Thinking about a career in teaching?

Hello ^.^ I may not be able to help a ton, but I also have social anxiety and work for a professor who teaches people how to teach math and science so I may have some insight c:

I thought about teaching foreign languages (and still am) and I was worried that my social anxiety would be a problem until I took my oral communications class. We had to choose a topic and do 3 speeches on it, and I approached my speeches like classes so that I would see what it was like. Having things to keep the audience involved like questions, activities or a powerpoint really took the pressure off of me and I ended up really enjoying it c:

My favorite teacher wasn't a teacher at all but a facilitator for my japanese class in high school. She didn't have a degree so she couldnt technically teach but she was a native. She put her heart and soul in to being a teacher and really made a difference in mine and lots of other student's lives. However, she was often so dissapointed in her students lack of interest and lack of caring that I even saw her cry once. This made me think twice about being a teacher, as I have seen both of my favorite teachers cry over this.

As far as qualifications they vary from state to state, but most all I beleive require a bachelors. Some schools have specific education programs, or teaching programs. When you deciede if you are really interested enough to pursue it I think you should make an appointment with an advisor at your closest college who may be able to help you find schools and give you information ^.^ There are also lots of website and funding for teachers, many schools have the TEACH grant, which awards you a certain amount (no paying it back, cause its a grant) as long as you promise to teach for four years in a high-need subject or area. If you deciede to not be a teacher, the money simply turns into a low-interest loan, which many students have anyway c:

If you have any questions i may be able to help with just let me know c:

 

Some colleges have specific classes on working with children, I know we have classes for teaching in elementary, and the english department has a childrens literature class. Sometimes a masters degree is worth it, sometimes its not. Im pretty sure in some states the pay you get increases with a masters degree, but I've heard that unless you want to teach college level that a masters degree isn't always worth it. However, a lot of the teachers i work with have masters degrees.

 

Teaching is great! Most of the time. :lol:

If you're looking at exploring this in college, there are a couple of ways you could go. Some colleges will have majors such as Secondary Education or Elementary Education that will focus specifically on the craft and theory of teaching (which may include some children's psychology classes, it depends on the department), with a minor background in whatever subject you plan to specialize in. You could also just get a degree in a particular subject (history, hard science, etc.) and then get a teaching certificate after the degree (which takes about another year, usually). It's just a question of how much you want to focus on the subject you want to teach, vs. how much you want to focus on the craft of teaching itself.

Master's degrees vary greatly by region, but you probably don't need to worry about it yet. Some states actually require them for teachers - I know Oregon is one such case. Some states will pay you more if you have one, and others don't care at all. I'm not sure about Ohio, but you should be able to find out with a bit of digging (and anyone at a college you attend will certainly know).

 

My mom is an library aide, but I volunteer a lot at an elementary school. The school school system that I attended is a part of the TEACH grant.. so I see many new teachers that have to deal with the students that just don't care.

The first thing is that many of these students have terrible home lives. I know many of my friends that their parents forced them to take drugs..
Many also were abused. They would come to school in pretty bad shape.
I know three kids (they are triplets) that had to share socks because their parents would not buy them any. (the school donated some socks to them.) The sad thing was their parents drove big SUV's.. (the parents were later convicted for selling drugs.)

I could go on and on with stories... I'm not telling you to scare you out of being a teacher, I just want you to know some of what goes on.

These kids, we call them "high risk" kids, can either listen to you or not listen to you. It's their choice. I know that when I was younger, I was in with the wrong group. It it was not for my teachers, I would probably be in a bad place. (I have good parents, they did not know who my friends were at that time.)

So, the short version of this post: You can only help the kids that are willing to help themselves. You have to know what you are in for, but if you understand the risks, then go for it!!

(As for the degree question, in Ohio, to work in a public school system, you eventually have to have your masters. I know that you can work while you get your masters, so that helps some.)

I hope that this helps you!

 

I don't know how varied things are where you are, but in Australia there are a few different ways you can go about becoming qualified to teach. Some universities have bachelor degrees specializing in Early Childhood (birth-gr2) or Primary (grade 3-8). Then there are double degrees offered in Education and Arts/Economy/Science, where you major in whatever you want to specialize in teaching. Someone who wanted to be a secondary teacher would need to do one of these, or first do a bachelors in whatever subject they want to specialize in, and then do a masters in education afterwards. When you're doing an education degree, you are a student-teacher. When you finish the degree, you're fully qualified to be a teacher.

I've just finished my first semester in a Bachelor of Education (Primary), and so far I've absolutely loved it. We only have a two week Professional Experience Placement in our first year, but I've also been volunteering one day a week at a local school, which I've found to be really helpful. I've worked with kids from prep to grade 4 thus far.
I've noticed that, even as someone who's not big on yelling, once you're in the classroom on a regular basis and get to know the kids you're working with, you get the hang of the discipline and classroom management skills fairly quickly. It's not necessarily about yelling, just being firm and knowing how different students need to be spoken to.
In our first year, here, they don't expect us to do much whole-class work - taking the roll call, shared reading, or daily PE, at the most. It's mostly small group activities that we focus on (that being said, every colleague teacher is different, and some might prefer to see us jumping in and trying to take on a bit more).
You should always have a fully qualified teacher with you in the classroom anyway, so if something happens and you can't control the class, they should step in and take over (and they shouldn't judge you at all for it in the first year).

But yeah, just some little bits and bobs from somebody in the middle of their first year as a student-teacher. Some of it's specific to Australia, but other bits might be similar in the US?