upon based on his desire to help his students feel more equal and at home in class. He believes that being a teacher means being able to foster authentic connections both for and with his students.

“Teachers want to help all students achieve, and the feeling of leaving any student behind is devastating. The pressure that they put on themselves to ensure that they serve all students can also contribute to the stress.”

Gomez writes about the stress that comes with being a teacher, largely due to time constraints, lack of resources, and the number of students they must instruct. As much as they want to help their students, their environment does not allow them to touch the lives of all students equally. They are extremely pressured to uphold certain standards of work, and while they try as hard as they can, they do not always succeed. As a result, many teachers have left the profession altogether. Gomez ends her piece with an invitation for teachers to read about other job opportunities.

“Then I re-evaluate what I want for myself, and what it is that keeps me working towards my dreams. Through the goals I’ve set for myself, I can maintain focus, move past my self-doubt and succeed. By focusing on my goals, I can make a difference in the world directly around me.”

Taken from a collection of short essays, England’s essay is about why she so desperately wishes to become a teacher. She was previously able to work as a teaching assistant to her former elementary school teacher, and enjoyed imparting new knowledge unto children. Even in moments of self-doubt, she reminds herself to be confident in her dreams and hopes to be able to make a difference in the world with her future profession.

Essay about being a teacher: What makes teaching so fulfilling?

When it comes to teachers, we often hear about either “the joy of teaching” or the immense stress that comes with it. You can explore the gratitude and satisfaction that teachers feel toward their jobs, even with all the struggles they face. Read or watch the news and interviews with teachers themselves.

Research on the skills and qualifications people need to be teachers, as well as any qualities they may need to do their job well. What skills can you get from teaching? What traits can you develop? What lessons can you learn?

Despite the seemingly endless barrage of stories about the difficulties that teachers face, many people still want to teach. You can explore the reasoning behind their decisions, and perhaps get some personal insight on being a teacher as well.

Based on what you know, would you recommend teaching as a job? If you aren’t too knowledgeable on this topic, you can use the essay examples provided as guides- they present both the positive and negative aspects of being a teacher. Be sure to support your argument with ample evidence- interviews, anecdotes, statistics, and the like.

Teachers, whether in a school setting or not, have almost certainly helped make you into the person you are now. You can discuss the impact that your teachers have had on your life, for better or for worse, and the importance of their roles as teachers in forming students for the future.

Check out our guide packed full of transition words for essays .

If you’re still stuck, check out our general resource of essay writing topics .

Martin is an avid writer specializing in editing and proofreading. He also enjoys literary analysis and writing about food and travel.

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Center for Teaching

Best practices in community engaged teaching.

By Joe Bandy, Assistant Director, CFT

Academic Content

Service Placement
Student Reflection

Jeffrey Howard has offered ten principles of that may serve as valuable guidelines for planning high impact community engaged courses and projects, which are excerpted here by the University of Minnesota’s Community Service-Learning Center . [9]

In addition to these principles, the scholarship on community engaged teaching suggests other important considerations for faculty. These are derived from various sources: [10]

Project-Content Links . The thorough integration of project and academic content is associated with the greatest synergy of community engagement and learning experiences. This means that learning goals and community engagement goals should be closely aligned. Content should inform students about various dimensions of their community project and, likewise, community engagement should allow opportunities to learn course content at deeper levels. Without this integration, student learning and community impact can be limited.

Community Partnership

Engagement . Fundamentally, community service projects should take place in ways that allow students to have significant community impact. This means that the service component should meet a public good as determined by an open and thoughtful collaboration between faculty and community partners.

Reciprocity . Reciprocity means that everyone involved in a project – student, faculty, community members – act as both teacher and learner, and that everyone regards one another as equal colleagues. [11] This ensures good communications and planning throughout the project, maximizes active learning, ensures mutual impact, and empowers community voice.

Community Voice . Community voice in a community-based project has an impact on student cultural understanding, and can shape their experiential and ethical learning. [12] For this learning to occur, community members should be involved in every stage of the project and course, when possible. It is important to encourage and support community involvement in project planning, student orientation, guest lectures, site visits, class discussions, progress reports, final presentations, and project evaluation. Not only does this permit greater cultural understanding and ethical development, but it ensures deeper community partnerships and more impactful projects.

Exposure to Diversity . Exposure to diversity has an impact on students, particularly personal outcomes, such as identity development and cultural understanding. Again, community involvement is important at every phase of a project to make certain that this learning can take place.

Public Dissemination . To guarantee community engagement and impact, the results of the project should be shared with the partner, if not with a larger public such as the campus and public communities

Without opportunities for students to reflect upon their community work in the context of course content, the learning potential of community projects is limited. There should be some mechanism that encourages students to link their community experience to course content and to reflect upon why the community work is important. Below are some reflection exercises or assignments that are particularly helpful in community based projects: [13]

Personal Journals provide a way for students to express thoughts and feelings about the community experience throughout the semester. Structured journals provide guidance so that students link personal learning with course content. Click on each journal type to learn more.

Critical Incident Journal

This journal includes a set of prompts that ask students to consider their thoughts and reactions and articulate the action they plan to take in the future: Describe a significant event that occurred as part of the community experience. Why was this event significant to you? What did you learn from this experience? How will this incident influence your future behavior? What new action steps will you take next time?

Three-part Journal

Each page of the weekly journal entry is divided into thirds; description, analysis, application. In the top section, students describe some aspect of the community experience. In the middle section, students analyze how course content relates to the community experience. And in the application section students comment on how the experience and course content can be applied to their personal or professional life.

Highlighted Journal

Before students submit their reflective journal, they reread personal entries and, using a highlighter, mark sections of the journal that directly relate to concepts and terms discussed in the text or in class. This makes it easier for both the student and the instructor to identify the academic connections made during the reflection process.

Key-phrase Journal

The instructor provides a list of terms and key phrases at the beginning of the semester for students to include in journal entries. Evaluation is based on the use and demonstrated understanding and application of the term.

Double-entry Journal

Students describe their personal thoughts and reactions to the service experience on the left page of the journal, and write about key issues from class discussion or readings on the right page of the journal. Students then draw arrows indicating relationships between their personal experience and course content.

Dialogue Journal

Students submit loose-leaf journal pages to the instructor for comments every two weeks. While labor intensive for the instructor, this can provide regular feedback to students and prompt new questions for students to consider during the semester. Dialogue journals also can be read and responded to by a peer.

Directed writings ask students to consider the community experience within the framework of course content. The instructor identifies a section from the text book or class readings (e.g., quotes, statistics, key concepts) and structures a question for students to answer in 1-2 pages. A list of directed writings can be provided at the beginning of the semester.

Experiential research papers ask students to identify an underlying social issue they have encountered at the community site. Students then research the social issue. Based on their experience and library research, students make recommendations to the agency for future action. Class presentations of the experiential research paper can culminate semester work.

Online discussion is a way to facilitate reflection with the instructor and peers involved in community projects. Students can write weekly summaries and identify critical incidents that occurred at the community site. Instructors can post questions for consideration and topics for directed writings. A log of the e-mail discussions can be printed as data to the group about the learning that occurred from the community experience.

