What's the hardest part about becoming an elementary teacher?

It really depends what type of teacher you would like to be. However the main pathways are generally the same and the options vary but go along the same lines.

1. You need to graduate high school.
2. You need to attend a college/university and earn a four- year B.A. degree. You will want to get a bachelors degree in the subject-matter that you want to teach, this makes certification in your state and subject-area feasible. You may opt to minor or double-major in education. You do not need to have a bachelors in education to be a teacher. I would suggest getting a bachelors degree in the subject you would like to teach. (for example: I am an English teacher, I majored in English literature and now have a bachelors in English).
3. Once you graduate college with your bachelors degree you have a few options:

A. Go directly to Graduate school and obtain your masters in the area of teaching/education you want to teach (ie. Masters of Education, Masters of Teaching, Masters of Secondary English, Masters of Teaching in Secondary English, Masters of Teaching in Elementary, Masters of Special Education etc.). You may also opt to get a masters degree in the subject-are you wish to teach. However, while in graduate school you must obtain a masters degree in some variation of teaching/education. So you will have either a MAT (Masters of Teaching) or MED (Masters of Education). Most graduate schools have one of the two programs and offer a variation depending on the subject (ie. Masters of Teaching in Secondary English or Masters of Education in Secondary English). This option is ussually a fifth year pathway that allows you to student teach at a school while earning your masters degree.

B. You can apply to an Alternative Route to Certification (if you state has options/offers this). This would look like a program like TeachForAmerica, AmeriCorps TutorCorps, or other Teacher Residency Programs (ie. KIPP Teaching Fellows, MATCH Schools, or charter schools that offer Teacher Resident positions. Look up the options in your state or the options available if state is not a boundary for you. During the year or two-year commitment of these programs you would typically also have classes or being earning a masters degree. This option is for teachers who want to start working directly after they graduate college. Some programs lead to Certification in your state and others lead to BOTH Certification and a Masters Degree. The ARC programs lead to 90 day certifications, which then lead to Initial Educator Certification OR Resident Teacher Certification (ALL are pathways to FULL certification in your state).

1. Regardless of which route you take you will need to take the certification exams in your state. MOST states, including CT (which is the information I know because it is my state) require the PRAXIS exams. You will need to research certification requirements within your own state for more information. However, while you are earning your masters (or after you have earned your bachelors) you will want to also prepare for and take the PRAXIS Core (which can be waived if your SAT/ACT scores are high enough) and the PRAXIS II which cannot be waived and MUST be passed for certification.
2. Once you have obtained your Bachelors degree AND Masters degree AND Passed your state certification exams AND done some form of students teaching (whether that is during college or in a residency program) you can then:
3. Go to your state board of education website and complete your certification information.
4. Then, you can APPLY as a LEAD teacher in the area you are certified.

MOST pathways take 4-6 years. You will be able to start your first year of teaching as a lead teacher generally in year 5 or 6.

This professional recommends the following next steps:

• Earn a bachelors degree in the subject area you would like to teach in AND or a bachelors in Education.
• Decide if you want to do a teaching Residency program like Teach For America or if you would like to go straight to graduate school to earn your masters degree.
• Apply to Graduate schools and Teaching Residency programs. During your senior year of college.
• Begin your first year of grad school or teaching residency.
• Earn your Masters degree in Education or Teaching, in the area you would like to teach in.

Throughout the past year, CTI Career Search has conducted interviews with dozens of elementary school teachers to assemble a real-world view of the profession. Recently, the web site published a free 64 page eBook called Being an Elementary School Teacher: Real-World Tips & Stories from Working Teachers that provides a summary and presents a representative sample of 25 of these interviews. The included interviews are those judged to be most helpful to prospective teachers.

The following excerpt- Chapter 3 of the eBook -presents the summary of findings, including:

 the best and worst parts of the profession,
 tips on teaching and preparing to become a teacher, and
 general insights into elementary school teaching.

Teachers are not in it for the money

Most of the teachers whose stories are included in this eBook didn’t see their salaries as an issue and found rewards in other aspects of the job. Many seemed to see it as a calling—a way of “making a difference.” “It’s not a job to do for the money,” said one teacher bluntly. You have to “have a passion for what you teach.” “I stopped teaching for several years but missed the interactions with students,” wrote another, who took a better paying day job in the interim. “I don’t make more money and I have less time for myself, but I wouldn’t trade any of that. I love meeting new students every year and I thrive in an atmosphere of change and flexibility.”

Kids are the best

Students emerge as both a blessing and a curse—not a huge surprise, really. What’s more surprising is the degree of unanimity among teachers about the things that keep them going: the thing about their jobs that they like best. Summer vacation? Not even close. For nearly ninety percent, it was the kids—even, on a couple of occasions, for those who said they also didn’t like them all that much. “Do not become a teacher,” wrote one hardened campaigner “because you think it will be easy, or because you ‘like kids.’ It is not easy, and you will not like kids when you are finished.” The thing that he liked the best about his work? “Watching students make discoveries on their own”—the kids, in a word.

Others tried to explain this seeming contradiction. A second grade teacher from the Boston area wrote: “The best part of my job is also the worst part: the children. It is an awesome responsibility working with small children who can be so easily crushed, but not necessarily so easily motivated. The sum total of their needs is a heavy burden. Yet when one of them really gets something (the ‘ah ha!’ moment), there is not a better feeling in the world. It is too bad it comes infrequently.” This “ah-ha” moment—“watching the light bulbs come on in kids’ eyes when they get it,” as another teacher put it—was of the main reward for a number of teachers, for which “the kids” was simply shorthand. Teachers like teaching but mostly when it works and when they can see it succeed, and they are just as frustrated as anyone else would be when they see their energies and talents being squandered.

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Now for the bad news

The teachers weren’t quite as unanimous about the things they didn’t like. Parents made an appearance. “Teaching is not for the faint of heart,” bluntly advised a teacher from North Carolina. “Parents are becoming more and more belligerent as their kids get lazier.” Administrators, other teachers, the workload, the kids even standardized testing came in for criticism. “I can’t believe how quickly the focus of education has changed in the 10 years that I have been teaching. It is so test-driven and performance-driven and this goes against EVERYTHING that children need!” one teacher argued.

But the real villain for many of them was the paperwork: not just grading and correcting homework, but writing student assessments, creating independent education plans, and filling out mandated forms. Meetings to discuss and plan curriculum (and other school related issues) were another inescapable irritant and a cause of considerable grumbling, and the two were often lumped together: paperwork and meetings, like heads and tails, a losing coin toss either way. One fourth grade teacher warned “that teachers rarely teach any more”—due in part to all the paperwork—and went on to bemoan “the politics, isolation, pay raises, lack of time, lack of support from government, endless paperwork, things that take me away from teaching, pay cuts at the 11th hour, large class sizes, lack of job security, lack of professional development and support.”

Tips on becoming a teacher

How best to prepare for all this? Teachers were generally in agreement that shadowing a teacher, working as a teacher’s aide, student teaching, and even substitute teaching were the best ways to prepare for the profession and insure you possess the “right stuff.” One science teacher went even further: “I would even suggest that you become a teacher’s assistant for a year before deciding to go into this field. This will give you a real glimpse into teaching. I would also suggest sticking it out for at least four years. After your fourth year of teaching, it gets so much easier. You know how to read the students better, you have learned to tweak lessons.”