What Do I Need to Major in to Become a Teacher

If you are interested in getting started in a teaching career, this guide will aid yous larn the steps and cardinal information y'all should know nearly how to become a teacher. In that location are two routes to get certified: the traditional route that involves completing a bachelor'due south caste and teacher preparation programme and the culling route for candidates following non-traditional pathways to the classroom, which vary by state. Understanding the process to condign a teacher can help yous develop a plan for fulfilling all the requirements for teacher certification in your state. Continue reading below to find out more nigh how to get a teacher.

Deciding If Teaching Is Correct for You
Choosing a Schoolhouse with a Pedagogy Preparation Programme
Testing Requirements for Teachers
Scholarships and Financial Aid
Curriculum for a Teaching Degree Program
Pupil Teaching
Fulfilling Requirements for Teacher Certification in Your Land
Adding Endorsements
Alternative Instructor Certification
Getting Hired as a Teacher
Continuing Your Teaching with Graduate School

Deciding if Pedagogy Is Right for You

teacher with student A career in didactics tin can be both satisfying and challenging. Good teachers make positive impacts on immature people on a daily basis. They teach their students not only academic skills, but also how to carry appropriately, how to socialize with others, and how to work difficult to accomplish goals. If you are hoping for a career through which you can contribute to society and make a real difference in the world, and then you may consider the profession of teaching.

Many who choose to become an educator take long and fulfilling careers, though there are some who get out the field early in search of other piece of work, for a variety of reasons. Earlier you put forth the time and energy for certification and the educational activity required to find a instruction position, it is very important to be certain that you are right for the job and that the job is right for you.

Teachers work with children or adults in the classroom or other learning settings. Learning settings include public or individual schools, charter or magnet schools, schools in a foreign country, or schools for non-English speakers in the U.s. or abroad. Elementary, center, and high school teachers play an of import role in shaping the lives and futures of children, instructing in academics such as language arts and math as well as personal skills such as behavior and discipline. Teachers must accept an fantabulous grasp of their field of study thing and the power to effectively communicate their knowledge to others.

A instructor may teach all subjects or specialize in one or ii subjects. Typically, kindergarten and elementary school teachers instruct ane group of children in a wide range of subjects, including reading, science, and math. Teachers of middle schoolhouse and high school students mostly concentrate on one or two specialty subject areas, such as math or science. Within these broader areas, a teacher might instruct multiple courses. For example, a loftier school instructor specializing in the subject surface area of science might teach courses in chemistry, biology, and physics. To teach in almost specialties, a degree and state certification in that endorsement expanse is required.

Appraise Your Interests and Talents

To know if educational activity is really the correct career path for you lot, make sure y'all have an understanding of what makes a good instructor and that yous have the skills and characteristics uniform with didactics. To be a adept teacher, you must savour existence around other people and interacting with them, especially young people. Didactics is a social job that involves constant interaction with others.

Good teachers are also patient. If you lose your atmosphere hands, a schoolhouse setting may not be the right workplace for you. Teachers are flexible and good at quick determination making. They should be able to make adjustments when things don't get exactly equally planned (because they often don't). Teachers must be strict to an extent and able to enforce rules, simply they besides need to pick their battles.

Most importantly of all, teachers care. They care about their students and student success. Without this feature, being a teacher will become a task after a while. If y'all feel passionate nigh a particular content area or about learning in full general and you lot truly intendance about others, you have the potential to go a great instructor.

Volunteer in a School, Shadow a Teacher, or Become a Substitute Instructor

To actually sympathise the job and to decide if it is correct for yous, discover a way to get into the classroom. Experienced teachers can tell y'all what their careers are similar and that is an excellent identify to commencement. If yous are still interested, contact local schools to find out if yous can volunteer or spend a day or more shadowing a teacher. As a volunteer, yous may exist able to help out in a classroom every bit an assistant. While shadowing, you may be able to visit different classrooms and grade levels to get an idea of what different teachers do. Yous can also consider substitute teaching every bit a way to innovate yourself to the teaching profession.

Make Practical Considerations

Now that you accept examined the characteristics of a teacher and observed teachers in action, you should take a expect at the practical considerations. Think about salary, the education you lot will need, certification requirements, and the availability of jobs in your target area before making a final conclusion well-nigh a teaching career. For practiced advice from electric current teachers about what information technology is similar to be a teacher and more, read our teacher career interviews.