Ethical case studies give students the opportunity to analyze a situation and gain practice in ethical decision making as they choose a course of action. Students write up a case study of an ethical dilemma they have confronted at the community site, including a description of the context, the individuals involved, and the controversy or event that created the ethical dilemma. Case studies are read in class; students discuss the situation and possible responses.

Community engagement portfolios contain evidence of both processes and products completed and ask students to assess their work in terms of the learning objectives of the course. Portfolios might contain any of the following: community engagement contract, weekly log, personal journal, impact statement, directed writings, photo essay, products completed during the community experience (e.g., agency brochure, lesson plans, advocacy letters). Students write an evaluation essay providing a self-assessment of how effectively they met the learning and community objectives of the course.

Personal narratives are based on journal entries written regularly during the semester. Students create a fictional story about themselves as a learner in the course. This activity sets a context for reflection throughout the semester with attention directed to a finished product that is creative in nature. Personal narratives give students an opportunity to describe their growth as a learner.

Exit cards are brief note card reflections turned in at the end of each class period. Students are asked to reflect on disciplinary content from class discussion and explain how this information relates to their community involvement. Exit cards can be read by instructors in order to gain a better understanding of student experiences. Instructors may want to summarize key points and communicate these back to students during the next class.

Class presentations might be three-minute updates that occur each month, or thirty minute updates during the final two class periods during which students present their final analysis of the community activities and offer recommendations to the agency for additional programming. Agency personnel can be invited to hear final presentations.

Weekly log is a simple listing of the activities completed each week at the community site. This is a way to monitor work and provide students with an overview of the contribution they have made during the semester.

Receiving quality feedback from professors or community partners has an impact on students’ self reported learning, use of course skills, and commitment to community engagement.

Formative Evaluation : Assessment of student progress towards the learning and community goals are crucial for project completion and quality learning. It also can help the faculty or community partner address any problems that might arise mid-semester before they negatively impact projects. This can be done through regular if short progress reports that are structured into the writing for the course.

Summative Evaluation : End of course evaluations help ensure the success of the next community project as a learning and community building experience. How successful was the project for the agency, the people who use the agency, and the students These types of questions typically are not a part of end-of-semester student evaluations and therefore should be the subject of anonymous surveys and class discussions organized by faculty. Likewise, community partner project evaluations can help to improve partnerships and project designs in the future, and improve campus-community relations.

Other CFT Guides About Community Engaged Teaching

What is Service Learning or Community Engagement?
A Word on Nomenclature
Community Engaged Teaching Step by Step
Challenges and Opportunities of Community Engaged Teaching
Additional Resources

Teaching Guides

Online Course Development Resources
Principles & Frameworks
Pedagogies & Strategies
Reflecting & Assessing
Challenges & Opportunities
Populations & Contexts

Quick Links

Services for Departments and Schools
Examples of Online Instructional Modules

Why I Want to Be a Teacher, Essay Sample

Teaching is a noble job that requires passion, dedication, and commitment. It’s a challenging yet rewarding career with many rewards and opportunities. Thinking about becoming a teacher? Well, this essay, written with the help of custom paper writing service , will explore why I want to be a teacher, what inspired my interest in teaching, and the different roles teachers play in the lives of students.

I Want to Become a Teacher Because It Inspires Me

I have always been passionate about education and helping other people learn. Ever since I was in high school, I enjoyed attending classes as well as helping out my peers with their studies. As an adult, I realized how much of an impact teachers can have on students’ lives. Seeing the positive influence that educators had on their students made me want to become part of it too.

I had some truly incredible teachers who encouraged me to pursue my dreams and gave me the confidence that I could do anything if I put my mind to it. They inspired me with how much effort they put into making sure their students were engaged and learning in an enjoyable way. Their enthusiasm for teaching was contagious, and it made me want to become a teacher myself one day.

Being a Teacher is Very Responsible

Teachers are more than just instructors; they are mentors and role models for their students. They take on multiple roles such as educator, counselor, advisor, confidant, friend, and even parent figure at times. In addition to teaching academic content knowledge and skills necessary for success in life after school, teachers also need to be able to build meaningful relationships with their students, so they can help them develop emotionally and socially while also providing guidance when needed.

Teaching is an Important Social Role

Besides, teachers play a principal role in society because they help young people develop their minds and learn new skills. They teach students things such as reading, writing, and math, but also how to be responsible citizens of the country.

Teaching Makes it Easy to Meet Different People

I also want to be a teacher because it will allow me to work with people from all walks of life. There are many different types of people in the world, and having the opportunity to work with all of them would be amazing!

The Power of Education

Another reason I want to become a teacher is that I believe in the power of education. Education can open doors that would otherwise remain closed; it can give people opportunities they never would have had before; it can be life-changing. As a teacher, I will have the chance to help instill these values into my students while providing them with valuable knowledge that will stay with them for years to come.

Teaching Helps to Make Changes

In addition to it, teaching gives me the chance to make a difference in someone else’s life — and that’s something that money just can’t buy! When you are able to inspire someone else and watch them grow as an individual, it is incredibly rewarding.

Moreover, teaching provides you with plenty of opportunities for growth and development yourself: you get to work alongside other inspiring professionals and learn new skills every day!

Being a teacher is not just about imparting knowledge from textbooks but it’s about inspiring others to reach for greatness and supporting them through it all. It’s a complex job that requires great responsibility, but one that can be immensely rewarding when you see your students succeed because of your efforts.

That’s why I want to be a teacher – so I can make an impact on future generations by helping them reach their full potential while making sure they have fun while learning!

Tips on Writing Why I Want to be a Teacher Essay

A teacher is one of the most important professionals in any society. They are responsible for teaching students various subjects including math, science, English, and many more. If you want to become a teacher, then you should write an essay on why you want to be a teacher. To start with, you can read personal statement essay example . The essay will show your passion for education and how much you want this job. Here are some tips that will help you write an amazing essay

Give a Clear Answer to Yourself

Make sure you have an answer. The most important thing about this essay is that it has a very clear and concise point. This means that you need to be able to clearly explain why you want to become a teacher and why it’s important for you. If you can’t do this, then your essay will not be successful at all.

So make sure that before you begin writing, you know exactly what your answer will be (and how it will relate to the question). This way, when someone reads it, they will understand exactly what your intentions are with becoming a teacher and why it’s important for them too.

Use an Appropriate Tone

Choose a friendly tone for your essay so that your reader can easily understand what you are trying to say without having any confusion or difficulty in understanding. Use active voice instead of passive voice whenever possible, since it makes your writing more engaging and readable.

Narrow Your Focus

Another important step in writing your “Why I Want to Be a Teacher” Essay is to narrow your focus. You do not have to write about all the reasons why you want to teach; rather, focus on one specific reason that is important to you.

By following these tips, you can create a compelling and persuasive essay that demonstrates your commitment to becoming a teacher.

Key Reasons Why Someone Might Want to Become a Teacher

Teaching is a profession that involves shaping the minds and lives of the next generation. It can be a challenging yet rewarding career that offers many opportunities for personal and professional growth. Here are some of the key reasons why someone might want to become a teacher:

Note that these are just some of the reasons why someone might want to become a teacher. Teaching can be a fulfilling and rewarding profession for those who have a passion for education and a desire to make a difference in the lives of others.

