-: Well, first and foremost, you have to have a licensure.
Whether that's a K-12, a K-6,
you have to have a license to teach in a classroom,
of course, and they like if you have experience,
like student teaching experience.
Whether that is the basic 12 weeks or the entire year,
having that experience before,
getting in the classroom and having that licensure
is key to becoming a teacher.
The great calling of being an elementary teacher
or just being a teacher in general,
is just having humility.
Like you have to be caring.
You have to be patient.
Like you have to be willing to be uncomfortable
or open because you're working with many different students,
many different backgrounds
and a lot of times people don't think about,
not only are you working with the students,
you're working with the parents
so building on that connection is very key
becoming an educator, becoming a teacher
because it's not just the classroom
that you have to think about,
it's not just the kids that you have to think about,
you have to think about much more.
Like how is this going to impact my kid,
not only now but in their future.
So my best piece of advice just based on what I did,
from my experience.
I really wanted to make sure I wanted to become a teacher.
So, before going into the program and student teaching,
what I did, I got a lot of experience
and whether that was you know, volunteering,
whether that was mentoring.
It may not be in the classroom actually teaching
but it was working with keys in many different environments.
I've coached.
I've mentored.
I've done a lot of things just to make sure,
do I like working with children?
Whether it's like young children,
all the way up to high school children.
So that was something I did just to make sure
like if this fit's gonna be actually right for me.