Choosing a School with a Teaching Training Program

Once you are certain that didactics is the right career for your time to come, the next step is to select a certification program. In each state in the US, you must be certified in gild to work as a instructor in a public school. It is of import that yous consider the rules laid out by the land in which you hope to live and piece of work then that you can get the right certificate. While it is possible to transfer a teaching document from one state to another with certification reciprocity, it is non always an easy process.

Understand Your Choices

Before you select a school and a certification program, brand sure you lot sympathise what your options are. You can find electric current rankings of accredited teacher preparation programs past state through the National Quango on Teacher Quality. Depending on your state, you may have many options, or but a handful, but either way, this will requite you a starting bespeak to make your selection.

It is also important to know what types of preparation programs are available and which one will see your needs. If you do not yet have a available'southward caste, you may want to get into a program that will allow you to work towards both that degree and your teacher certification. If yous already have a bachelor's degree, you might consider a mail-baccalaureate program for certification only or an on-campus master's degree program that includes instructor preparation. A hybrid or online master's degree program might also be a fit for your goals. Whichever road you follow, exist sure that the plan yous choose is appropriately accredited. Accreditation for teacher certification schools is discussed in further item below.

Wait for Accreditation

Non all teacher preparation programs are created equal. Some are of a higher quality than others and an of import indicator of a good program is accreditation. Be sure that yous select a instructor certification programme at a schoolhouse that is accredited by a regional accrediting bureau, since every land requires regional accreditation for instructor certification. At that place are also national accreditations that signal quality in teacher preparation, such as the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP). To earn this accreditation, a school must show that information technology meets high standards and graduates teachers of excellent quality.

In many states, a teaching programme must besides be canonical by the board of education for the land in which the program is located to qualify graduates for a didactics license. Be certain to cheque that the teacher preparation program you are considering is on your state lath of educational activity's approved list before enrolling.

Consider Practical Factors

To further narrow your choices, consider logistical concerns such as toll and location. Summate the total cost of tuition and other associated expenses, like room and board. If you lot can choose a school that is shut to home, you lot may be able to save money by qualifying for in-country tuition and living locally instead of on-campus. Consider whether or non you volition be looking for scholarships, financial assistance, or loans, and find out what each schoolhouse has to offering you.

Another important practical consideration is timing. Some schools offer accelerated programs to get yous certified and into the workplace rapidly. If you lot need to piece of work at another job while pursuing your certification, look for a plan that offers coursework in the evenings and on weekends or online.

Speak with Graduates of the Program

Finally, once you have narrowed your choices downwardly to one or ii schools, information technology is a good idea to speak with individuals who graduated from the program. They can give you valuable insight into the positives and negatives of the institution and the certification program. Each school you are considering should be able to get you in bear upon with graduates. Exist sure to ask near the instructors, the power to get a position after graduating, and anything else that may business y'all.

Testing Requirements for Teachers

teacher testing requirements To enter a educational activity program at a university or college, you must run across certain requirements. Those requirements vary by program. The all-time way to fully empathize what yous must achieve in order to become a teacher is to visit your country's education department website. You lot can also read more than about certification requirements in general or by state on our Certification Guide.

Praxis Series and Other Entry Exams

Many schools require a examination for entry into a instruction programme. The Praxis Core Academic Skills for Educators tests, or the Praxis Core, is used by many schools as an entry exam for instructor training programs and is likewise required in many states to earn teacher certification. The Praxis Core is designed to assess basic skills in math, reading, and writing. If you are earning a available's degree at the same time as your certification, you will accept this test early in your college career. The Praxis Core is administered past ETS. Some Praxis exams are offered year-round and others are only offered during certain testing windows. You can register online past creating a Praxis account.

Praxis Subject Assessments

Once yous have gained entry to a instructor preparation program and completed the requirements, such as coursework and student teaching, y'all will exist ready to employ for your state'south certification. This ways yous must accept another exam. Many states that use the Praxis organization from ETS will require that you lot take the Praxis Subject Assessments. This series of tests is actually several exams by subject area surface area. Yous will take the subject tests for your item surface area of certification. For case, if you are applying for certification as a secondary social studies teacher, you will take the social studies Praxis Subject Assessment. You may take more one subject test if you are applying for more one type of certification. As with the Praxis Cadre, the subject area tests will also be taken by computer and can be registered for by logging into your Praxis account.