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Becoming a Teacher: What I Learned about Myself During the Pandemic

Now, more than ever, we need to hear the voices of preservice teachers as well as in-service teachers during this pandemic. How has the pandemic affected them? In what ways has the pandemic enabled them to think about the need to really focus on what matters, what’s important? What were the gains and losses? These are very important questions for our time. In this essay, Alyssa Smith, a senior studying early childhood education, attempts to address the lessons learned from her junior year, focusing on the positive aspects of her coursework and demonstrating an imaginative, growth mindset. This essay highlights the power of students’ reflection on their own learning. But I think it does so much more meaningful contemplation than we might expect of our students in “normal” times. Alyssa gains a new appreciation for this kind of active reflection—the opportunity to think more critically; to be more thoughtful; to stop, step back, catch her breath, and rethink things. As a teacher educator and her mentor, I believe this essay represents how the gift of time to stop and reflect can open space to digest what has been experienced, and how the gift of reflective writing can create a deeper level of thinking about how experiences integrate with one’s larger narrative as a person.

About the Author

Andrew Stremmel, PhD, is professor in early childhood education at South Dakota State University. His research is in teacher action research and Reggio Emilia-inspired, inquiry-based approaches to early childhood teacher education. He is an executive editor of Voices of Practitioners .

I’ve always known I was meant to be a teacher. I could feel my passion guide my work and lead my heart through my classes. So why did I still feel as if something was missing? During the fall of my junior year, the semester right before student teaching, I began to doubt my ability to be a great teacher, as I did not feel completely satisfied in my work. What I did not expect was a global pandemic that would shut down school and move all coursework online. I broke down. I wanted to do more than simply be a good student. I wanted to learn to be a great teacher. How was I supposed to discover my purpose and find what I was missing when I couldn’t even attend my classes? I began to fret that I would never become the capable and inspirational educator that I strived to be, when I was missing the firsthand experience of being in classrooms, interacting with children, and collaborating with peers.

It wasn’t until my first full semester being an online student that I realized the pandemic wasn’t entirely detrimental to my learning. Two of my early childhood education courses, Play and Inquiry and Pedagogy and Curriculum, allowed limited yet meaningful participation in a university lab school as well as engagement with problems of substance that require more intense thinking, discussion, analysis, and thoughtful action. These problems, which I briefly discuss below, presented challenges, provocations, possibilities, and dilemmas to be pondered, and not necessarily resolved. Specifically, they pushed me to realize that the educational question for our time is not, “What do I need to know about how to teach?” Rather, it is, “What do I need to know about myself in the context of this current pandemic?” I was therefore challenged to think more deeply about who I wanted to be as a teacher and who I was becoming, what I care about and value, and how I will conduct myself in the classroom with my students.

These three foundations of teaching practice (who I want to be, what I value, and how I will conduct myself) were illuminated by a question that was presented to us students in one of the very first classes of the fall 2020 semester: “What’s happening right now in your experience that will help you to learn more about yourself and who you are becoming?” This provocation led me to discover that, while the COVID-19 pandemic brought to light (and at times magnified) many fears and insecurities I had as a prospective teacher, it also provided me with unique opportunities, time to reflect, and surprising courage that I feel would not otherwise have been afforded and appreciated.

Although I knew I wanted to be a teacher, I had never deliberately pondered the idea of what kind of teacher I wanted to be. I held the core values of being an advocate for children and helping them grow as confident individuals, but I still had no idea what teaching style I was to present. Fortunately, the pandemic enabled me to view my courses on play and curriculum as a big “look into the mirror” to discern what matters and what was important about becoming a teacher.

As I worked through the rest of the course, I realized that this project pushed me to think about my identity as an educator in relation to my students rather than simply helping me understand my students, as I initially thought. Instead, a teacher’s identity is formed in relation to or in relationship with our students: We take what we know about our students and use it to shape ourselves and how we teach. I found that I had to take a step back and evaluate my own perceptions and beliefs about children and who I am in relation to them. Consequently, this motivated me to think about myself as a classroom teacher during the COVID-19 pandemic. What did I know about children that would influence the way I would teach them?

I thought about how children were resilient, strong, and adaptable, possessing an innate ability to learn in nearly any setting. While there were so many uncertainties and fear surrounding them, they adapted to mask-wearing, limited children in the classroom, and differentiated tasks to limit cross-contamination. Throughout, the children embodied being an engaged learner. They did not seem to focus on what they were missing; their limitless curiosity could not keep them from learning. Yet, because young children learn primarily through relationships, they need some place of learning that helps them to have a connection with someone who truly knows, understands, and cares about them. Thus, perhaps more than any lesson, I recognized my relationship with children as more crucial. By having more time to think about children from this critical perspective, I felt in my heart the deeper meaning children held to me.

My compassion for children grew, and a greater respect for them took shape, which overall is what pushed me to see my greater purpose for who I want to be as an educator. The pandemic provided time to develop this stronger vision of children, a clearer understanding of how they learn, and how my identity as a teacher is formed in relationship with children. I don’t think I would have been able to develop such a rich picture of how I view children without an in-depth exploration of my identity, beliefs, and values.

In my curriculum course, I was presented a different problem that helped me reflect on who I am becoming as an educator. This was presented as a case study where we as students were asked the question, “Should schools reopen amidst the COVID-19 pandemic?” This was a question that stumped school districts around the nation, making me doubt that I would be able to come up with anything that would be remotely practical. I now was experiencing another significant consequence of the pandemic: a need for new, innovative thinking on how to address state-wide academic issues. My lack of confidence, paired with the unknowns presented by the pandemic, made me feel inadequate to take on this problem of meaning.

To address this problem, I considered more intentionally and reflectively what I knew about how children learn; issues of equity and inequality that have led to a perceived achievement gap; the voices of both teachers and families; a broader notion of what school might look like in the “new normal”; and the role of the community in the education of young children. Suddenly, I was thinking in a more critical way about how to address this problem from the mindset of an actual and more experienced teacher, one who had never faced such a conundrum before. I knew that I had to design a way to allow children to come back into a classroom setting, and ultimately find inspiration for learning in this new normal. I created this graphic (above) to inform families and teachers why it is vital to have students return to school. As a result, I became an educator. I was now thinking, feeling, and acting as a teacher. This case study made me think about myself and who I am becoming as a teacher in a way that was incredibly real and relevant to what teachers were facing. I now found inspiration in the COVID-19 pandemic, as it unlocked elements of myself that I did not know existed.

John Dewey (1916) has been attributed to stating, “Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.” Learning may begin in the classroom, but it does not end there. Likewise, teaching is not a role, but a way of being. The ability to connect with children and to engage them meaningfully depends less on the methods we use than on the degree to which we know and trust ourselves and are willing to share that knowledge with them. That comes through continually reflecting on who we are in relation to children and their families, and what we do in the classroom to create more meaningful understanding of our experiences. By embodying the role of being an educator, I grew in ways that classroom curriculum couldn't prepare me for. Had it not been for the pandemic, this might not have been possible.

Dewey, J. 1916. Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education . New York: MacMillan.

