Career as a Eng. Teacher?

Question

I recently posted a question about how I do not know what I want to do as a career. I mentioned that I am good in the English category. I spent the day thinking about it and doing some research, and was thinking of possibly becoming an English teacher. Teachers make a decent salary of about 30 grand to 45 grand a year.

My main question is how do you become a teacher at a college? I am not sure if I really want to spend time teaching young children or even high schoolers. In my English courses at my community college, you mostly have to give out the paper's topic, and review and correct and grade their work.

What do you have to do to become a teacher such as this? I know you have to take college courses and such, but what would I do to be a teacher at a college? Would I have to start small at an elementary or high school?

Do college teacher's get paid less because they only teach a few classes a few times a week instead of a normal 7-230 mon-fri high school class?

Thanks :]

Answer 1

Even working at a community college requires at least a Bachelor's and a Master's Degree in either English Lit or Education.  Most universities require a Ph.D. and expect tenure-track teachers to be regularly published writers (mainly academic essays in scholarly journals--not creative writing).  The job market is awful.  One university in the middle of Nebraska had an opening for a teacher specializing in Medieval Lit--it had over 600 applicants.

College teaching is generally overrated.  I understand the temptation, having started there myself.  I earned my BA and MA in English Lit and was prepared to move on to my Ph.D.  Teaching secondary ed was not appealing because I figured it was intellectually beneath me.  However, while working as a grad assistant during my MA I found I enjoyed teaching far more than the constant pressure to publish and the ongoing drama of a university English department.  Instead of doing the Ph.D., I went back for my BS in secondary ed.

I haven't regretted the choice one bit.  Though I teach middle school, I am more intellectually challenged today than I ever was teaching college students.  My middle schoolers are an absolute blast and never boring.  Sure, there are rough days and I deal with issues I could have avoided at a university (NCLB, for example), but the good far outweighs the bad.  There are numerous opportunities for professional development and plenty of ways to get involved.  Five years into teaching public school and I'm a proud National Board Certified Teacher and active member of several professional organizations.  

Give teaching 7-12 some thought.  E-mail me if you have any questions.  Best of luck!