-Blog Title Here-

http://malaysia.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080514192800AAPIImD

The guy who has been denoted as the “Best Answerer” answers my question in full. He specifically says that the pay was a dive and that the paperwork sucks, but even though he originally planned to teach for only two years, he is still a teacher. The benefits must outweigh the negatives. There is no other explanation. Besides, if they didn’t, why would anyone become a teacher?

http://blogs.princeton.edu/pia/SummerofService/2006/07/never_become_a_teacher.html

Teaching is something that people love. In high school, this guy said he would never become a teacher. That might have been because he didn’t think it was cool or because he thought teachers make low pay. But then he still became a teacher because after doing it, he found many benefits of it. Teaching must be very rewarding.

http://www.hoover.org/publications/policyreview/3438676.html

This web site has a long argument about how teachers are, in fact, not underpaid. In some cases they are making more than the average worker in their area. This is an interesting point because if people think that by becoming teachers they are going to make low pay, and then they still become teachers, then they are obviously not doing it for the money. So therefore other benefits must make up for the money, even though the money is more than enough to live on.

http://www.flying-low.net/?p=277

Yet another teacher’s blog (seems to be all they can do to keep from going insane) and this one goes with what my first teacher has said. “I hate it when I realise that out of my list of things I hate about teaching, 9 out of 10 have got nothing to do with my students. Most of them have got to do with the SYSTEM. It’s very telling, isn’t it?” The school’s system is  the reason that this teacher hates his/her/it’s job so much that he/she/it writes an entire blog page on it. The students, though, are obviously one of the things that she likes. This leads into many other things that one can infer about teaching.

http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=16168

This article shows that teachers’ pay isn’t really as low as everyone seems to think. Because they do not work during the summers, you add some to compare to jobs that do, and with the added benefits of health care and retirements funds a teacher that makes 60,000 dollars a year makes about 87,000 dollars a year. That’s quite an increase. So with the benefits and if one was to work another job in the summer, the pay is enough to get by on and you get the unanimously-called “benefit” of working with children.

http://successfulteaching.blogspot.com/2007/10/why-i-love-teaching.html

This is another blog from a teacher saying that teaching high school is much better than teaching elementary school because the kids are more mature. She also says that teaching kids is the best part of the job. She doesn’t regret becoming a teaching and probably never will. So far, 90 percent of the teachers I have found have loved teaching even though the pay is low.

http://www.nea.org/pay/teachermyths.html

This site seems to negate everything good said about teaching. This seems to come from a more professional standpoint, though, so it doesn’t seem to be as reliable as an interview with a teacher. This could also have been written by a disgruntled employee, as no author is given it seems safe to expect the worst. But because this does give facts about the professional aspects of teaching, it is an informative source that can be used to destroy many myths that one might’ve thought about teaching.

Another teacher replied to my email interview and what she said went along with what every other source has said in regards to teaching. She says that the pay is alright to get by on, and even though she did find herself living paycheck to paycheck at some points, it was a result of her shopping extravaganzas and such. Now that she is married and her family has two incomes, she never has to worry about living paycheck to paycheck and even though she may not be able to buy new shoes every week, she still can sometimes without having to cut back on meals. What this means to me is that since I do not go on shopping extravaganzas every week, the pay should be adequate. Also, she said that relating to the students is easier if you remember what life was for yourself as a student. I will remember this and put it to good use.

http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,505038695,00.html

This Web Logger sort of did the same thing as myself. He asked many teachers why they continued to teach. The answer he mainly got was “kids.” The teachers enjoy the fact that they have an effect on the young minds of many and that what they are teaching them as a great effect on their future lives. “When I go home from work every day, I know that what I do matters to society.” That quote was taken directly from an e-mail from a teacher. Obviously, these teachers have more reason to come in than the paycheck, which leads me to believe that the kids(positive) outweigh the nagging parents and the excessive homework(negative).

http://teaching.mrbelshaw.co.uk/index.php/2007/06/04/5-reasons-why-i-love-teaching/

In this teacher’s blog, Mr. Belshaw seems to enjoy teaching. His reasons for loving his job, though, seem to be unique. I have not heard any of the other teachers I have spoken to mention any of these things for reasons to love teaching. One of the big things that stuck out at me in this Web Log is that he enjoys the fact that his classroom is just that, his class room. He says he likes how his classroom shows how unique he is and reflects his personality. Perhaps this is because he knows it will have a unique effect on the children. Perhaps it is because it makes him feel like a bigger person (he could be a really small person who gets no respect). These variables make for a good source, naturally.