Alyssa Marie Smith is currently an early childhood education student studying at South Dakota State University. She has been a student teacher in the preschool lab on campus, and now works as a kindergarten out of school time teacher in this same lab school. In the fall, she plans to student teach in an elementary setting, and then go on to teach in her own elementary classroom.

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Interview Questions and Answers to help you Ace your Interview!

Interview Questions

Why do you want to be a Teacher? 13 Example Answers

Posted by by Emily Adders
February 4, 2023

Why do you want to be a teacher? This is one of the most commonly asked teacher interview questions out there, and it’s one of the trickiest ones to answer as well.

In theory, any aspiring teacher should be able to answer this question with relative ease, but from my experience, this isn’t always the case.

If you find it difficult to explain why you want to be a teacher , here are some key points you should emphasize in your interview:

Your desire to help students succeed.
Your enthusiasm and dedication to teaching.
Your love of working with children.
Your ability to inspire students.
Your willingness to go the extra mile for your students.
Your commitment to helping bridge the gap between classroom instruction and real-world experience.
Your aspiration to become a role model for students.

Here are 13 example answers you can use as a basis to answer “why do you want to be a teacher?”. As always, try to add your own unique touch to whichever answer you like.

1. “I believe teaching is more than just imparting knowledge; it’s also about instilling values and inspiring enthusiasm for learning. I am devoted to the idea that all students should have access to quality education and I’m determined to help them reach their full potential. ”

2. “I want to be a teacher because I believe in the importance of education for creating a better society. Teaching provides me with an opportunity to shape young minds and inspire the next generation to become productive, successful citizens.”

3. “I’m a teacher because I love working with children and watching them grow. I find it incredibly rewarding to see a student’s face light up when they finally understand a concept or have success in an area where they were struggling.”

4. “I want to be a teacher because I believe that every child deserves to have access to quality education, regardless of their background or economic situation. Teaching provides me with an opportunity to make sure that all students are given the right tools and knowledge to achieve success in life.”

5. “I’ve always had a passion for teaching and I want to share my knowledge with others in order to help them reach their goals. I believe that education is the key to a successful future and I want to do my part in making sure every student has access to quality education.”

Related: 11 qualities of a good teacher.

6. “I am passionate about helping students learn and grow, both academically and personally. As a teacher, I have an opportunity to make an impact on young people during a critical time in their lives by teaching them important life skills and providing guidance that will help shape their future.”

7. “I love being around children and inspiring them to reach for the stars! I believe that a good teacher has the ability to motivate students, bring out new talents, and instil a lifelong passion for learning. This is what motivates me to pursue a career in teaching.”

8. “I believe that education is a right, not a privilege, and I want to do my part in creating equal access to quality education for all students. Being a teacher allows me to become an advocate for those who are underserved and underrepresented in our educational system.”

9. “I have always been interested in working with children and teaching felt like the perfect match for my skills and interests. I am excited by the prospect of helping children reach their full potential and guiding them in their pursuit of a successful future.”

10. “I believe that teachers play an important role in creating a better future through education, and I want to be part of that process. As a teacher, I have the opportunity to make a positive difference in the lives of my students and help ensure that they have access to quality education.”

11. “I am motivated by the idea that teaching provides me with an opportunity to mould young minds and shape our society for the better. Teaching is about more than just imparting knowledge; it’s also about inspiring enthusiasm for learning and instilling values that can last a lifetime. ”

12. “I want to be a teacher because I believe in the power of education to make our world a better place. I am passionate about helping students learn and discover their potential, while also providing them with the encouragement they need to strive for success.”

13. “I have always been passionate about learning, and teaching helps me share this passion with others. I find great joy in being able to help my students understand difficult concepts and grow academically. Working as a teacher is an incredible privilege, and I am excited to work with students of all ages.”

Related: Why should we hire you as a teacher?

Wrapping up

Whether you are passionate about teaching, have always dreamed of being a teacher, or simply believe that it’s the best way for you to make a difference in the world, it’s important to express your motivations clearly and honestly.

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Why I Want to Be a Teacher Essay: Writing Guide [2024]

Some people know which profession to choose from childhood, while others decide much later in life. However, and whenever you come to it, you may have to elaborate on it in your personal statement or cover letter. This is widely known as “Why I Want to Be a Teacher” essay.

The primary reasons to pursue this career are:

Raising new generations and changing the world for the better are your goals.
You have all the qualities and skills to become a teacher.
Duties, responsibilities, and creativity that the profession involves fascinate you.
Growing up, you had a fantastic teacher who became your role model.

If you’re having trouble coming up with arguments, you have come to the right place! Here, at Custom-Writing , we gathered all the essential tips to use in a “being a teacher” essays.

🎓 7 Reasons to Become a Teacher

🛑 7 reasons not to become a teacher.

📜 Paper Types

✍️ “Why I Want to Be a Teacher” Essay

📑 “why i want to be a teacher” personal statement, 🖨️ 50 teacher essay topics, 🤔 why i want to be a teacher faq, 🔗 references.

Why do you want to be a teacher? Being one seems manageable if it’s your dream job. At the same time, it’s the hardest profession that wouldn’t fit everyone. Check the following reasons to become a teacher that you can use in your paper.

Also, the following points are entirely appropriate for children. If they have a task like a “When I grow up, I want to become a teacher because…” essay, they will find this section useful.

🌱 Raising New Generations

Do you think that future generations require different teaching? Do you have an idea of a new proper approach? Whatever you believe, make sure to write about it:

Elaborate on the problem:

Would you like to see a more environmentally-conscious generation? Or do you find that kids lack concentration and the will to succeed? Explain why you consider children and teens need guidance.

To support your argument, give statistics and real-life examples of the problems modern children and teens have. Provide the leading causes and solutions for this issue in your “Why I Want to Be a Teacher” essay.

Talk about your reasoning:

How did you understand that the problem above exists? You have to write why you thought about it in the first place.

For example, siblings. Do you have a younger sibling? Or a nephew who often asks you to play with him or her? Then, in your “Why I Want to Be a Teacher” essay, you might mention that this child helped you choose a future career.

Explain why you:

What makes you think you might be a good teacher? Does the child enjoy spending time with you? Did you manage to teach the child something useful? Make sure to discuss this in your essay.

So, are you ready to write about raising new generations? Check this essay sample below to ensure your success:

🎨 Creativity in Teaching

In this kind of essay, you would shift the focus from yourself to the teacher’s profession in general. You’ll elaborate on why you find this profession a great creative outlet.

Talk about creativity that you’ll bring to the classroom. Use this reasoning to explain why this profession is one of a kind and appropriate for you in particular. Do you think that you might use your creative abilities to become an excellent teacher?

To underline your points:

Share several ideas on how to educate children using innovative approaches. Kids are naturally compelling storytellers because of their sincerity and imagination. Maybe, you’ll find a way to use it.

🔍 Qualities of a Good Teacher

All the educator’s responsibilities require communication and writing skills. They have to acquire accountability, patience, creativity, etc.

You may be wondering: how can this topic help me explain why I want to become a teacher? The essay should compare the qualities of a good teacher with your own. Thus, you’ll show how good you are for the position.

Do you believe that a good teacher should be kind? If positive, mention some example that proves your desire to help. For example, you might have volunteered at an animal shelter.
Do you argue that a good teacher should be knowledgeable? Tell your readers about your good grades in college.

