KQED News Mind/Shift – Linda Flanagan
“Marcy Rosner started her career as a college counselor, but decided to switch to teaching when she realized her favorite part of the job was working with students. She lives in Oakland and teaches U.S. and world history to 10th-graders at a nearby charter school. Now in her fourth year as a teacher, she appreciates how much she didn’t understand about the work. “Teaching is infinitely more difficult than I pictured,” she said. The challenges most teachers encounter are well known. In exchange for modest pay and marginal status, teachers are expected to inspire a love of learning among their students, introduce exciting new technologies and be attentive to distinctive learning and emotional styles — while somehow carrying out state and federal educational standards, managing behavior problems and keeping standardized test scores respectable.”(more)