I am considering teaching high school (probably chemistry since that is what my degree will be in) when I graduate. I may not stick with it for life but it’ll be nice to try. Can anyone give me reasons to do or not to do it? My main fear is that maybe the reason there is a teacher shortage is because it is a horrible job somehow. Plus with Bush’s new standardized testing methods it would seem like teachers were always having the sword of Damocles hanging over their heads with the threat of more or less being expelled from education if you come up short always being there.
Also is a masters in education going to help me out drastically or will it not have a major effect? The salary seems good for a high school teacher on salary.com (40-50k a year), so that is more than enough for me. My main fear is stress, is it a high stress job? If so why, and what can you do to lessen the stress?
Get your Master’s in a real subject, not Education.
Teaching is a calling. I wouldn’t want to do anything else but teach high school. But it really depends on the state and district you teach in. There are some real horror stories out there. There are also some true paradises. With a degree in Chemistry, you shouldn’t have too much trouble finding any number of positions.
A bit of advice: As you take your Ed. classes for your credential, try to get a Certificate in some specialization. This will enhance your resume no end. If you are looking to teach the accelerated kids, try for one in Gifted And Talented Education.
The job is as stressful as you let it be. There are ways of coping.
I agree, his chem degree should be a huge plus. But is it really true that a master’s in education is not a “real” degree? It seems to me that there are more enough useful topics in the nuts and bolts of teaching a class and dealing with the professional environment to fill up a one- or two-year program–particularly if apprentice teaching is part of the program.
Of course I"m sure the programs vary widely in quality of what they offer and of whom they admit.
Yes, and the path to hell is paved with good intentions,
oh, wait a minute, that’s the ROAD, the ROAD to Hell. Apparently it’s much wider and paved than a path…
Well, maybe it was just my teachers that said that. :rolleyes:
I agree with most of what Silenus said. I took on Secondary Ed as a minor late in my college career and finished it on time thru night and summer classes. After student teaching and some long term sub work, I decided it was not the right fit for me at the time for a variety of reasons:
1.) I felt too close in age to the students.
2.) I had a hard time with disciplining the students and felt like a babysitter at times.
3.) I generally enjoyed being with the students and watching them learn, but I realized I would not feel fulfilled teaching the same basic material year after year. I also wanted to pursue research interests and advanced degrees in my field.
With a Chemistry degree, there is a good chance that you can get job offers with provisional certification as long as you take classes and get yourself certified over some predetermined timeline. IMHO, this could be a very stressful path to take. For the first 5 years or so until you get your curriculum and materials together, you’ll be working until 10 or 11 at night grading and doing lesson plans. Meanwhile, you’ll be spending two nights a week in Ed classes that are IMHO absolutely useless, and taught by professors who have not taught HS in 30 years.
If there is a way for you to get a job exploring some other interest, possibly in another career path, while you take night classes to get certified to teach while still an undergraduate, that might be a better way to go. I don’t know how that’d fit in with your situation, just thought I’d throw that out.
Either you wanna teach, or you don’t. Keep in mind that you’re signing a contract that pretty much ties you down for a year… and if you find that the job doesn’t suit, you can’t exactly just tell the boss to stick it.
You CAN, but you can be sure that you’ll find it very difficult ever getting another teaching job afterwards.
The first year is extremely stressful; it’s the kind of thing you really have to want to do, rather than something you’re doing to make money while your dream job gets here. I’d tend to think that with a bachelor’s in Chemistry, you could find something that would suit you better than teaching.
Teaching can be the best thing you have ever done…and it can also be the biggest nightmare you have ever experienced.
High school sucks…for the students and for teachers. However, chemistry might be different, as long as it is NOT mandatory. If the students you have request it, that is a big step in their motivation and what you can do.
But if every kid has to take chemistry, well…good luck.
Assuming the class is optional (which I think most chemistry classes are) you have a chance at getting kids who are motivated and want to learn. That makes life so much easier. And if you get juniors and seniors, that will be an advantage if you can teach how the class will relate to future professions.
To be honest, chemistry was the only class I ever flunked in my entire life. My teacher was an absolute disaster (and I say that having been a teacher). He had no clue how to make the class relevant, and he spoke in a monotone, had zilch sense of humor, and was fresh out of college. I sometimes regret the fact that he was such an asshole as to be honest, I think I might actually have liked learning about it with a different approach.
I was also a faculty administrator at a couple of schools.
My rules:
NEVER sit down. Always walk around the class and stand up, even during tests.
ALWAYS have a plan, with a class that begins with a question, and ends with the answer.
And lastly, every time you go into your classroom, think to yourself, “It’s showtime!” and be “on”. Your enthusiasm is the key…really…trust me on that.
Teaching is a calling; choose wisely. That said, the most embittered and self-pitying people I’ve ever met have been teachers at the high school level and below. An ex-girlfriend, who was a teacher at that level but had someone escaped this curse, used to say it was because teaching attracted too many people with a “C” average that lacked a real understanding of what they were getting themselves into.
A master’s in education is as “real” a degree as you make of it. But if you simply get the degree and don’t apply it, it will be useless. A lot of people I know who go into education expect a lock-step approach to their career: A) Go to school, B) Get the degree, C) Get the job. When things don’t come that smoothly or easily, they flip out. Remember, everything is competitive–and as with any job, you’d better figure out how best to compete.
Also, make sure there will still be a demand when you graduate. A lot of freshmen in 1996 entered college to study computer programming because the demand was high. When they finally graduated in 2000, the job market had changed radically. In general, when a demand is announced, lots of people rush to fill it, meaning that the demand may quickly go down.