Still, wondering about how to write a good paper on an educator’s qualities? Check the useful teacher essay sample, written by a student:

🏫 Duties and Responsibilities

While this topic may sound similar to the previous ones, it’s all about how you present your arguments and structure your narrative. This topic offers you an opportunity to examine the day-to-day lives of teachers.

First of all , you can describe the duties and responsibilities of a teacher. Explore it, be it grading assignments, cooperating and communicating with parents, or continuously learning.

Secondly , you can focus on the aspects of teaching that you find rewarding. You can add in your essay writing the sadness that a teacher feels when his or her students graduate. Or talk about the joy they experience when they see students learning and improving their grades.

Whichever approach you choose, make sure it’s beneficial for you and reveals your strong sides.

👩‍🏫 My Best Teacher

This type of essay is similar to the previous ones. Here, you also describe the characteristics of an excellent teacher. There is, however, one key difference:

Rather than describing some abstract figures, you would describe a real-life teacher. Talk about the person who served as a role model and inspired you to pursue this career.

The premise of this essay is excellent:

First , you show an understanding of what the job of a teacher encompasses. Second , you also demonstrate your appreciation for someone who made a difference in your life.

“My best teacher” topic is an excellent opportunity to pay tribute to your teacher or a trainer who has significantly influenced your life.

🦉 Changing the World

How many times have you heard that teachers change the world? It might sound quite trivial, but they do. Educators have a significant impact on the new generation’s development and their effect on society. Their influence expands to every sphere of our life, from business to community, from ecology to economics.

Here are the four secrets of how teachers change the world:

Sharing. A good educator shares their knowledge with others: students and colleagues. They bring their ideas and concepts to conferences, write blogs, and hold school meetings. Everyone benefits from this sharing. An educator gets feedback while their audience learns something new and motivating. Yes, it takes a lot of effort to set aside time for this, especially when you have a tight schedule. But it’s worth it. Think, would learning theories have ever existed if teachers didn’t share them?
Caring. Educators not only care for their students, but in most cases, they actively participate in charity. Think about what impact it can have when students, parents, and teachers work together for something significant. It can be anything: from planting trees to fundraising for cancer. Such activities help students to gain valuable experience in helping others and saving our planet. In most cases, they will continue doing so even after graduation.
Networking. In daily lives, teachers overcome various challenges. The networking and learning from other’s experiences allow the educator to see alternative points of view, motivate others, and find out new approaches to teaching.
Reflection. Educators regularly analyze what works and what not at their lessons. Regular observations help them adjust the curriculum or change teaching methods. A critical approach to their work allows the educator to optimize and make their job more impactful.

Now you have all the arguments to consider in your essay about the teacher’s profession.

Teaching is not easy and not a profession you should choose unless ready to face all its challenges. And here’s the “shortlist” of them:

Low salary. Yes. Educators from all over the world don’t get paid enough. On average, teachers’ weekly wages are 19.6% lower than those of other professions. So if you are not ready to live, hardly able to make ends meet, being a school educator is not your number one career choice.
Teachers spend their salaries on students and school staff. Most teachers spend a part of their earnings on purchasing school tools and gear. In 2012-2013, K-12 educators spent 1.6 billion dollars on classroom supplies. That’s not fair. Are you ready to waste your hard-earned money this way? Moreover, you will have to transport all this stuff to class on your own.
Teachers have to deal with all disturbing trends. Des-pa-si-to. Does this song make you roll up your eyes? And what about the whole class with fidget spinners? How about that these things repeat day by day for a couple of months? Think if you can deal with your irritation and anger. If negative, consider another profession.
Teachers don’t have weekends and vacations. You may be wondering why. And here’s the answer: they write lesson plans, check countless essays and projects, etc. Yes, in most cases, you won’t have time for yourself and your hobby. And… even for your family.
Educators are at high risk of public embarrassment. This means you will have to control everything you post on social media, your behavior, and every word you say to anyone. It’s like living under the microscope. And it’s exhausting.
Students always try to escape studying, and some parents blame teachers for that. Have you ever missed an essay submission deadline because of procrastination? Even if the answer is “No,” your students will. And some of their parents will blame you. They can say that you did not adequately explain the lesson material, or you’re too prejudiced to their kids, or… whatever it would be, you’ll be wrong.
Students can be abusive. Even the best teacher faced abuse and bullying in class. Think, will you be able to deal with troubled youth and bad behavior day by day?

As you can see, teaching is a stressful, low-paying, and thankless job. There are many reasons not to become a teacher you can use in your paper and to think about when choosing a career. However, many people still decide to be teachers because it is much more than just a profession. They want this career path as the passion of their lives.

📜 Teacher Topic: Paper Types

You may say that it’s just a teacher topic essay, what are we talking about? There are plenty of other types of essays on teaching that your professor may also ask to write. Check our blog to learn more about their specifics.

Below, we will give you all the essentials on being a teacher paper:

🗺️ Application Essay

You will have to write this type of essay when applying for a job. This paper is a crucial part of your application. You have to prove to your future employer that you meet all the requirements of your future career.

At first sight, it’s similar to a CV or a cover letter. But the job application essay is an entirely different paper. And here are some of the features of these papers:

Life experience and hobbies. In your CV or resume, you state your hobbies, interests, and even the places you have visited. However, in the teacher application, you provide only relevant information about yourself that clearly shows that your experience makes you the best candidate for this position.
Personalization. You may not change your CV when applying to various companies (unless you want to tailor it to a particular employer and position). But your teacher application essay must be customized. Some employers will ask you to tell more about yourself while others require you to solve a specific issue in the application.
Your ambitions and enthusiasm. The CV doesn’t show your objectives or attitude to various teaching theories. Otherwise, your employer can ask you to write an essay that represents your professional goals.

🔔 Personal Statement

The personal statement is quite similar to the job application letter. You will write it when applying to a college, university, or for a job. The difference between personal statement and a job application essay is that the first one leaves more space for your creativity.

As in the teacher application essay, you will have to customize it according to the job requirements and express both your ambitions and personal features.

Some employers require you to submit a personal statement along with the CV and cover letter.

💭 Autobiography

You may be wondering why you may need to write an autobiography of a teacher. This essay will be useful for your future portfolio. For example, you can add it to a job search portfolio or “about me” section on social media.

Needless to say that social networking nowadays is an essential part of a job search or career change. So, make sure that your autobiography of becoming a teacher contains only positive details.

However, you have to remember that an autobiography on Facebook or LinkedIn (or wherever you decide to place it) should make your profile searchable .

Above, we’ve provided the pros and cons of being a teacher. We hope, by now, you have the answer to the “why I want to be a teacher” question.

So, another issue arises: how to write an essay? Below we will show you all the essentials on writing teacher topic essays with examples.

1. ✔️ Preparation

Proper preparation is key to an A+ paper. First, you should determine the topic and arguments you will use in your essay on teacher jobs.

The arguments depend on the paper type you have to write. For example, you should prepare merits and demerits, or choose points to use in the argumentative essay. Maybe, you should research for a literature review. Whatever it takes, don’t skip this stage!

