How to become a teacher

So, you want to be a teacher but not sure how to get there?

I sat down with Shelby, a 24 year old primary school teacher, to ask her how she got her job.

So, what do you do?

I am a primary school teacher in Melbourne.

What does the role involve?

Before I got into the field, I would have told you that teaching is just teaching young kids new things. But now I know that it’s not! I feel like the main part of being a teacher is building relationships with students and knowing how to manage behaviour. I feel like a lot of people don’t know the behind the scenes of teaching - all the planning, admin work, reporting etc.

What did you study at uni?

I studied a BA of Education (Primary) at the Australian Catholic University. My major was Religious Education.

Why should someone consider a career as a teacher?

I think it's a very rewarding job. I’m still new to the career, but the teaching side of the role is very rewarding, and that’s what I think keeps teachers in the profession –seeing students grow with all the new knowledge as well as growing socially is rewarding. Building relationships with the kids over the course of their years at the school is a highlight.

For me, I have a student in one of my classes who is autistic (ASD) and at the start of the year he would run away from the classroom. After building a relationship with him over this school year, he longer does that, so seeing how much of an impact you have on their lives is rewarding.

Do you think your degree sets you up well for this career? Were there any areas that are missing?

No, I don’t think it does set you up as well as it could. They definitely don’t set you up to fail, but because I was completing uni through COVID, I wasn’t able to do my placements and that’s a big component of the degree, because you’re immersed in the teaching and experiencing things first hand. I’m learning more on the job.

All of the units I did at uni didn’t do all that much – it was “read this book and write an essay on it”. I really didn’t learn a lot about working with kids with disabilities or managing behaviour, which is 70% of the job when you’re in a classroom.

If you can’t manage the classroom you can’t teach the content.

I think if your uni has a good placement coordinator and you’re able to participate in lots of placements in different schools and levels, you’re going to be much more prepared coming out of uni.

Do you need a degree to become a teacher?

It depends on what sort of teaching you want to do.

If you want to teach primary or secondary, you can do a Bachelor of Education or a double degree, or study a Bachelor of Science or Arts and then do a post-grad in teaching.

If you want to do early childhood, you can do it through TAFE.

What work experience did you have before this role?

Before getting a job in a school, I really didn’t have a lot of experience. I worked in a retail warehouse job for 7 ½ years before getting a job in a school.

I was lucky enough to get some experience through my placements, which all studying teachers have the opportunity to do. And I had also done some babysitting in the past.

I think it's good to know that I didn’t have a similar experience to teaching before I started teaching. A lot of my friends who are teachers worked in before or after school care, but I didn’t, so it just proves that you don’t need a lot of direct experience before starting as a teacher.

What are the main challenges of your role?

Behaviour management is probably one of the biggest challenges. There will be some classes that you get that have kids that are tricky to deal with. You’ll have to work out strategies and ideas that work for both you and the individual student.

Time management is a big issue. If you aren’t on top of things like reports, even marking, planning lessons, you can quickly become inundated. You don’t want to get behind because it’s so hard to catch up.

Lastly, finding a workplace that is right for you, and not settling for a school just because they are the first ones to give you an offer. At the moment schools are desperate for teachers, so you’ll likely receive a few offers once you start applying. A lot of graduates get scared and take the first offer, without researching the school or the working environment.

What piece of advice would you give someone looking to become a teacher?

If you have the opportunity to work in a before and after school care or work as a Learning Support Officer (LSO) while studying, I would recommend that. I have an LSO in my classroom right now and she’s studying primary teaching, and gaining a lot of hands-on experience in my classroom working with kids who need help with their learning and behaviour.

Try and maintain a work life balance. Everyone thinks teachers live a life of luxury with all our holidays, and they are a bonus, but I have seen so many teachers, myself included, who burn themselves out throughout the year because they have so many things they have to do but no time in the day to do it.

I started my job doing CRT (Casual Relief Teaching) and I am still doing it now on top of a part time teaching role. It's a great way to start out a teaching career, as it allows you to try out a lot of different schools, teach across grades, work out what you like and what’s best suited to you. It’s also good for learning behaviour, because kids are tough with CRTs. If you know how to do behaviour management as a CRT, you’ll know how to do it in a classroom.

What’s next for you? Where can a career as a teacher take you?

The good thing about teaching is that you can do it anywhere, and that the pay for a relief teacher is really good. I plan to keep doing relief teaching, and I have been renewed for a part time contract next year. Alongside that I’m also doing intervention teaching.

But in 2024, I’m planning to move to London and teach over there for a year or two. There’s heaps of work over there, especially if you go through the ANZUK agency.