Praxis Principles of Learning and Educational activity

The Praxis Principles of Learning and Teaching (PLT) exam assesses beginning teachers' agreement of educatee learning and instructional theory. Many states crave prospective teachers seeking endorsements in grades 7-12 to earn a passing score on this test.

Praxis Content Noesis for Instruction (CKT) Test

Another common test requirement in the Praxis series is the Praxis Elementary Teaching: Content Knowledge for Teaching (CKT) examination. The CKT measures both subject expanse and specialized content knowledge for education in the elementary grades. It measures how well prospective teachers tin can utilise their content knowledge in the classroom. As implied past the name, these Praxis tests are simply for those who volition exist educational activity at the unproblematic level. There are four CKT subtests (Reading and Language Arts, Mathematics, Scientific discipline, and Social Studies). As with the others in the Praxis series, this exam is also taken by reckoner.

There are states that practice not require the Praxis exams for teachers, but may require information technology for other types of school positions such equally administrators, speech communication pathologists, or school psychologists. In some cases, the Praxis system may exist taken in conjunction with or replaced past the state'south own designated tests. These states are California, Colorado, Georgia, Michigan, New York, Texas, Virginia, and Washington.

To notice out what tests you need to take in your state, visit the section of education website for your country, the Praxis website, or our Teacher Certification Requirement Data past Land guide.

Scholarships and Fiscal Aid

Once you have decided to become a teacher and have begun to select a program for certification, it is time to call back virtually tuition. College tin be expensive, only at that place are ways to ensure that you can afford your education. Begin by choosing a college or university that has reasonable rates, just likewise remember about looking for scholarships and financial assist opportunities. With a little help, you can afford to earn your degree and certification.

Scholarships

If you lot can qualify, scholarships are a great way to pay for your education. Unlike loans, they practise not need to exist paid dorsum. Scholarships tend to be competitive, and then be prepared to showcase your skills, awards, honors, and qualifications on your application. Check for scholarships particular to your state too as those offered at the national level.

The US Department of Education offers TEACH Grants to help students become teachers. These grants have a service obligation attached to them, then make sure you will exist able to meet those conditions. Otherwise, your grant will turn into a loan. The requirements include teaching for at to the lowest degree four years in a loftier-need field. If you already know what bailiwick you want to teach, you may desire to look at a national organisation similar the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, which gives out one $10,000 scholarship each twelvemonth.

Fiscal Aid and Loans

In addition to scholarship opportunities, you should consider fiscal aid options. Every college and university has a fiscal aid department. Make an appointment with an advisor at your school's department. An counselor can guide you through the procedure of finding, applying for, receiving, and paying back loans and help. You can ever apply for a individual loan, but government-backed student assist is usually a improve choice. Your financial assist counselor can aid you lot make this conclusion.

To begin the financial aid process, yous will first consummate the Gratuitous Application for Federal Student Assistance (FAFSA). This will help you make up one's mind what type of aid you lot qualify for and what types of grants and loans y'all may be able to apply for. These include Pell Grants, which are given to undergraduate students, Perkins loans, which are depression-interest federal loans, or PLUS loans, which you can use for graduate schoolhouse.

At that place are too instructor loan forgiveness and cancellation programs in identify, which may assistance yous with paying off your school loans. These programs are intended to encourage immature people to enter the field of teaching, so take advantage of them if you lot tin. In that location are certain eligibility requirements based on the type of aid you receive and how long you plan to teach, and so read more on the Department of Education website to be sure yous qualify for loan forgiveness.

Curriculum for a Instruction Degree Program

teacher program curriculum The curriculum that you can expect for a teaching certification program will vary depending on the university or college that you attend. However, there are similarities amid almost teaching programs. If yous practise not already have a bachelor'due south caste you volition need to select a major and mayhap a minor area of study. You will accept coursework related to those subjects as well every bit courses that are specific to education. If you already take a available'southward degree in a teachable subject, you may only take the education courses. Most education programs volition too require that you get some practical experience in a classroom as a pupil instructor. For more data on typical programs in education, read our Best Colleges for Education Majors guide.