2. ✔️ Outline

The next step is to outline your future paper. An outline is a mandatory part of any essay writing. It’s a plan that will let you structure your ideas and stick to the required word count.

Here’s an example of “Why I Want to Be a Teacher” college essay outline:

In this 300-word “Why I Would Like to Be a Teacher of Political Science” essay, our experts organized the paper structure and put key ideas to explore in the paper. As you can see, after the introduction, they put the topic aspects to cover and left a part for sources analysis.

Make a list of your arguments and ensure that they are logically connected. Your professor can require you to write an outline with headings and subheadings as complete sentences or a series of words (phrases). So make sure you’ve carefully read the paper guidelines and understood them.

3. ✔️ Thesis Statement

After you’ve finished your outline, you can start essay writing. At this stage, you need to develop a good thesis statement.

The purpose of your thesis is to explain your position—the central idea of the essay. Tell your reader what you will write in the paper and explain the significance of the subject.

The thesis statement is usually 1-2 sentences long and concludes the introduction paragraph. You can sketch out your thesis and add some touches after the paper is completed to make sure it meets the essay content.

4. ✔️ Introduction

Next, start with an introduction. Here you will have to briefly show the understanding of the teaching profession and its peculiarities:

A teacher essay introduction opens your paper with a hook. This first sentence aims to grab your reader’s attention. You can start it with a quote or an interesting fact.
Then provide the context necessary for understanding the issue.
End with the thesis statement. Make it as clear and precise as possible.
If you have time and space, outline the evidence that you’ll use in the body paragraphs.
Try to avoid phrases like “In this essay, I…” or “In my essay, I’m going…”

Here’s how your introduction can look like:

5. ✔️ Body Paragraphs

Now, it’s time to recall all the arguments and evidence you put in your outline. You will write them in your essay body paragraphs. Depending on the required word count and the number of evidence, the paper body typically contains at least three body paragraphs.

However, some papers can have two body paragraphs. You should know that each idea and point of view must be stated in a separate part. If you have three or five arguments, you have to write three or five paragraphs in your essay, respectively.

Here’s our sample:

6. ✔️ Conclusion

And the last but not the least part of your essay is the conclusion. Here you have to summarize all the ideas presented in the body section and explain how they meet your thesis statement.

Don’t try to repeat the thesis word by word or provide any new ideas. Here’s an example of a conclusion for an “I Want to Become a Teacher” essay:

If you used any sources, don’t forget to include the reference list in your paper according to the required citation style .

The purpose of the personal statement is to tell the admissions officer or recruiter why you decided to become a teacher. You can be required to submit one along with your college, university, scholarship, or job application.

A teacher’s personal statement is a document where you can express your personality. Want to learn all the dos and don’ts of its writing?

Just keep reading!

📝 Personal Statement: Tips

A typical personal statement is up to 700 words or 4,000 characters long, including intro, body, and conclusion. To keep word count tracking, you can type it in Word or Google Documents. Now, let’s consider critical points of personal statement writing that you can use for college/uni and job application:

Intro. Your introductory paragraph is an excellent opportunity to open the statement with memorable sentences about why you chose to become a teacher. Make it bright and clear.
Structure. As we mentioned above, each of your points should have supporting evidence. For example, if you’re writing about your experience, explain what you have learned and how this will help you in your future career.
Conclusion. The secret of good personal statement endings is to keep it simple and clear. Explain why you would be a perfect asset to this company or college and make a statement on why they would be lucky to have you as an employee or a student.
Personal statement for primary teaching. In case you’re going to apply for a teaching role or major, you should mention skills that will be useful for extracurricular school activities. You need to prove that you will be able to help with school plays or organize various off-class events.
Postgraduate personal statement. Here, you have to show your abilities and academic interests. Persuade the admission officers how you will benefit from studying the program and your impact on science.

The next point to consider is what to write in the body section of your “Why Do You Want to Be a Teacher” personal statement. Here are some questions to answer in your paper:

Why do you want to become a teacher?
Why did you decide to teach at this level?
What are your strengths?
Do you have teaching experience?
What personal skills do you have?
Why do you think you deserve a place in this company/university above others?
What is your background?
What are your career goals?

🙅‍♀️ Personal Statement: Common mistakes

A personal statement may be the only way to make a first impression on your recruiter or admissions officer. There might be no other opportunity. That’s why you must know the most common mistakes to avoid:

Negative tone. Believe us: no one wants to read the pessimistic, weak, or adverse essay. Even if you have to describe an uncomfortable fact, try to make it positive.
Using online templates. If you found a great personal statement template that you think will perfectly fit your paper, stop! Recruiters and college admissions have seen dozens and dozens of them, so there are high chances that your application will be declined. Spend a little more time and write a statement yourself.
Including irrelevant facts or lies. Recruiters spend, on average, six seconds on reading the CV and a personal statement. That’s why you should neither tell a cool story about your grandmother’s birthday nor tell lies. In the first case, it’s annoying. Moreover, it may lead to firing or dismissal from the college.
Using clichés, jargon, overused words, etc. A personal statement requires a formal tone, so conversational tone is merely unacceptable.
Using the same personal statement for different applications. Even if you send your application to ten different companies or colleges, personalize it! Include some facts from the firm’s or university’s history, mission, or vision, and explain how your skills meet them.
Leaving writing the statement to the last minute. It takes some time to prepare, draft, and polish your paper to make it stand out from other applications.

If you still need a “Why Do You Want to Be a Teacher?” personal statement example, check the sample below:

In case you want something more than “why did you decide to become a teacher,” check the topics below. We believe that your teacher will appreciate reading your paper.

A recess for primary school students. Imagine if you were a school principal. Would you sacrifice breaks in favor of additional study time? Explain your point of view.
Homework : yay or nay? Think about how much time students should spend on their homework in elementary school. Should there be any homework at all? Provide your points and evidence and show how they are connected to your teaching philosophy.
Technologies in education : pros and cons. Examine the advantages and disadvantages of using desktops and tablets at school and for homework.
Handwriting in elementary school . Some schools stopped teaching students cursive handwriting. Provide your point of view on whether handwriting is a lost art or an unnecessary relic.
School uniform and dress code. Should students wear a uniform? And what about the teachers?
Standardized tests in school. Are these tests discriminatory? Should they be tied to funding? Elaborate on whether they cause too much anxiety for students.
Second language learning : advantages and disadvantages. How many languages should an average school graduate know? Do pupils need to learn any second language at school?
Armed security in educational institutions. More and more school mass shootings are reported every year. Can armed guards protect students? Do your research on gun control and demonstrate your opinion.
Early start times at school . Explore how such start times impact on students’ perception of the lesson material.
Inclusive education for children with disabilities . Research the techniques that will fit your students with special needs. Show the connection between them and your teaching approach.
Personal philosophy of education and views on teacher’s career.
Discuss how teachers can influence students’ personal life .
Analyze the social and emotional competencies teachers should possess.
Describe the difficulties a teacher may face when working with children.
Personal development plan of a teacher .
Who is responsible for children’s low academic achievement.
Explain why you want to be physical education teacher .
Discuss pros and cons of distance education and traditional degree.
Describe an ideal public school .
Remembering who you were: my teacher .
What educational system would you prefer if you were a teacher?
Analyze the difficulties a teacher may face trying to implement multicultural educational practices.
Compare the efficiency of private and public schools.
Road to becoming a good teacher .
Why constant professional development is crucial for teachers.
Describe an educational style a teacher can use when teaching English as a second language.
Is music useful or harmful for student academic performance?
Methods teachers can use to improve the school for young learners.
Examine the effect a teacher has on student’s personality .
Discuss the specifics of teaching music in middle schools.
Analyze the crucial meaning of effective student-teacher interaction in inclusive education.
Explain the teacher’s role in integration of children with special needs.
Reading problems and ways of helping students with reading disabilities.
Describe the strategies a teacher can use to improve student learning.
What can a teacher do to help students in developing social and emotional skills ?
Examine the value of education in student life.
Why e-learning is an important part of contemporary education.
Teacher’s influence on student’s career choice .
Discuss the role teacher plays in students’ moral development .
What can a teacher do to avoid workplace burnout .
Compare and analyze the role of teachers and parents in students’ math performance.
Career goal of a maths teacher.
Should the government allow armed teachers on campus for students’ safety?
Examine the most important classroom management areas for a new teacher .
Why are laptops and iPads so important for students?
Analyze how book clubs for teachers can stimulate professional development.
Is it right to expel bullies from school ?
Motivation to choose a teacher’s profession .
Explain why teachers’ attitude is important for educational system success.
Why is low teacher retention a real problem and what can be done about that?

