Questions on a career in teaching?

Question

After years of struggling to find something meaningful in the private sector, I am increasingly thinking about a career in teaching because I want to make a genuine difference to people's lives. What I want to find out is how much it costs to do a teaching qualification. I already have two degrees, one undergraduate and one postgraduate, and if I was paying for the course, I would be using my savings. Can I also use the teaching experience then to move into lecturing at university as my academic background is quite diverse? Last question, is it a worthwile and satisfying profession?

Answer 1

Teaching is the best job in the word, hard and stressful but very rewarding. I am assuming you're in the UK. If you do a PGCE you will get paid to train. It was about 6,000 when i trained  5 years ago.  

Answer 2

kk just some advice since i have no F.u..(kin

clue what all that means, but im gunna answer the ;last part.

DONT DO IT! I'm a teen so i see the way kids are these days. Personnally i have respect for my teacher and take it seriously but most kids these days are pricks to their teachers. Do not do it!!! If you wanna make a difference in people's lives than be a therapist or work at a retirement home

Answer 3

If you are speaking of teaching at the university level, I think you would need to get your doctorate degree to keep from being a TA, or something similar.

To teach in the public school system would take a couple of years, maybe 18 months, and a semester of student teaching.  Probably about 2-3K dollars, depending on where you do it.

It is rewarding, but much of my energy is spent doing behavior management.  Many kids have so many other things going on, that school is last on their mind.  I enjoy it, but you aren't going to have a classroom full of "minds of mush" just waiting to be taught.

I know every year that I enter the room as the enemy, and must find a way to win them over and make them enjoy being there.

My experience with people like you.....people who leave their prior profession to go work with young people, is that they think the youth of America are eager to learn.  That isn't the case.  The youth of America want to do the same things we do....what we do on the weekends.  I have to make the learning happen without making them think about how much they are learning.

Good Luck.

Answer 4

You want to get Rich, this is not the right way.

Love to be with kids and enjoy almost 4 or 5 months of vacation, well this is you.

Answer 5

in some places, your degrees already qualify you to teach, especially at the junior college level.

aside from that, you need to find out the requirements in your local schools.

Answer 6

Teaching is indeed a worthwhile and satisfying profession. I would check the teacher training agency for training available as you may find you do not need to pay for it. I would not know about the lecturing thing but depending on your subject you may find you are already qualified to lecture at undergrad level, check the tta for details. Best of luck

Answer 7

The requirements differ by state. I did the same thing that you did. I was in the private sector and got tired of jumping from job to job. I was in high technology sales.

A couple areas for you to pursue, this would apply to the state of CA.

1. Get a Vocational Ed Credential - You would use your work experience to get the credential. No additional schooling would be needed immediately. To renew the credential you would need to take a couple of classes over the next 2 years, This credential will allow you to teach adults or students pursuing a trade.

2. Go back to school and get the appropriate credential. You could be an intern. Check with your local private or public college. You could also look into getting your credential online. This would allow you to teach in the secondary or primary areas.

Now for the question... would I do it over again? Teaching is much different nowadays. You do not really have the parental involvement you need. There is a set discipline process that you must follow. How and what you teach is regulated by your school site. Students, depending on the grade level, have much less respect for you then when you were in school. I teach at least 1-2 periods per day where I spend more time on discipline then teaching.

Having the time off is real nice. I enjoy learning about the new teaching methods of instruction. If you can change a couple of students per year, that makes your year. It also allows you to see how students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds function. Ruby Payne's Framework for Understanding Poverty is an excellent book. Students sometimes come to you with some real odd questions and other share info with you that you would prefer not to know.

My instruction involves mutual respect and understanding. Knowing the students backgrounds help you better understand more and tolerate more. Sometimes I am envious of other teachers so that when you walk into their classroom, you can hear a pin drop. However, these classrooms are taught by fear as the students are fearful of doing something wrong. In school, these teachers teach by fear by ridiculuing them in front of others. I refuse to teach that way. My classes are ALL under control and my students know the boundaries of what I will tolerate.  

Answer 8

I went through a similar dilemma myself a while ago! Yes teaching is rewarding, but teaching young people is a pain! As a taster of teaching I did a short teaching english as a foreign language (TEFL)  and then travelled and taught for a while! it gave me a taste with little financial commitment! I taught young learners which is rewarding and fun but difficult and would never want to teach this age in my own country as I know what kids are like there! Then I taught business English and the students want to learn and I feel univeristy will be similar! I personally now plan to do a doctorate and teach university level in my respective field! but I found it a good way to get a taste for teaching plus a way to see another culture and not bad financially but my finances stayed stable in the UK you get payed more than enough to live in your respective country but to save some money in home currencies its pretty poor!  

Answer 9

I would consider moving on with your graduate school.  Most Universities allow graduate students to teach after only about 15-18 hours of graduate credit.  

As another answerer said, don't expect to walk into a classroom full of eager, hungry to learn students.  I love my job, but I don't know many people who would be successful or happy doing what I do because it takes massive amounts of patience and planning to be a GOOD teacher.  In other words, if you really want to make a difference, you will have to work much harder than most people think.  It doesn't take a lot of effort to be a teacher, but you want to make a difference and be a good teacher, so expect tough (and rewarding) times ahead because being a good teacher is not easy.

Petey- Almost 4-5 months of vacation?  I don't know where you live, but this year, I got 8 weeks and of that I still had inservice and conferences to attend, so it really comes out to barely over a month.  Also, I work about 55-60 hour weeks, so when you consider that, I get a lot less time off than many other full time employees in other professions.