Being a teacher is hard work by Tyler

Being a teacher is hard work by Tyler - November 2020 Scholarship Essay

Education is the one thing that I have excelled at in my life. It was a rough start in elementary school. I had a hard time learning to read and a hard time with math. I moved around a lot before I made it to middle school or in my case junior high school. I missed essential topics like fractions and building my literacy. I also didn’t have the best first grade teacher. She was just out of college, right into teaching first graders. Gross, snot covered kids that don’t know how to take care of themselves, let alone learn. But that is what I am so thankful for. The teachers that have the courage to take care of those kids. To make sure that they make it through to the next stage in life. I am grateful for the teachers that I had over the course of my high school career. After my first grade teacher I was blessed with a wonderful teacher who taught me to read, my 2nd grade teacher. She spent extra time outside of normal class time to be my reading teacher. That generous gesture launched my school career. Sure, I definitely know how to read now, but I wouldn’t have learned how to read as well as i did if I didn’t have my 2nd grade teacher. Another great reason I am so thankful for the teachers I have had is due to my 4th grade teacher. She helped me get up to my grade level in reading and get back on track in math. Then my 6th grade teacher. She got me in the habit of doing my homework on time and loving to read outside of school. At this point I was doing exponentially better in school then I was doing in 1st grade. Starting junior high on a good foot and on an upward slope to high honors, honors, and AP classes in high school. Not just in elementary school did I struggle. I also struggled in junior high math. Until, my 8th grade math teacher. She was so friendly and loved me personally. I feel that since she took the time to work with me alone that was what helped me get through junior high and excel in high school math. Throughout my school years I have been given time after time, amazing teacher after amazing teacher. From teaching me how to read, to teaching me how to do advanced algebra, physics, and AP literature in high school. They simply too the time for me.
That is not the only reason to be thankful for teachers and the efforts that they make towards you while you learned how to write, read, and be a valuable member of society. During the COVID-19 pandemic, they buckled down and created a new curriculum for their students to work at home and learn remotely to help protect themselves from the highly contractible virus. Parents realized how hard it is to teach kids hard topics like simple math. Over the course of the pandemic I gained a larger respect for all of my teachers especially my high school and elementary ones. Because not only are your high school teachers trying to get you through to graduation, but they are doing it through the internet. Putting all the responsibility to learn in your hands. Which is surprisingly a lot harder than you would think. Having that in-class learning is so much easier than at home because you don’t have all the distractions of your home and your phone, more importantly. At school you are forced to sit there and learn, as well as ask for help. So, to all teachers, professors, homeschooling parents, etc., Thank you. Thank you for building the minds of the next generation of American Citizens. Thank you for doing all that you can to teach us all that you can. Thank you for doing all of that and accepting the amount of pay you do which is not enough. Thank you for carrying on when all this is hard on us, when it may be even worse for you. Just Thank you. You are what I am grateful for.