Teachers Today | Teen Ink

Teachers Today

December 16, 2013
By mel143 BRONZE, Melbourne, Florida
mel143 BRONZE, Melbourne, Florida
1 article 0 photos 1 comment

When Brevard Public Schools said that, since the half-cent tax had not passed the vote, they would go through the budget cuts, closing down three schools, increasing a teachers' workday, firing a bunch of teachers, and taking out the choice school buses, it made me think about why teachers, through this trouble and stress, are still always there for their students and still love their work. They knew that a teachers' salary was low, so why did they become teachers? This is why I interviewed three of my teachers to give me and you an insight on why teachers love their jobs and what they think of the school board's recent decisions.

Ms. Rehm is a 9th and 11th grade English teacher. Her favorite subject in school was, surprisingly, history and not English. She had always wanted to become a lawyer but when she got a student job, Ms. Rehm realized that it was not for her, spent most of the time in a library researching. As a result, she looked into teaching and found a short-term teaching job, just to test that career, and fell in love with teaching.

What Ms. Rehm likes most about teaching is working with students. She loves to see that her students actually learn something from her and she also loves to learn from her students. Her best teaching experiences are when former students come to her and say that what she taught them helped them get through college or find a job. As to all jobs, there is the good part but also the hard part, for Ms. Rehm, the most difficult part of her job is time, there is just no time for her to do everything she wants, especially now with the budget cuts.

Recently, due to a vote, Brevard Public Schools had to experience budget cuts, what do you want if the people don't vote for a half-cent tax? These budget cuts included increasing a teachers' teaching periods from 5 to 6. “I don't have as much time to grade papers and to have some personal time after school” says Ms. Rehm. It's true, the teachers used to have two planning periods which they also used to grade papers but now they only have one. So not only does Ms. Rehm have more papers to grade (increased number of students) but she also has less time than before to grade papers and thus takes some of the time she used for herself to grade the remaining papers leaving less time for recreation. This saying, Ms. Rehm spends between 10-12 hours out of school to prepare her lessons, to grade papers, etc. Her favorite books are: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, Tuesday's with Morrie by Mitch Albom and To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee.

Mrs Feldbush is a Biology teacher. She also organizes Lego Robotics and Academic Team which are Public School sponsored extracurricular activities. Mrs. Feldbush loved biology ever since she had an energetic Biology teacher who encouraged her to follow this field. She has always loved school, and she loved to learn, so Mrs. Feldbush decided that the most fun way to learn until you are old is to be a teacher.

What she loves about teaching is when students learn and are exited to learn. She loves to see her students' faces brighten up at their aha! moment. Her best experience while teaching was recently, when a former student emailed her and told her how Biology class helped her through college. She loves it when students contact her after they are done with their studies. The most difficult part of being a teacher, for Mrs. Feldbush is time. In total, Mrs Feldbush works about 21 hours every week after school, 5 hours are spent doing the extracurricular activities, 8 are used up on Saturdays and the other 8 are left for week days.

Mrs Feldbush thinks that the School Board didn't state their intentions clearly enough, that's why the population voted against the half-cent tax. They did not follow their budget cut list in order and they tried to shield their students from these problems. It is a good thing to shield students from financial problems, Mrs. Feldbush thinks, but if doing that does not raise the awareness of the student's parents then nothing will be done, in contrast, if the School Board had clearly communicated that a no for the tax vote would mean closing down three schools, getting rid of buses, etc. then this wouldn't have happened. The problem is that the people do not understand that the money is well-spent and that it is needed to support the future generation of workers and geniuses. Mrs Feldbush just hopes that at the next vote, the School Board will be able to communicate more clearly. Her favorite book is always the last one she reads, which in this case is Welcome to Your Brain by Sandra Aamodt, she loves reading new things like this book. Her favorite style of music is country but she likes any song where she can relate with something in biology for example “Meet in the Middle” by Diamond Rio can relate to metaphase in mitosis and meiosis I.

Mrs. Davis is a chorus teacher. Mrs. Davis' favorite subject in school was music, especially since she took both band and chorus. Ever since her middle school years, Mrs. Davis has liked helping and teaching other students, she would even forgo her lunch if that meant that she could help the beginning band. This experience with teaching definitely put her on the path of education.

What Mrs. Davis likes best about teaching is the relationship she has with her students. Being a music teacher, the students are not behind desks and so there is more freedom of expression than in a traditional classroom, each class is different and she looks forward to teaching every single class. Everyday she has a new best experience, everyday brings its joys and she just loves her job. Mrs. Davis would not trade it in for anything else.

The most difficult part for her is choosing the music the choirs are to preform at concerts. She not only has to evaluate what she likes, but also the opinions of her students and their levels. It is hard to find such a literature that works perfectly with her students. She needs to find music that will not become boring after a few weeks, but music that motivates her students. Mrs. Davis understands that the School Board has financial problems and she is very thankful that, while other schools' music programs suffered, at Wet Shore the music program is still running. Mrs. Davis works out of school a lot, so many hours that she can't count. She thinks about school all the time, she is always there for her students. Although Mrs. Davis is a music teacher, she does not have a favorite piece or song, she loves all types except loud screaming rock.

Doing these interviews, I got to know these teachers more personally. I can now understand them better and I greatly benefited from this experience. I would like to acknowledge these teachers: Ms. Rehm for having an interview and for encouraging me, Mrs. Davis and Mrs. Feldbush for also having an interview. I would like to thank them for giving up some of their precious time to inform me and the reader about their job and giving an insight of their lives.


The author's comments:
I really enjoyed writing this, although it was mandatory (to write something) and learned a lot. I hope people from Brevard County in Florida will vote for the half-cent tax next time it appears on the voting sheet.

Similar Articles

JOIN THE DISCUSSION

This article has 1 comment.


mel143 BRONZE said...
on Jan. 13 2014 at 4:31 pm
mel143 BRONZE, Melbourne, Florida
1 article 0 photos 1 comment
I hope that everyone who reads this article will like it. Please tell me if you did not  so that next time I write something I will be able to do better. Thank you.