What is a good school for dentistry?

What high school courses should you take in high school to prepare for dentistry?

• Answer:

  For my job shadowing experience, I went to Cumberland Elementary School, and "shadowed" Mr. Dave Proulx. Cumberland is part of the West Lafayette School Corporation. Mr. Proulx is a second grade teacher there. On a daily basis, he arrives to school at approximately 7:00 AM. Between that time, and the time that the students arrive, he is preparing for the day. During this time, he can grade, print out papers needed for the day, and get other various activities ready. Then, at 8:30, all of the students should be in the classroom, ready for the day to start. After the daily announcements he is ready to teach. From then, until the end of the day, he teaches the students grammar, spelling, reading, math, science, and more. Another part of Mr. Proulx's job, is transporting the children to and from their specials, to and from lunch, and they even go out to supervise recess. Then, after school, when the students leave, he doesn't just rush home. Mr. Proulx stays after for more work. Here, he can print off more papers, clean up the room, and grade. He also has to put the grades into the computer. When I went, it wasn't much different from the daily description above. I arrived at approximately 7:00 AM. Once I got there, he put me straight to work. I had many papers to run off on the copy machine, papers to grade, and pass out activities on the children's desks. One job that Mr. Proulx had to do that day, was have a parent conference with one of the parents of a student in his class. While he did this, I waited in the hall and graded the kid's math assignments. Finally It was time for the children to arrive. Once a bell rang over the speaker system, about twenty-five children came rushing through the door. Once we listened to the daily announcements, and recited the pledge, it was ready to start teaching the children. The first thing for on the morning activities was to read a story out of the children's reading book. They got into groups and read. I was placed into one of the groups to read with them. After we finished reading the story, it was time for the children to go back to their seats, and because it was Thursday, they had to take their weekly spelling tests. There were two different tests, depending on the children's skill level. While Mr. Proulx gave one group of students their tests, I got to administer the other test. After the tests were completed, it was time for the children to do their DOL lesson. I got to get up in front of the classroom and teach the lesson. I asked the children to find the mistakes in multiple sentences. This was a great way for me to learn how to actually teach a lesson to a second grade class. Then it was time for the children to go to art class. I got to go with them, because I wanted to learn how to not only be a second grade teacher, but also how to be another type of teacher as well. This was fun as well. The children got to work on their drawings of Halloween pictures. After this special, it was time for the children to go to lunch, and for me to head back to school. I really enjoyed this experience very much. It was a fun hands-on way for me to get introduced into the fun career of a teacher. One thing that I observed that I do not like, is that there is a lot of grading to do. In my interview with Mr. Proulx, I learned that to be a teacher, he got his masters degree in Elementary Education, but all that you need to have to be an elementary teacher, is a BA in Elementary Education. To be a teacher you have to have the skills of patience, modeling good behavior, comprehending student areas of strength and weakness, psychology, organization, and classroom management. To be a teacher, every five years you have to go to training classes, to renew your teaching license. Mr. Proulx said that people who are interested in this career, must get the same amount of training, so that they not only posses the knowledge, but are able to convey it to the students. A new teacher, may get about 30K per year, and a more experienced teacher, may make up to as much as 70-80K per year. One way a teacher can move up on the pay scale, is by getting a higher degree in the field of education. Another way they determine teacher's pay, is by how long you work there. The longer you have been teaching, the more money you make. The atmosphere is happy, and upbeat. There is a lot of teamwork in the building, but there is also independent work, such as when the teacher is teaching the students in the classroom alone. The benefits offered by Mr. Proulx's company, West Lafayette School Corporation, are health insurance, savings plans, dependent care benefits, and 401K, and retirement plans. There will always be a need for this job, because there will always be children that need to have an education. This career interests me very much; however other careers, such as dentistry, do even more. The career that I chose to research is Dentistry. I want to be a dentist for people of all ages. Dentistry is the part of medicine that evolves the evaluation, treatment, and prevention of diseases and other problems in the mouth. Dentists clean, operate, and help people's mouth, which is a necessary part of a human's health. Most dentists are solo practitioners, meaning that they own their own businesses and work alone or with a small staff. Some dentists have partners, and a few work for other dentists. Most dentists work 4 or 5 days a week. Some work evenings and weekends to meet their patients' needs. The number of hours worked varies, depending he the dentist. Most full-time dentists work between 35 and 40 hours a week. Although, others, especially ones who are trying to open up their own dentist practice, work more. Experienced dentists sometimes work fewer hours. Many times, after a dentist reaches retirement age, the will continue to work part-time hours. Dentists usually complete between five and eight years of post-secondary education before becoming an actual dentist. Dentists in the United States are usually qualified to practice after graduating with a degree of either Doctor of Dental Surgery, or Doctor of Dental Medicine.