Text a. Top 10 reasons to become a teacher

Teaching is a special calling. It is not a job well-suited to everyone. In fact, many new teachers leave within the first 3-5 years of teaching. However, there are many rewards that come with this oft maligned career. Here are my top ten reasons why teaching can be a great profession.

1. Student Potential

Unfortunately, not every student will succeed in your class. However, this fact should not keep you from believing that every student has the potential for success. This potential is so exciting - each new year presents new challenges and new potential successes.

2. Student Successes

Closely related to the previous pick, student success is what drives teachers to continue. Each student who didn't understand a concept and then learned it through your help can be exhilarating. And when you actually reach that student that others have written off as being unteachable, this can truly be worth all the headaches that do come with the job.

3. Teaching a Subject Helps You Learn a Subject

You will never learn a topic better than when you start teaching it. I remember my first year teaching AP Government. I had taken Political Science courses in college and thought I knew what I was doing. However, the student questions just made me dig deeper and learn more. There is an old adage that it takes three years of teaching to truly master a subject and in my experience this is the truth.

4. Daily Humor

If you have a positive attitude and a sense of humor, you will find things to laugh about each day. Sometimes it will be silly jokes you will make up as you teach that might get a laugh from your students. Sometimes it will be jokes that kids share with you. And sometimes students will come out with the funniest statements without realizing what they've said. Find the fun and enjoy it!

5. Affecting the Future

Yes it might be trite, but it is true. Teachers mold the future each day in class. In fact, it is a sad fact that you will see some of these students more consistently day-to-day than their parents will.

6. Staying Younger

Being around young people everyday will help you remain knowledgeable about current trends and ideas. It also helps break down barriers.

7. Autonomy in the Classroom

Once a teacher closes that door each day and begins teaching, they really are the ones who decide what's going to happen. Not many jobs provide an individual with so much room to be creative and autonomous each day.

8. Conducive to Family Life

If you have children, the school calendar will typically allow you to have the same days off as your kids. Further, while you might bring work home with you to grade, you will probably be getting home close to the same time as your children.

9. Job Security

In many communities, teachers are a scarce commodity. It is fairly certain that you will be able to find a job as a teacher, though you might have to wait until the start of a new school year and be willing to travel within your county/school district. While requirements might be different from state to state, once you have proven yourself a successful teacher, it is relatively easy to move around and find a new job.

10. Summers Off

Unless you work in a district that has a year-round-education system, you will have a couple of months off in the summer where you can choose to get another job, teach summer school, or just relax and vacation. Further, you typically get two weeks off during Christmas/Winter Holidays and one week for Spring Break which can really be a huge benefit and provide much needed rest time.

(http://712educators.about.com/od/teacherresources/tp/teachergood.htm)

TEXT B. TEACHER BURNOUT AT 50-PLUS IS HOLDING BACK OUR STUDENTS

'Teacher burnout at 50-plus is holding back our students' said Nicholas Tyldesley, head of history at Birley Community College in Sheffield.

Teachers should retire at 50. It is surprising that the Department for Education has not been actively promoting this strategy. At a stroke it would allow fast trackers to escalate through the promotion scales; it would let teachers connect more effectively with the youth culture of their students and it would facilitate the adoption of e-learning and new technologies.

In managerial terms creating a profession on short-term, limited contracts would let keen young teachers develop their talents before being burned out in the process and lingering on beyond their sell-by date. Mr Chips would be forced to enter the real world to try something else before final retirement. Like army officers, the police and pilots, teachers in the blackboard jungle need to be physically fit and intellectually sharp to survive the day to day harassment. Deja vu has no place in a fast changing world. So why aren't we taking such a bold step of purging schools of exhausted cynics who moan about workloads? The impending crisis of too many ex-workers claiming a pension and extended life expectancy makes talk of early retirement politically incorrect for new Labour.

We live in a youth culture yet paradoxically we want to encourage the active aged who doesn’t wish to retire. Studies show that mature, experienced staff are an asset to an organisation and can indeed be taught new skills. Active minds delay the onset of a general physical slowdown.

However, much one can agree with the trend for keeping people in the workplace beyond the current age limits, an exception still ought to be made for teachers.

The classroom does not allow for day dreaming, reflection or reducing input - you still have to hit the ground running for an hour's lesson whether you are a newly qualified teacher or long serving staff. After a few years the sheer grinding admin of attendance checks, dental forms and creating new schemes of work can beat the most enthusiastic down, as marking time eats into evenings. The lack of social life for so many teachers is a sad indictment of the job description.

Age does not automatically guarantee respect in the eyes of the young, and the challenges to authority are greater than ever before. The standard school is based on a historical model of adult control and hierarchy that is increasingly under critical scrutiny. It is an ineffective organisation to deliver education and the arguments of the doyens of the liberal 60s will be coming back into fashion.

There will be a backlash to the current practice of putting students through the testing hoops, simplistic measurement of achievement and of teachers as technicians, not charismatic performers.

Only when the structure of schools alters to take account of distance learning, e-learning and life-long learning can we think about the contribution of experienced teachers.

Until then we should face reality and accept that teacher burnout at 50-plus is holding back our students. It would be nice if teachers were offered a golden goodbye for long-term service.

(www.guardian.co.uk/society/2002/may/29/publicvoices1)

4. Which word-combinations from ex. 2 were in your text? Paraphrase these word-combinations and use them in sentences of your own.

5. Translate into English.

1) Для некоторых учителей с большим стажем работы характерны истощение и профессиональное выгорание. 2) Учитель – это призвание и призыв к непрерывному творческому саморазвитию. 3) Задача учителя - определить методы работы и создать положительный воодушевляющий климат на уроке. 4) Одним из важных факторов стимулирования педагогического творчества является предоставление учителю самостоятельности и возможности творческого самовыражения. 5) Педагогика - не механический процесс передачи знаний, а творчество, в области которого сложно выставлять оценки. 6) Критерии оценки задают цели, на которые будет ориентироваться педагог, следовательно, упрощенная система оценки может привести к занижению целей. 7) Объем учебной нагрузки учителей устанавливается исходя из количества часов по учебному плану и программам. 8) Дистанционное обучение через Интернет значительно расширяет образовательные возможности.

6. Sum up the arguments from TEXT A and TEXT B in a report about the pros and cons of being a teacher.