I spent all break trying to finish a big project for one of my classes and even though at first I didn't really understand the point of it, I'm pretty happy with the results. We were told to find people who work in the field we are interested in(mine being teaching) and ask them a few questions. I got to interview my all time favorite teacher from high school(with the help of Facebook of course) and I really like what I got from him so I felt like sharing :)

Q: What do you teach for a living?

A: I teach history classes in the morning and a history class for a few children with special needs in the afternoon.

Q: Do you think people truly understand what children with special needs go through when it comes to learning?

A: A lot of people assume that children with needs automatically means "children with a learning disability" but it doesn't. What I've learned is that some kids just need a different approach and I don't think people understand that.

Q: I spent 2 summers tutoring children who were at risk of being left behind for the simple fact that they knew very little English and I, myself was once on the very same spot, how do you think we are handling the language barriers that sometimes holds back children that would otherwise be "A" students?

A: I think that new York should be considered a bilingual state since there are a lot of people from different places here but we have to remember that it is not. Learning a new language can be hard but not impossible.

Q: If I said that I would like to be a teacher would you recommend it?

A: It depends.

Q: On what?

A: It's a good job overall and it is rewarding but the pay is not what it should be. Is hard to hear a musician or actor brag about making 50,000$ a day or even more when some of us, who teach their kids make way less.

Q: Do you think the quality of what kids are learning has decreased over the years?

A: I want to say no but I'm not very sure.

Q: If you had a chance to voice your concerns for the government to hear would you do it?

A: I think it would depend.

Q: On what?

A: On if there would be repercussions and if the concerns would fall on deaf ears.

Q: Overall are you happy with teaching?

A: I love kids and I love to see their reactions when they finally understand something or learn something new. I still say the pay isn't what it should be but with teaching you see the fruits of what you plant right away and I love that.

My favorite part of the whole thing was the fact that they didn't give us specific questions to ask so I was able to keep some of the same questions at times or switch the questions up a bit for different people. I went ahead and interviewed my sister who started working at a school not too long ago and my aunt who has worked with children for over 10 years. It was interesting to see how opinions change based on the age of who's "teaching" and what they teach. In the end, I still like the idea of being a teacher and hopefully I'll be someone's favorite history teacher one day.