The problem is the parents. You will not make any money. Kids are so difficult nowadays.

"Why do you want to teach?"  "You must really love kids!"  There are so many lines I hear when I tell people I am going to school to be a teacher.  Oh, and when I tell them I dream of teaching the SIXTH grade....forget about it!  "Are you crazy?  That's when they are the worst!"  How do you reply to that?  YES I am in fact CRAZY.  Completely nuts.  And, well, I'm crazy excited that one day I'll have the opportunity to influence those little lives.  Lives that may be related to some of the people who questioned me regarding wanting to be a teacher in the first place.

When my daughter was in the third grade she had a teacher named Ms. W.  Ms. W was the type of teacher that clearly hated her job, was burned out, and just unable to instill the love of wonder or learning in my little student because every day was a chore to her.  It was a very difficult year for all of us but I have to thank Ms. W.  It was her poor attitude towards teaching that inspired my love for it and I began taking classes towards a teaching degree shortly after that experience. 

I recall one time specifically when my daughter left her lunch in the class room and as they were walking she told Ms. W.  Ms. W said later that she told my daughter to come with her back to the classroom to get it.  My daughter said she did not hear her and sat crying in the lunch room until a lunch monitor asked her what was wrong.  She told her she left her lunch so the monitor walked her down to her class to get her lunch.  Ms. W was very angry and punished my daughter by giving her a dreaded "mark," her classroom implemented discipline strategy.  Was it a "mark" for forgetting her lunch, not following her back to the class to get it, or because she involved the monitor?  I'll never know.  I do know that while I am a huge believer of personal responsibility, I would not punish a child over forgetting a lunch in the classroom.

The biggest part of expecting students to have personal responsibility for themselves is teaching them what it is and teaching them how they can achieve it.  People are not born with a responsibility instinct.  This will be one of the most important parts of my classroom, and I can't wait.