Choosing a Major and Minor

When selecting a major and small area of study, y'all should take in mind the subjects that you lot hope to teach. There are many paths from which to choose, such as science and engineering science, mathematics, literacy, or linguistic communication. There are population-specific specialties besides, which prepare a person to piece of work as a gifted and talented teacher, special pedagogy teacher, developed and continuing education teacher, ESL teacher, or reading specialist. While such a specialty major is non ever as flexible as more general majors like secondary education, it can lead to careers with higher salaries.

Most pedagogy programs will limit the availability of major and small choices to those that are teachable. For case, a major in chemical science is a teachable major because chemistry is a major bailiwick taught in schools and you might also be able to teach other science-related courses. A major in style design, on the other manus, may not be acceptable since that is not a subject typically taught in public schools. You may also be asked to choose a minor, depending on your schoolhouse, which should also exist in a teachable subject.

Much of your coursework will count towards your major and minor. If you are majoring in Spanish, for example, you will accept numerous Spanish linguistic communication and culture classes. You may also demand to have sure electives required by your university. This could include a multifariousness of courses to complete a liberal arts education such as humanities, social sciences, English, and math.

Education Coursework

In addition to courses that relate to your major and minor, yous will take education classes to earn your teacher certification. The specific classes yous need to take volition depend on whether you are getting certified in elementary, secondary, or special education, or some other area. Regardless of the blazon of certification y'all are pursuing, there are sure types of education classes that every prospective teacher can expect to have:

Child development or psychology: These courses will assist you amend sympathize the minds of children and teens and how they develop.
Curriculum and instructional design: These courses will teach you how to develop and write curricula and lesson plans for your classes.
Methods: Teaching methods courses focus on the practise of didactics or pedagogy, including how to explain and demonstrate concepts, how to lecture, and how to concord an constructive give-and-take.
Assessment: In courses on cess practices, you will larn how to assess pupil learning by creating tests, using oral exams, designing projects, and other techniques.
Special Pedagogy: Whether or not you lot are pursuing special education certification, you will likely be required to take some coursework in this area. Even general educational activity teachers must understand special education to some extent.

Classroom Feel

Many instructor certification programs require students to get classroom experience as they work towards their degree. Pupil teaching is often completed during the concluding yr of report. You lot will need to accumulate a certain number of hours of classroom experience, which may also include volunteering in schools or tutoring programs, observing classroom teachers, and actively participating in classrooms. Most likely your education program volition help you lot set up this feel, just you may be allowed to connect with schools on your own as well.

Student Education

Condign a teacher involves several steps. The didactics and certification process culminates in a real-world teaching experience. Most universities and colleges refer to this step "student pedagogy." This ways that you work side-by-side with a classroom teacher to hone your skills, learn from a mentor, and practice being a real teacher before y'all go your own position at a schoolhouse.

Requirements

The specific requirements for your student teaching experience will depend on your academy or college certification program. Information technology may be only one semester at one school, information technology could be a full year at one school, or it might be split between two unlike classrooms. In most cases, your program volition take an office defended to placement in student instruction positions. Colleges realize the importance of matching y'all with an experienced mentor who teaches a discipline that is compatible with your certification area.

In that location will be certain requirements that y'all must meet in accelerate, such every bit completing certain courses before you tin can start a educatee teaching position. Be certain that you understand these requirements ahead of fourth dimension and that you program for your student teaching experience so that you do not miss an entire semester and delay graduation. Also be sure to submit all of your required forms and paperwork on time.

Making the About of the Experience

Student teaching puts your learning into practice. The practical feel you volition gain by student teaching in the classroom will help you develop your skills. Work with your mentor teacher and allow him or her to guide y'all. Have advice and constructive criticism and apply it to improve. Another great way to take advantage of this experience is to tape yourself as you student teach. When you tin run into and hear what you are doing, you lot can begin to understand the areas in which you demand improvement.

Alternatives

Your certification program may accept alternative experiences in the place of educatee teaching. Contact someone in the department to observe out what other experiences may be accepted. For instance, if you previously worked as an instructor in a charter or private school that did non require you to be certified, that may count towards your educatee teaching credits. Another possibility may exist a teaching position yous held with a volunteer system such as the Peace Corps. Check with your school for more than information how to get a teacher through culling experiences.

