Hearing the teaching experience from teachers on both ends of the spectrum: kindergarten and high school, really showed me how different the two specialties are, but they also showed me the common threads good teachers maintain no matter what grade they teach. I learned the importance of having a good teaching environment and good coworkers to lean on after your successes or fails. It also made the point that I am going to have to be so very adaptable in so many ways, regardless of what grade I end up teaching. I am not a flexible person, but both teachers I interviewed said they had to learn the ability to adapt: whether on a “lesson-based, students can’t focus way”, or in a “students are struggling with adulthood and they can’t learn today” kind of way. Overall, it really told me how taxing this career is, because you take your worries about your students home with you and it is incredibly difficult to separate your home and school life. However, I think that is something I am willing to take on when I hear all of the good parts about teaching and what keeps two very different teachers in the profession.
