This is my third year of teaching at an urban charter school in Arizona. I love certain aspects of my job, but I don’t think I’m supposed to be doing this long-term. I’m great at interacting with my kids, but I suck at grading and a lot of the paperwork parts of my job. I’ve convinced about a dozen kids who had no interest in going to college that they need to, and have helped them apply and get into community colleges and universities.
I am also the person that many of my students turn to for emotional support. I find that I enjoy this and assisting with college admissions to be much more fun than my regular duties as an English teacher. Therefore, I’d like to become a counselor.
Unfortunately, it looks like I’ll have to quit my job and go full-time to get a Master’s degree in counseling. The only way to avoid that is to go through University of Phoenix, and I’m just not sure how well-regarded a degree from them would be. I have a feeling that I would get passed over for another candidate with a degree from a “regular” university.
The only way for me to quit work and do a graduate program would be for it to be accessible from Lansing, Michigan. My wife, daughter, and I can move in with my father-in-law and (hopefully) rent out our townhouse in AZ if that were to happen. I’m not sure I could make a graduate program work here in AZ with a mortgage and an infant daughter, and I’d like to move back to MI eventually, anyways.
So, Dopers, I turn to you for help. My questions are:
Should I pursue a school counseling certification?
Should I get said cert from U-Phoenix or a “regular” university?
Is there a way for me to keep my current job and get this degree?
Am I insane for wanting to move back to Michigan?
Have you had any experience with changing careers, and how painful was it?
I’m really surprised that you’d need to go fulltime to get a master’s in counseling (especially since you’re a teacher). One of my HS social studies got his master’s from Penn State with a combination of online and summer courses. It did take him awhile (I think he was working on it all 4 yrs I was at that school and he was promoted the year after I graduated), but he was working fulltime all that time.
I, too, am really surprised you would need to quit and go full-time to get a Master’s in counseling to do this. At the very least, since you are willing to relocate, consider relocating to a state that would let you teach full-time and go to school part-time. Take a look at NC State University’s program for an M.Ed. in Counselor Education as one example, but there are probably many, many more.
I could go part time through University of Phoenix, but… I mean, seriously, it’s UofP. Around the SDMB, the general consensus seems to be that a degree pulled out of a Cracker Jack box is worth more.
Arizona State’s program is a full-time program, as is Western Michigan’s. Michigan State just ended theirs, and University of Arizona and Northern Arizona are too far from my house for me to commute.
Harriet, I can relocate, but only to Michigan, and only to the Lansing or Detroit areas there. I have an unsellable townhouse in Mesa, Arizona (I live there now), and would have to rent it out and live with either my parents (Detroit area) or my father-in-law (Lansing) in order to leave the desert.
I need to check Arizona and Michigan Dept. of Education websites to see what the requirements are, I guess. Maybe I could make do with an M.S. in Psychology.
Relocating to Michigan doesn’t sound like a good career move. In addition to the obvious, from what I understand Michigan is also a net exporter of teachers.
Why couldn’t you relocate to a state that would let you work F/T as a teacher and go to school? You need to rent out the townhouse, granted, but you should be able to live on your teaching salary and go to school P/T (perhaps with some tuition waiver because it’s work-related). That seems at least as viable as paying to go to U of Phoenix P/T with your current teaching job.
Don’t latch onto 2 of the most dysfunctional economies in the country and consider them your only options.
My other issue is that I have a non-traditional teaching certificate. Many states (MI and OH included) refuse to recognize my AZ teaching certificate because I have never completed a student-teaching internship. I took all of the other required education courses, but had a big problem during my internship (I had a thread about it when it happened) and ended up withdrawing and graduating with a degree in English, not Education. After two years as a cable installer, I moved here to AZ from MI with my now-wife, got a job at a charter school, and got a full AZ teaching certificate last summer. AZ recognizes the two years of teaching experience as a good replacement for 14 weeks of student-teaching; other states do not.
Plus, we have a 6-week-old daughter, and all of our family is in Michigan. I know the economy sucks there, but it’s home, dammit! We’re both a bit homesick, and it’s difficult to raise our first child with no family or friends around. It’s been difficult to make friends out here; everyone we know is either much older than us or anti-child.
You need to write to the State Board of Education of Michigan with you questions.
Find out what courses are required for certification in guidance and counseling in high school.
Find out if any on line courses are accepted. If so, what schools are approved.
Find out if they will now accept your experience in the classroom (with references) as a substitute for student teaching.
Ask what the procedure is for certification for the grades you want to teach in Michigan.
I would think that if you locate in the right location, you should be able to take afternoon and night courses, weekend courses, and summer courses. This is how most other teachers do it. It may take a while, but perhaps not as long as you think.
Speaking as an older retired teacher, if you don’t like where you are living, move. But I wouldn’t think that it would be too smart to move to Detroit before you are offered a job.
Good luck to you at the front lines until you can secure the position that you want!
We’re both a bit homesick, and it’s difficult to raise our first child with no family or friends around. It’s been difficult to make friends out here; everyone we know is either much older than us or anti-child.