Fulfilling Requirements for Teacher Certification in Your State

In order to work in the public school system, the commencement step to becoming a teacher under the traditional route to certification is to obtain a bachelor'southward degree that includes a teacher preparation program. Public school teachers also must exist certified or licensed by their land lath of education. Though private schoolhouse teachers are not required in all states to hold certification, they are subject to the specific hiring terms of individual employers, and virtually private schools adopt that teachers have at to the lowest degree a bachelor's degree.

In one case you lot have completed your education, you need to make sure that yous meet the teacher licensing requirements specific to your land. Certification for teachers is left up to individual states, so it varies from one to the adjacent. Make sure you detect out exactly what y'all demand to exercise in the state in which you lot are considering finding a instruction position.

Common Requirements

All states accept certification requirements in common, which generally include earning a bachelor's degree and the completion of a formal teacher preparation plan. Once you lot have completed your program, yous will need to pass some kind of test. Most states require the Praxis Series, but even those which require their own tests will typically include both a full general test and a section on the particular field of study for which you are seeking certification.

Most states also require a period of student teaching. This may too exist called mentored didactics or classroom experience. Typically, this is completed at the cease of your teacher preparation program, before you graduate. Finally, in nigh states, you will need to laissez passer a criminal background bank check at the state level and through the FBI.

Individual States

To find out the specific requirements for certification for your state, you tin can research online. This site provides information on requirements for both traditional road teacher certification and alternative road teacher certification by land. The Us Section of Educational activity hosts a useful folio with quick links to the lath of didactics for each state and Puerto Rico to help you contact your state's Department of Didactics directly.

Reciprocity

If y'all become certified as a teacher in 1 country only want to move to another and still be able to piece of work every bit a teacher, you must see the requirements for teacher certification in that new country. States that are part of the National Association of Land Directors of Teacher Education and Certification, or NASDTEC, may have interstate agreements. In these agreements, each country outlines which other states' certificates are adequate for transfer. For instance, if y'all received certification in Alabama and want to motility to Georgia, you tin immediately brainstorm to seek piece of work in that location under their interstate agreement. Yous will, nevertheless, need to see certain additional requirements within a specified amount of time. See our guide to reciprocity for farther details on transferring teacher certification.

Adding Endorsements

computer teacher When you get your teaching certificate, you will see that information technology lists your endorsements. These are the subjects and class levels you lot are qualified to teach. For instance, a high schoolhouse teacher might have a secondary linguistic communication arts endorsement and a secondary biology endorsement if she majored in English and biology while earning her secondary teaching certificate. However, your certification is non set in stone. You take the option to add endorsements to it if you meet the right qualifications.

Why Add together More Endorsements?

You may consider adding actress endorsements to your certificate to make yourself more marketable to schools and districts. The more subjects you are qualified to teach, the more likely you are to be hired. Districts prefer to hire teachers who tin can make full more than than one position if needed. You may also retrieve virtually calculation an endorsement if you already have a teaching position and there is a void in the schoolhouse that y'all hope to fill. But be sure that when you add together endorsements that yous are willing to teach those subjects and grade levels. Yous may not have a choice of which of your endorsements you utilize, since schoolhouse administrators will typically ask you to fill the position that is needed most.

How to Add an Endorsement

Adding an endorsement requires that y'all meet the qualifications for it. The process will vary by land, but there are some basics that concur true in all states. The first is that y'all must consummate the appropriate coursework and/or laissez passer a competency examination in the endorsement subject area area. This may mean having enough higher credits to authorize for a major in a subject surface area, or it may require fewer credits. In one case you have completed the required credits, you will demand to pass the certification test for the area of endorsement in which you are interested. Finally, you lot will need to apply to have the endorsement added to your certificate.

For case, in Florida adding an endorsement requires submission of an application, completion of the required courses, and completion of a Florida schoolhouse district's canonical in-service add-on program. In Texas, teachers tin can add "Additional Certification by Examination" by passing a certificate area exam. In Washington land, teachers must consummate required coursework, consummate a supervised practicum, and pass the content area exam.

