Now that I am facing the possiblility of not paying rent for the next four years, I think it may actually be possible to persue a life-long dream of becoming a teacher. 
So what do you think? I know I have to get a education degree. Do I have to get a masters? What kind of job possibilities will there be in years? Should I really spend all this money?
I have always wanted to do this, but I never thought it was possible before now. I just don’t want to put myself in debt for nothing 
To get an idea of the job possibilities, check the ads both on-line and in print, pretending you already have a certificate in your chosen field.
Go into teaching if you love it. If you think you’ll get rich thereby, forget it. It’s a difficult, exhausting, frustrating and important job with moments of exhilaration.
Also check the requirements in your state; they vary. If you’ve already got a college in mind, they probably have a program that includes the basic requirements.
In most cases, a bachelor’s degree is the minimum.
Have you done any actual teaching? It’s not like what’s on t.v., you know. See if you can do some volunteer work; if your church/synagogue/temple/coven has a children’s program, you might at least try helping out there.
*Go into teaching if you love it. If you think you’ll get rich thereby, forget it. It’s a difficult, exhausting, frustrating and important job with moments of exhilaration. *
posted by MLS
I totally agree with this. Nowadays, teachers are under the magnifying glass. And there is much pressure from administrators, parents, and the U.S. government.
But, if you love learning and can communicate well…and you love kids, you’ll do fine.
(From someone who’s on summer vacation, and is kinda looking forward to going back. :dubious: )
This thread includes some interesting perspectives on teaching:
I love teaching. It’s like eating carmel-covered crack for lunch everyday. However, it’s a vocation, and if you are one of these ‘what I do does not define who I am’ people, then it’s likely not for you. I am never not a teacher.
IANATBMWI (I Am Not A Teacher But My Wife Is) Teaching is it is truly a vocation. My wife teaches 4th grade and loves working with her students, most of them are joys and she loves to see them progress and to know that she made a positive difference in their lives. You also get a couple of months off in the summer, but be aware that you cannot take many vacation days during the year. That is the tradeoff. It is a very rewarding job if you can handle the bad stuff. The bad stuff is seeing and reporting child abuse, dealing with red tape and not enough money for supplies (you will spend a lot of your own money for supplies), dealing with crazy parents that won’t let you just teach their children, not being able to fail someone who deserves it without writing a dissertation about what has been done to prevent this and why there were no other options. I would volunteer in a before/afterschool day-care or program with the age group you want to teach before you jump in and get your bachelors. This will give you a little taste of what it is like to work with the kids. Kudos to you if you have the dedication to undertake this.
As far as the requirements go, in Maryland I think you have to have a Bachelor’s Degree to get your teaching certificate. Most of the county school systems will not hire you without the degree, it depends on their need. The best way to get into the system is to become a substitute and then look for a long term sub position. If you impress the administration you can often get hired the following year in the same school if there is a position available. Good luck!
IANAT but I worked as a substitute in elementary and high school for a while after finishing my degree. This is a route you might look at to try-on the teaching gig.
I found that when substituting elementary school, I was expected to teach; it was the hardest work I have ever done, and that was just the eight to nine hours in the classroom each day (the teachers I was covering for were obviously spending several additional hours each day preparing lessons). Extremely rewarding though - I discovered a near-infinite patience for kids up to grade four, and I’d seriously consider teaching elementary or middle school full time if I ever get tired of flying.
At the high schools, all they typically expected you to do was administer a test or push play on the VCR which was very disappointing (they have no idea whether a sub has any experience in, say car repair or trigenometry); it seemed like they just expected a babysitter for a bunch of teenagers.
Where I was living at the time, substitutes were only required to have a high school diploma and attend a two-hour substituting seminar. Work was assigned via a phone-in automated system, and there were always jobs available any day I wanted to work. The pay for the three school districts within a 30 minute drive of home varied between $55 to $65 per day (back in 1998) so it might pay to shop around.
Hope this helps - Good luck!
I have only taught college students (for which you need a master’s or some kind of equivalent), but I think calig’s idea of subbing for a while is a good one.
The pay does indeed vary greatly from one district to another and around here at least, the daily rate is even higher than what was mentioned.
Subbing is a good plan, but remember that in many ways it highlights all the worst parts of teaching without any of the real perks: you never get the sort of satisfaction you get from taking an intractable, surly jerk and transforming him into someone that wants to learn from you. Discipline never gets automatic, because you are reestablishing yourself every day. On the middle/high school level, you don’t get to be nearly as creative, because you aren’t really expected to teach (though 30 kids, 90 minutes, no lesson plan and a bare classroom does require some quick thinking!)