Want more tips and advice on resume writing? Check this article on how to make a resume written by our experts!

Good luck with your essay about being a teacher! Share the article with those who may need it.

Learn more on this topic:

Scholarship Essay Examples about Yourself
How to Write a Scholarship Essay about Why You Deserve It
Financial Assistance Essay: Useful Tips to Make It Rock
How to Write an Essay Describing Your Financial Need
Why i Want to be a Pharmacist Essay: Step-by-step Guide
College Application Essay Writing Mistakes to Avoid
How to Write a 250 Words College Personal Statement

Becoming a good professional has never been easy. Getting employed as a teacher is not the most difficult part of the process. Acquiring professionalism (e.g., building “soft skills,” psychological competence, broad knowledge base) takes more time and effort.

Formalities of the employment process might not coincide in Canada, US, UK, and any other location. The overall algorithm is as follows:

Choose an educational level and/or a subject to focus on. Study the requirements for the desired role and opportunities to meet them.

Start developing the competencies you are lacking.

Try to recollect how you first thought you would wanna become a teacher

Compose a list of the benefits of this rewarding occupation.

Organize the selected ideas to create a body of the essay. Write an appropriate introduction and conclusion.

Recollect what you dreamed about in your childhood.

Compare it with what you want to be in the future as of today.

Think about the reasons for your choice.

Present the comparison and why your choice looks like this in the essay body.

Write an appropriate introduction and conclusion.

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How to Write an Autobiography: 8 Steps for Writing Your Autobiography
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Nice And informative article

Thanks all of this was so helpful, could you send me more on being a teacher to my email [email protected]

Unfortunately, we don’t have more articles on teaching for the time being, but you can check the blog later in case we post something useful for you.

Nice and informative

This article is really very informative and full of great ideas.

I am happy to see new creative writing and wonderful thoughts.

These are super cool guidelines to help me with my essay. Fresh ideas started popping right up. Thnx a whole bunch!

You have really done a good job. More grace to you.

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Teacher and students outside in masks in Thailand

The First Question Typically Asked Is: “Why Teach Abroad?”

The simple answer is that it’s a chance to do something wonderful and adventurous that will change your life forever. Teaching abroad captures what international exchange is all about. It’s people from very different cultures coming together, learning from one another, and making positive connections. It’s a way to travel, gain work experience, and do good all at the same time. It's an amazing chance to change lives for the better. Helping young students learn English opens doors to new opportunities for them. And helping adult learners enables them to communicate with English-speaking relatives and become more competitive in the global economy.

Teacher and young students in classroom in Thailand

You Have Options

CIEE Teach Abroad offers paid and volunteer positions around the world, teaching English to a range of students in schools, universities, workplaces, and homes. Our programs are fully supported and include placement, training, orientation and assistance throughout your stay. We also offer a professional-level certification course in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) to give you a head start on your teaching career.

What Makes CIEE Teach Abroad So Meaningful?

Travel With a Purpose

Teaching abroad is an opportunity to experience another culture and see the world in a way no tourist can. It’s a chance to meet people, share ideas, and forge lasting friendships. And, it’s the jumping-off point for an international adventure of travel, cultural exchange, and personal enrichment unlike any other.

When you teach English overseas, you’re doing much more than visiting another country. You’re becoming an educator – a productive, contributing member of that society.

Young woman letting child inspect her camera in Thailand

A Chance to Make a Difference

Providing access to education is one of the most important things a society can do for its people. Education brings opportunity and prosperity. CIEE teachers contribute to building stronger communities by improving education, helping students of all ages connect in English.

As a CIEE Teach Abroad participant, you also take part in the life of the community. Daily interaction with people both in and out of the classroom brings a deeper appreciation for other cultures. That’s where understanding and friendship begins.

Students sitting at desk while teacher instructs them

A Great Way to Advance as a Young Professional – And as an Individual

Teaching abroad is a smart investment in your future. If your career path leads to education, it will give you a solid résumé. And if you become TEFL-certified, you'll earn an important teaching credential as well. For a midcareer professional, it can be a break from the routine that reinvigorates you.

Benefits extend beyond the teaching profession. Employers of all kinds put a high value on international work experience. CIEE alumni have learned how to navigate other cultures, adapt to new environments and cultures and meet the challenges of working independently. They have stronger language and personal skills, and a broader view of the world – a valuable addition to any workplace. Every participant becomes part of the extensive CIEE alumni network that offers professional development, job connections, mentoring, and much more.

Thai kids in class holding up national flags

See Yourself as a Teacher

You may be wondering, “Can I do this?” For many, the answer is a resounding “yes!” People from many walks of life have found success and fulfillment as CIEE Teach Abroad participants. Some are recent college graduates looking to jump-start a career. Others are professionals or retirees who want a change of pace and a chance to see the world in a way that’s rewarding. All have an interest in giving back, sharing knowledge, and learning from others – and a desire to discover other cultures.

Do you need teaching experience? No. We’ll give you the tools and training you need to succeed, and you can acquire TEFL certification to get an even stronger grounding in teaching if you wish.

What about language skills? Many CIEE Teach Abroad programs don’t have a language requirement. In fact, host schools in Asia prefer teachers who don’t speak the local language.

Should you? If you want to see the world, inspire students, immerse yourself in another culture, and do something meaningful and beneficial – then yes.

Teacher gesturing to board in classroom while teaching class

Who Teaches Abroad?

CIEE teachers are people just like you. They’re curious and adventurous, with a love for travel. They come from all walks of life; and they have one thing in common: A desire to see the world while doing something productive.

Our participants have great stories to tell! See what they’re doing, all around the world.

Teach Abroad Blog

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Tips & Advice

Introduction to Simba

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Why I'm renewing my contract as a Language and Culture Assistant in Spain

In a city as surprising and beautiful as Madrid, I’m not quite ready to leave.

