14 benefits of teaching to explore if you want to be a teacher
Updated 24 January 2023
There are many roles in the educational field, including in student services or a traditional classroom setting. If you're considering a career in education, you may wonder if it's the right decision. Exploring the advantages of working as a teacher may help you decide and pursue a path that aligns with your skills and expectations. In this article, we explore the benefits of teaching and reasons why you may consider this role.
14 benefits of teaching
Although working as a teacher may be challenging at times, there are various benefits of teaching that make it a highly rewarding career if you're passionate about working with others and educating children or teenagers. Here are some advantages of becoming a member of the teaching staff:
1. Encouraging others to succeed
As a teacher, you may inspire your students to identify their strengths and learn to maximise their academic, personal or career potential. With the right mindset and approach, you may be a role model many of those students seek because there's no one else in their lives who might guide and support them. For example, you may use your expertise and life experiences to help children develop healthy habits that facilitate learning. In some instances, you may even help them identify and eliminate their weaknesses and limitations so that they may focus on pursuing meaningful lives and careers.
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2. Opportunity to impact individuals and communities
Successful and charismatic teachers may impact not only individuals but also entire communities. If you love meeting new people, you may use your teaching position to inspire events and learning activities in your town or part of the city where you work. For example, you may create fun activities in which children, adults and seniors may participate. This way, you may help create a stronger bond amongst members of the community.
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3. Working with children
Becoming a teacher may be the right decision if you're passionate about working with children. You may use your experience to teach a new generation the importance of following ethical values and staying true to themselves. In a way, this might help you shape the future of the community or the world. In exchange, your students may bring more joy into your life and teach you about staying carefree and enjoying every moment of the day.
Related: 7 careers with children you can apply for right now
4. Promoting quality education
As you gain experience and improve your qualifications, you may have a chance to introduce students and educational facilities to new teaching methods. By promoting conscious teaching, you may increase the quality of education and inspire other teachers to invest more time and thought into the methods they use to communicate knowledge to children. For example, you may have a chance to work with children with different learning abilities or backgrounds to make sure they receive the same attention and education as other students.
5. Fulfilment from watching students grow
When you create a healthy bond with your students, some may want to stay in touch with you even after leaving school. Observing how they grow, develop new skills and pursue their passions may make you fulfilled in life and career. It also allows you to feel like you're a vital part of their journey and someone who inspired them to grow, never give up and always be true to themselves.
Related: Learning environment (definition, types and examples)
6. New challenges every day
Teaching is a highly responsible and versatile role which presents you with new challenges every day. For example, one day you may spend the entire day teaching in a classroom and marking tests. The next day, your role may be to lead a parents-teachers conference and conduct one-on-one tutoring sessions with underperforming students. If you're someone who easily adjusts to new environments and prefers this over-performing routine tasks, then teaching may be a great option for you.
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7. Being a lifelong learner
Although working as a teacher requires you to communicate the knowledge you already have, it also creates various learning opportunities for you. For example, your employer may require you to continuously expand your knowledge and offer attractive professional development opportunities, like participating in conferences and networking events. You also get to learn a lot from your students, as you never know what challenges they may have. To address their needs, you may regularly engage in research.
Related: How to be a learner for life in 9 steps (with benefits)
8. A way to use your creativity
There are different ways in which people learn. As a teacher, you may use your creativity to translate knowledge into different formats to help your students understand complex concepts. For example, you may use visual, audio and textual resources to explain the same topics but in a different ways. You may also use your creativity to help students with attention deficits to engage in lessons, for instance, by offering them fun learning games.
Related: 25 ideas to boost your creativity in the workplace
9. Using modern technology
To facilitate learning and present knowledge in an engaging way, teachers often use technology. If you pursue this career, you may have access to tools like interactive boards or complex IT network systems. Some facilities may even assign you a separate budget, which you may spend to modernise your classroom equipment, which may be a fun experience for you if you're passionate about IT and computers.
Related: 10 examples of online teaching software (with benefits)
10. A variety of subjects
If you want to teach but have other passions you want to pursue, becoming a teacher may help you combine that. There's a variety of subjects you may teach, including maths, science subjects, foreign languages or history. Educators may also explore more creative subjects, like music, art or theatre. For those with a passion for sports, becoming a PE teacher might be a great option.
Related: Teacher degrees: what they are and what to expect
11. Ability to travel
Once you obtain your qualifications as an educator, you may have the option to teach at a local school, online or even travel all over the world to teach. For example, you may participate in work-and-travel programmes that allow you to educate people in other countries in exchange for accommodation and food. Another option is becoming a full-time English teacher abroad, which allows you to explore and learn about a different culture while doing what you love.
Related: How to teach English abroad in 5 steps (plus definition)
12. Career path clarity
Another benefit of teaching is that it presents you with a clear career path to pursue. Even during your first day of teaching, you already have a general idea of what's possible in your profession. For example, you may want to become a headteacher or transition to the administrative department after teaching for a few years. In addition, you may even have a chance to advance within the same organisation or facility where you already work. Even if you decide to relocate or change employers, there are different opportunities available for qualified teachers.
Related: 8 steps to effectively approach career exploration
13. Great for families
If you're a teacher and plan to have a family, your employer may have the opportunity to offer you attractive benefits. For example, this may include paying for your children's daycare while you're in the classroom working. If you teach at a private educational facility, your children may even receive tuition discounts.
14. Long holidays
Many teachers consider long holidays a key advantage of working in this role. They usually remain off work during long holidays and breaks, including the summer or winter. Many employers also offer them free bank holidays. Although teachers may perform some tasks on those days, like marking tests, they may often do this at home while working only part-time.
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