Your career path - from teacher to...?

Frequent interaction with fellow teachers and trainers always throws light upon the situations in which a classroom career is carried out.

One can also contemplate the different problems and difficulties a teacher experiences in a classroom while teaching and a profession as an English teacher is certainly not enviable. It is a career which throws up a wide range of challenges and which rarely cease.

The classroom is seen as an abode of abundant knowledge and wisdom, in the sense that the students are able to expand their horizon of skills in the language through the teacher. However the need to grow as a teacher should always be there as well. A teacher should crave extra knowledge and skills through some form of input. We can never afford to be content or become lethargic with our teaching abilities - ultimately other ways and means of teaching are invariably required. 

Often, the process, requires a better qualification, which can sometimes be mandatory; it follows that the more you learn the better you can teach and a qualification is something which demonstrates learning. The concept that an additional qualification need not be always required for a career path outside the classroom seems to be speculative. 

It is inevitable that as teachers we will always discover inadequate strategies in our teaching in the absence of better preparation, which can often be addressed with a better qualification. Teaching requires insight and introspection while you are learning the profession and involves careful thought about how students’ knowledge is gained.

Ideal teaching always has a personal involvement as well as a general understading within the student community and the classroom will rarely suffice to satisfy the requirements of the pupils. Ultimately, the teacher should seek strong and effective methods of teaching, and a better qualification is an instant tool for the purpose. The defining demands in teaching are the deciding factors for better preparation and a procurement of an additional qualification. For instance, if a teacher has to understand the rudiments of grammar, he or she has to search and secure for an elevated educational understanding. Hence, the demands and needs of the student is the concrete concept for an updated qualification.

However, merely obtaining a general degree or a diploma may prove to be irrelevant if the learning gained is not implemented and reflected upon. Teaching is a prolonged process where a teacher has to refresh and rebuild himself or herself to achieve success in the teaching role. Mutual interaction and suggestions will pave the way for a better understanding of the requirements needed for the student outside the classroom. Attending various seminars and symposiums across the country and abroad organised by specialists in the field will help the teacher to expand and enrich her experience in the field of teaching.

In this way, enrichment of knowledge and expansion of experience will result in elevation of standards in English language teaching. Personal demands and necessities alone decide whether a teacher can confine himself or herself to the classroom or to crave for a career exceeding the present requirement.

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