If you are unsure where to start, contact an counselor in the teaching department at your university or your state board of education.

Alternative Instructor Certification

The traditional route to becoming a certified instructor outlined higher up is non the just route to becoming a teacher. Well-nigh states in the US offering alternative routes to earning certification. These alternatives are typically centered on real-world teaching experience for candidates who have at to the lowest degree a bachelor's caste.

Teach for America

Teach for America is an system that recruits people to teach in areas of the country where schools and students are struggling, often in urban and poverty-stricken areas. Recruits demand non have prior pedagogy experience and tin can work towards certification while instruction. In most cases, the experience gained while working for Teach for America fulfills student educational activity requirements.

American Board

The American Board, or ABCTE (formerly known as the American Board for the Certification of Instructor Excellence), is accepted as an alternative road for teacher preparation in 12 states. This program involves online study also every bit professional knowledge exams that lead to American Board certification; in states where it is recognized, American Lath certification can likewise lead to teacher licensure; these include Arizona, Arknasas, Florida, Idaho, Missouri, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tenneessee, and Utah.

Other Alternative Programs

There are additional programs that recruit and train new teachers through alternative ways, such every bit Michelle Rhee's The New Instructor Project. It recruits new teachers and trains them to exist constructive and to piece of work in districts with loftier poverty and minority students.

Other culling programs are location-specific or are not accepted in all states. The Academy for Urban School Leadership specifically trains new teachers to work in underperforming schools in Chicago and helps those teachers become certified. Trainees work for a full year with a mentor instructor.

Additionally, many states accept designated alternative certification pathways for teachers that are run by local schools and school districts. For more information on available alternatives in your state, see our alternative teacher certification guide.

Getting Hired as a Teacher

teacher-interview With certification in mitt, information technology is now time to detect a position working as a teacher. As a new instructor, you accept some things working for you and against you in your job search. Y'all lack feel in the classroom, but on the other mitt, districts like to hire new teachers because your position will be lower on the pay scale. The key to getting hired as a new teacher is to focus on the classroom experience you lot do have. If yous tin do this while giving a professional interview and providing fantabulous references, you can increase your chances of getting hired.

Brainstorm the Search

Your search should start with looking for districts that are hiring. If y'all are open up to whatsoever location, your search can achieve far and wide. For guidance, review our Best States to Be a Teacher Index, where yous tin can search the all-time states by teacher salary, average habitation value, projected chore openings, and more than. If you are restricted to 1 area, you lot may need to target districts that have non advertised an open position. Contact the districts you are interested in straight, either through email or by phone, and observe out if they are hiring. Even if they are non hiring at the moment, you may be able to send in a resume to go along on file. For the latest teacher job openings, cheque out our jobs lath.

Join a Professional Arrangement and Network

Networking is of import for finding a job in whatever field and that includes teaching. Yous can network through social media and through friends and family, but practise non ignore the power of professional organizations. As a pupil or recent graduate yous can join the student or associate programs of teacher unions like the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers. Joining as a student volition get you lot access to task search resources and other benefits. There are also non-matrimony groups that y'all tin join for networking opportunities similar the Association of American Educators and Pi Lambda Theta.

Be Prepared

Networking, searching for, and contacting districts are just the preliminary steps towards getting a teaching position. One time you take found open positions and scheduled an interview, the real work begins. Be gear up for your interview by preparing ahead of fourth dimension. Practise interviewing with a friend or boyfriend task seeker. Y'all can interview each other and inquire the questions you lot think you might be expected to reply. Read more about others' experiences on our Career Interviews page.

Also be ready to share all the experiences you have in the classroom. This could include student instruction, volunteer work, or working as a substitute teacher. Accept your materials ready to present in a professional portfolio. Include lesson plans that you accept created, letters of recommendation from your mentor teacher and university instructors, and, if possible, video of yous teaching a lesson. Many districts are now asking prospective teachers to teach a real lesson to students or to a panel of peers while administrators detect. Come up prepared for this by preparing a lesson plan that you feel comfortable with.

Finally, exist patient. This is a tough job market place for everyone, including teachers. If you practise not find a position for your get-go year after graduation, use that fourth dimension wisely. Consider working as a substitute teacher so that the teachers and administrators tin can become to know y'all. When a position opens upward, yous may be first in line for it.