Also, subbing is lonely whereas teaching can often be intensly social. Unless you are subbing consistiently at a small school, many of the teachers will ignore you for the most part–they will be helpful and polite, but subs are constantly comming and going and are often frankly, bizarrely weird. They are also the first scapegoat if there is ever a problem. Unless you are well known in a school, teachers won’t really gripe in front of you or gossip or any of that, so you won’t see alot of good information. Subbing at only one or two schools and making it clear that you are considering becoming a teacher and would like advice would help with this. Teachers love to give advice.
I’m not trying to discourage subbing: I am just saying that if you can even endure subbing, you have at least the basic temperment to teach. Don’t think that just because you don’t love subbing, you won’t love teaching.
I have three teaching interviews set up for next week. Here’s the scoop, generally:
It’s WAY better to be qualified in math or science. You WILL get a job with one of those. Good luck with English or history. All those people who have bachelor’s degrees in English tried to teach whent they found out they couldn’t open a poem repair on the corner.
No Child Left Behind has changed things. The following will be for California, but the pattern should follow, as it’s a federal law.
You can get a job without a teaching credential, but it REALLY, REALLY helps to be NCLB qualified. This means proving your competency through either having a buttload of units in your subject (for single subject) or passing the test for the subject knowledge. It’s pretty commonly believed that passing the test is easier than getting the units, and ton faster. I passed the Praxis and SSAT (which CA used to use) for chemistry and general science about three years ago, so it turns out that I’m good for NCLB. You also need to have taken a college class about the U.S. Constitution (Poly Sci should work), or pass the little test they have for it.
Let’s say you pass the CSET (the new CA test) in your subject matter, and have the constiution bit covered. You should now be eligible to teach on an intern credential, which means that you’ll get hired and immediately enroll in an intern program at a local university, or maybe your county dept of ed., or in some rare cases, your district itself. The new things are that CA is now penalizing the districts for not having a fully “qualified” or whatever teacher, but I’m led to understand that passing the tests counts. You also have to graduate from the internship program in 2 years, or they have to fire you, I hear.
The real thing to do is call your local county dept. of ed and bend the ear of someone in the credentialing section. I also found that some districts have people devoted to New Teacher Recruitment. They know everything, so try that first.
If you’re thinking elementary/Multiple Subject, I suspect that what you’ll need is about 15 units in three areas, but you can do things like use “Film Appreciation” as an English course sometimes, so most people have it covered fo three areas.
There used to be a Multiple Subject Assesment for Teachers. I don’t know what they use now.
One more time: Call your county dept of ed and find the person who answers this question every day.
Think about the things of teaching that are horrible or difficult. Talk to some teachers. Then decide if you want to do it.
I have two girlfriends who are teachers and love it. But it takes dedication and a certain amount of thick skin. They are part social workers, part teachers, part psychologists, part customer service rep. Every year there is at least one child in the class that is heartbreaking - bad circumstances and try as they might, they are unsuccessful at pulling them out of the nosedive. And there are some kids who are just jerks. Then there are the parents.
But the rewards, for them, make this all worth while. I couldn’t do it. But I admire them greatly.
What subject do you want to teach? What grade level?
I am just out of school with my Math BA and have only a few months of actual teaching (in my own classroom), but so far I love it. Substitute teaching is the way to go to see if you like it. Some students will treat you as if they can walk all over you and some will be your greatest joy to work with. In some ways teaching is the same.
In New York State (not the City), you need your Bachelors Degree and a certificate in your subject area (or general ed for elementary). Student teaching is also a good time to figure out if you like it or not. By that time it’s a little late to be debt free, but it’s better to know if you like it or not before you actually have a contract for an entire year.
In case you wanted to look at South Carolina’s State Ed requirements (I saw from your Location it said SC) then click on “Steps to Certification” .
High school history.
That’s bad. I have absolutley no aptitude for math or science.
Thanks for that link. I’m definitley going to look into subbing.
You’re very welcome. I love the internet. 
Since high school history isn’t in super high demand, your best bet would be to substitute in a school you like. That means you like the faculty and you don’t mind the students and you like the community too. If you get your foot in the door then they will look to you when a position is open. They know you’re dependable, they know you’re easy to get along with, you know all about the school and the inner workings of it, and best of all they already know how you teach. All teachers are in demand, though.
Take a leave replacement. That’s what I did. Even though I’m in math and it’s ‘easier’ to get in to, I took a leave replacement for 3 months in a good school district. They got to know me and wanted me for this coming fall. One problem: they didn’t have a position for me. So they recommended me to a nearby school district and after the interview process the new school district offered me a one year leave replacement. They even told me in the interview that the retirement rate is going way up, and as long as I did well this year things looked very promising.
Here’s good luck to you in your search! Keep us informed.