Is it possible to teach at a high school full time while goting to get my masters full time? PLEASE HELP!!!!!!

Question

Do several people do it? Is it hard? How would I go about doing it? Any tips. My subject I want to teach is Sociology. My dream is to teach in at college level and write text books (and just books in general). Any ideas?

Answer 1

It is pretty impossible to teach and get your masters full time.  It takes the typical high school teacher about 3 yrs., at least, to finish their masters degree.  But tons of colleges have programs with high school teachers in mind which off normally one or two night classes per semester for teachers.

You won't be able to teach just sociology in high school, unless you find a ridiculously large high school that has a huge department.  

For example, my school has about 600 students from 9-12.  We offer sociology to juniors and seniors as an optional course.  This coming year, we have two sections of sociology, each of these only being a semester.

We each have to carry at least five year long classes, and two semester long sections of sociology only counts as a one year long class.  So, if your school is on a period schedule, you'd have to find a school that has enough students to support 10 sections of sociology.  Not likely.

If you find a high school that teaches on the block, with four periods a day, then you'd have to find a school that has six sections of sociology.

Few high school social studies teachers teach just one subject.  I've had to teach five different subjects over the last two years, and I'm fairly lucky.

If you really want to teach college, forget about high school.  High school teaching is not good training for college, and in fact is very time consuming.  

You're better off just going to grad school for sociology, and getting a fellowship, which means you would act as an assistant to a sociology professor in exchange for a modest stipend.  You'll be broke for a few years, but then you'll have your PhD.

Oh, and be forewarned, the market for college professors is very tough right now.  Expect to have to work at several different colleges and commute quite a distance and don't expect to get any benefits for a looooong time.

Happy Learning!