The first year of teaching may be one of the toughest years of an educator's life. 

Every year, around 7 percent of Boston's 70,000 public school teachers are first-year teachers, said an article in the Boston Globe.

"It's incredibly challenging," said Ross Wilson, assistant superintendent of Boston Public Schools, in the article. “You spend your first few months finding your voice and your rhythm as a teacher, but there’s really nothing more rewarding.

Although the first year may seem to be a stressful time for new teachers, there is great value in it, Wilson said.

"They add fresh perspectives and the latest thinking on educational research, curriculum, and instruction," he said. "They offer a lot of great ideas to school communities, and they usually have a lot of energy and a lot of good will.”

The article offers perspective from six first-year teachers of all ages, who explain to readers why they teach. 

Amanda Dodson, kindergarten teacher at Cabot Elementary School in Newton, reflects on something her first and second grade teacher said when she thought of the reason why she teaches. 

"I teach. I learn. I play," she said. "Out of all of my elementary school teachers, I remember Jani Cummings, my first- and second-grade teacher, the best."

Dodson said she "just loved being in that room with her."

"I still talk to her to this day and see her when I go home [to Raymond, Maine]," she said. "When I was in high school, she told me, 'Don’t be a teacher unless your passion for it is so great that you just can’t do anything else.' That stuck with me, and I realized in my sophomore year of college that there really was nothing else I wanted to do. When I got the job at Cabot, it was one of the happiest days of my life. It was my dream, and it came true.”

Read the full story. 

Article by Kassondra Granata, EducationWorld Contributor