careers in teaching

ReneeV
Fri, 24 Oct 2008 14:34:50 +0000

When I was a newly certified teacher, I was in a region where it was very tough to get a job. If that’s the case where your D might be teaching, I recommend that she concentrate on getting the very best grades she possibly can and go as far above and beyond as she possibly can in her student teaching experience, because those credentials and strong recommendations are like gold in a tight job market (as is certification in more than one teaching specialty).

My first job was in a tiny rural district where I taught middle school and high school Spanish, high school language arts, middle school social studies, and one period of primary music. I was a native Spanish speaker, so I was able to test out of the first two years and only needed the upper level grammar and comp, Spanish and Latin American civ and lit courses, and foreign language methods to meet requirements for a major. I double majored in Spanish and history and also had a minor in English (and got an emergency certificate in music based on some coursework and experience as a private piano instructor). I started out intending to teach elementary school (after having worked at the level for a few years as a paraprofessional), but I fell in love with history in college and decided I wanted to teach it at the secondary level.

Your D really needs to consider demographics in the desired market to decide if the advice to pursue ESL or bilingual education certification makes sense. I’m a bit hesitant to recommend it without knowing anything about your area, because funding for bilingual ed (and to a lesser extent, ESL) is really dependent on which way the political pendulum swings. I think the advice to look as history as a second certification is good, and I wonder if business education might be another possibility? My school offers courses such as business law, accounting, international business management, marketing, and entrepreneurship.

I agree with others that it’s not necessary to be a native speaker, but it is important to have a high level of fluency, and it bothers me to see language teachers who barely speak the language and would flounder in an immersion setting themselves. I’ll add that teaching a foreign language is really satisfying. It’s a subject that really lends itself to creativity and activities that students generally find fun. On the other hand, although I love history, I haven’t yet hit on a really engaging way to teach a few topics.

One last thing, your D needs to talk with her advisors ASAP. It is really hard to fit everything in for the requirements of a major plus teacher certification, and adding a second teaching area makes it even more of a challenge. That is especially true if she is in a small college that might not offer certain courses every semester (but also in a large university where it is tough to get into classes before they fill). Unfortunately, it doesn’t really leave room for exploration or taking courses just because they sound interesting if they won’t meet requirements toward her program.