Classroom Stories
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How to Write the Community Essay: Complete Guide + Examples
⇉Community Service Learning Essay Essay Example
💐 Community service essay. Free Community Service Essay Examples and
Scholarship Essays About Community Service
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How to Get Your Community Service Essay Crafted

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COMMENTS

How to Write the Community Essay: Complete Guide + Examples
Step 1: Decide What Community to Write About. Step 2: The BEABIES Exercise. Step 3: Pick a Structure (Narrative or Montage) Community Essay Example: East Meets West. Community Essay Example: Storytellers. The Uncommon Connections Exercise.
How to Write the Community Essay
In a nutshell, the community essay should exhibit three things: An aspect of yourself, 2. in the context of a community you belonged to, and 3. how this experience may shape your contribution to the community you'll join in college. It may look like a fairly simple equation: 1 + 2 = 3. However, each college will word their community essay ...
Why I Want to Be a Teacher: [Essay Example], 566 words
The reasons why I want to be a teacher are very important to me because they would help me mentally and physically. The first reason would be to impact children's lives in the classroom in a good way. Next, having lots of time off during the school year is a good incentive for me to not give up on my forever job.
19 Top Ideas for a "Why I want to be a Teacher" Essay
Here are the 19 best reasons you would want to be a teacher that you can include in your essay: To help children learn more effectively. To ensure children have positive mentors. To improve children's lives. To help future generations solve the problems of today. To help the future generations become good citizens.
10 Reasons To Become a Teacher You Can Include in an Essay
Create an outline for your teaching essay. Use the outlining method that works best for you, such as a list or word map. Choose two to four main reasons why you want to become a teacher. You may have more or fewer reasons depending on the desired length of the essay. 4. Compose a draft Create a draft for your teaching essay.
Interview Question: "Why Do You Want To Teach?"
3. Detail your reasons for becoming a teacher. A teacher can take on many roles in the lives of their students, such as a surrogate parental figure, a mentor, a leader or a motivator. Make sure to mention the kind of impact you're hoping to have on your students' lives. Related: 50 Teacher Interview Questions (Plus 11 Example Answers) 4.
7 reasons why becoming a teacher might be right for you
Luckily for you, we've got seven great reasons to help you get started. 1. You can make a difference. If you ask prospective teachers "why do you want to become a teacher", the majority of them will likely mention the ability to make a real difference in the lives of the children they will one day teach. Each day that you work with ...
What Motivates You to Teach—and Inspires You When You Need a Boost
Pedro Monagas Asensio, STEM education professor and research professor, Polytechnic University of Catalonia: Being a reference and a guide to my students—while avoiding being a theoretician without practical resources—is what motivates me. I always try to ensure my syllabus has content and practical meaning to stimulate my students.
Doing Life in the Community Where You Teach
Below are some ways to do life where you teach. 1. Learn about the politics and culture of the community by spending time there. Attend events and happenings to gain a sense of the community. Participate in community, grassroots, city council, and city planning meetings. You could sit in with a community group discussing issues of the day or ...
How to Write the "Community" and "Issue" Yale Essays
The first step in writing this essay is to introduce the community. Explain who is part of the community and what the community is like. Highlight the community's structure by demonstrating how you are part of it and how you interact with your peers, superiors, or inferiors within the group. It is also important to depict the community's ...
What it Means to Serve Your Community
It's one thing to drive in and out of a community every single day, go to a school building and then leave. And it's another thing to really immerse yourself in the community that you're serving. The way that I think about Teach For America's mission and vision is how do we bring some of the strongest leaders into the classroom to really help ...
Why do you want to be a teacher? 7 sample interview answers
I want to become a teacher because I believe to have the right skills, abilities, and attitude to become a good teacher. And I enjoy teaching, talking to children, listening to them, trying to understand their emotional world, and be a good role model for them. At the end of the day, we should do a job in which we see some meaningful purpose.
How to Answer, 'Why Do You Want to Be a Teacher?'
You can use the following process to answer a question on why you want to become a teacher: 1. Analyze your commitment to teach. Before the interview, take the time to analyze your dedication to your job. While you're likely to know why you want to teach, it's important to be able to communicate this concisely to the hiring manager.
Essay About Being a Teacher: Top 5 Examples and Prompts
Koh wants students to achieve their full potential; teaching to him is engaging, inspirational, and transparent. He wants readers to know that being a teacher is rewarding yet difficult, and is something he holds close to his heart. 2. Teaching in the Pandemic: 'This Is Not Sustainable' by Natasha Singer.
Why every teacher needs to be part of a teaching community
The benefits of a teaching community. There are a number of reasons why we think teachers can benefit from being part of a professional teaching community. 1. Finding support. At the heart of every community is a safe space, where members can talk about the challenges they are facing - and find solutions. New and experienced English language ...
Best Practices in Community Engaged Teaching
Community voice in a community-based project has an impact on student cultural understanding, and can shape their experiential and ethical learning. [12] For this learning to occur, community members should be involved in every stage of the project and course, when possible. It is important to encourage and support community involvement in ...
Essay Sample on Why I Want to Be a Teacher
A teacher is one of the most important professionals in any society. They are responsible for teaching students various subjects including math, science, English, and many more. If you want to become a teacher, then you should write an essay on why you want to be a teacher. To start with, you can read personal statement essay example.
Becoming a Teacher: What I Learned about Myself During the Pandemic
Fortunately, the pandemic enabled me to view my courses on play and curriculum as a big "look into the mirror" to discern what matters and what was important about becoming a teacher. In my course on play, we were asked to create an artifact that symbolized our image of the child, which required me to think deeply about my perception of ...
Why do you want to be a Teacher? 13 Example Answers
12. "I want to be a teacher because I believe in the power of education to make our world a better place. I am passionate about helping students learn and discover their potential, while also providing them with the encouragement they need to strive for success.". 13.
Why I Want to be a Teacher Essay
This is why I want to become a teacher. I want to develop a learning atmosphere where children feel joy and security. I believe that enjoying and feeling that one belongs is an important part of education. Yes, I used the word that makes some people shiver when heard, education. Education is often viewed as an institution where children are ...
Why I Want to Be a Teacher Essay: Writing Guide [2024]
Hire an Expert. The primary reasons to pursue this career are: Raising new generations and changing the world for the better are your goals. You have all the qualities and skills to become a teacher. Duties, responsibilities, and creativity that the profession involves fascinate you.
Why do you want to teach?
That said, Buskist and Korn have students write their statement before they've even read others' teaching statements. They want the students' statements to be a true representation of the students' views on teaching, not a hodgepodge of borrowed ideas. REVIEW AND EDIT. After you have a rough draft, review your essay for places to tighten it to ...
Why Teach Abroad?
CIEE teachers contribute to building stronger communities by improving education, helping students of all ages connect in English. As a CIEE Teach Abroad participant, you also take part in the life of the community. Daily interaction with people both in and out of the classroom brings a deeper appreciation for other cultures.
Buying grammar books won't significantly boost your IELTS ...
You need to practice using the language in real-life situations. ... Buying grammar books won't significantly boost your IELTS score. 📚 Here's why: 1. 👉🏻Grammar rules are just one part of English.