Continuing Your Education with Graduate School

Once you become certified as a teacher and observe a position in a school, yous may think your piece of work is washed, but it is not. As a teacher, you must continue to ameliorate your skills and aggrandize your knowledge. This tin can be accomplished through professional development opportunities, usually provided by your commune, and past taking graduate-level courses. Each state sets different requirements for how much education you must complete after certification and how often. Consult your state'southward department of education or your academy for more data.

Graduate Courses

If your state requires that you earn a certain number of graduate credit hours after being certified, y'all have many options. Yous can go on taking courses at the university where you earned your certification, equally most teacher education programs offer graduate-level courses. Some other increasingly popular pick is to take online courses. More and more than schools are offering graduate education classes online to help teachers run across their requirements. Examples include Central Michigan Academy and Eastern Kentucky University.

Earning a Master's Degree

Some states require that you earn a main's degree to keep your certification or to be fully and professionally certified, while others encourage you to earn a degree by offering additional compensation. If y'all cull to earn a master's degree, you lot have several options. Many teachers earn a degree in pedagogy and teaching, which tin can include specializations such as instruction, curriculum, or special instruction. You can also earn a master'south caste in counseling or administration if you hope to move into an administrative position. An education specialist degree (EdS) is another option. Viewed equally higher educational attainment than a principal'south, simply still less than a doctoral-level degree, an EdS can provide more in-depth didactics than a principal's caste while qualifying you for certifications or endorsements in education support areas including administration and educational technology.

Less common, but withal a possibility, is to earn a doctoral caste. There are 2 common doctoral degrees in didactics, the Physician of Teaching (EdD) and the Doc of Philosophy (PhD) in Education. If y'all choose to take this route, y'all open the door to other opportunities, such every bit becoming a superintendent of a district or teaching at the college level as a professor at a university. While at that place is overlap between programs and possible career paths, in general, EdD programs are professional degrees with an emphasis on practice for working One thousand-12 educators and administrators, while PhD degrees are research-focused programs designed for careers in research and college-level teaching.

Additional Resource

Teach.org – Teach.org provides information on how to get a teacher, teaching job listings, and scholarship and networking opportunities.
United states Section of Didactics – The US Section of Education's website provides information about dropout rates, Grand-12 reforms, current federal education standards, and more.

Oftentimes Asked Questions most Becoming a Teacher

Question: Do I need teacher certification to teach?

Reply: While certification requirements vary from state to country, public schools do crave that teachers exist certified. Private schools practice not ever require teachers to have country certification. You lot can cheque with your land Board of Instruction or college program for further information on certification requirements in your state.

Question: How much practice teachers make a year?

Reply: The salary of a teacher depends on many factors, including the degree and experience obtained, the area where they teach, the type of schoolhouse, the level(s) taught, and other factors. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), kindergarten and elementary school teachers earn a median salary of $59,420 per twelvemonth, middle school teachers earn a median bacon of $59,660, and high school teachers earn a median of $61,660 per twelvemonth.^1-iii

Question: What types of courses do I take to become a teacher?

Answer: The courses required will vary depending on the program and subject field to be taught, but most teacher preparation programs include courses in kid development, child psychology, and curriculum design and teaching, also as the field of study for which the prospective teacher plans to seek endorsement. Talk to your school'due south advising part or refer to your state Lath of Educational activity to find out what courses are required in your state.

Question: What areas of study have the biggest need for specialized teachers?

Respond: Specialized teachers are usually in greater demand than general teachers, just some areas take more than demand than others. For instance, teachers who specialize in the areas of math and scientific discipline, special education, and English as a second linguistic communication (ESL) are particularly in need. Talk to your school's advisor or refer to your country Board of Didactics to find out what courses are required in your state.

References:
ane. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook, Kindergarten and Elementary Schoolhouse Teachers: https://www.bls.gov/ooh/education-preparation-and-library/kindergarten-and-unproblematic-schoolhouse-teachers.htm
two. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook, Middle School Teachers: https://www.bls.gov/ooh/education-grooming-and-library/heart-school-teachers.htm
3. Agency of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook, Loftier School Teachers: https://world wide web.bls.gov/ooh/didactics-training-and-library/high-school-teachers.htm

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