Best bet for nabbing a probationary teaching job and getting certified. (Austin: 2013, find a job)

[mang0]

Hello everyone!

After having working as a Segway Tour Guide for 3 years, I decided to take a gap-year (plus a month or two) to travel through Guatemala and Nicaragua. The goals were to practice lots of Yoga, get as fluent as possible in Spanish, and then figure out the next career.

I'm currently traveling in Nicaragua, getting towards the end of my year-long journey. Through volunteering at an elementary school and working a few jobs (one ESL) in Granada, I have come to the conclusion that I want to have a teaching career. I know that once I get back to Austin, I will need to sub for awhile to really see if that's what I want to do/can handle, but I know in my heart that I am truly a teacher.

I have a Liberal Arts Degree in Film and Media with a minor in Applied Psychology, so to be certified I would have to take the Alternative-Cert route. I know the competition for teaching jobs is fierce in AISD, but how about in the surrounding areas?

My Nicaraguan friends say I am fluent in Spanish, but the Spanish tourists say I "manage" well. I'd like to know what the best chance of getting a probationary teaching job would be with a view towards certification. Right now I'm thinking that my best fit would be ESL Generalist EC-6 with the hopes of passing the bilingual proficiency test to have that as an extra cert. Is passing this test as a non-native Spanish speaker feasible? I'd love to hear from others out there who are native English speakers who have passed the BTLPT.

Any comments or thoughts would be of great help.

Love this forum!

Saludos,
Ryan

[usernamenottaken]

A friend of mine has been working with this company. She got a teacher assistant job through them while she is working on her teaching certificate. Doesn't pay much and you have to pay for the training, so hopefully you have some money saved.
http://www.texasteachers.org

[mang0]

Thanks for the reply. It seems that Texas Teachers churns out the most certified teachers in comparison to the rest (4,500 in 2013). I thought that most of the program costs are paid out of your monthly paycheck once you land a probationary teaching job, but I guess there are other options and I need to investigate more.

Do you know if she chose the 12 week unpaid student teaching option? Perhaps even though it's unpaid, it might be a better chance at receiving a certificate instead of teaching for a year on a probationary certificate and hoping at the end you will receive a certificate. Is she doing this in AISD?

I'd love to pick your friend's brain about the program. Is there any chance you could PM me her contact info?

Once again, thanks for the reply!

Que ten buen dia ,
Ryan

[sheaday]

Your best bet would be to call one of the alt cert programs directly as they can answer all of your questions. I did the TX Teachers program a few years ago but in the end decided to stay in my current field. When I went through the program, I paid approx $450 upfront to start the program and then the rest would be taken out of my paycheck once I landed a probationary teaching job- approx $400-425ish over the course of the 9 month school year. Of course, the program may be more now. Since I didn't complete the process, I was only out the $450 (and my time) so it wasn't a huge money loss.

You can do the unpaid student teaching option which is exactly the same as if you were a senior in college and student teaching. Once you complete your unpaid teaching, you get your cert. But if you go this route, I think you had to pay the full $4000ish upfront instead of having it taken out of your check each month- but I could be wrong about this. Getting an unpaid teaching job is a lot easier.

If you go the other route and do the probationary teaching, you are hired on like a 'regular' teacher with the standard first year teacher pay but there's more in-class reviews and monitoring etc than if you would have went the regular teaching route. As long as you do well with your reviews, follow what the program and your school requires you to do, you will receive your full teaching certificate at the end of your first year....but that doesn't mean the school has to offer you a job again for the following year.

The problem isn't getting your full certification after your first year- the problem is actually getting a teaching job. The alt-cert programs do not place you or help you find a job. They'll send out emails alerting you to upcoming teaching fairs but that's about it. You will have to apply for jobs yourself and find a way for your application and portfolio to stand out against teachers who completed the standard 4 year degree program. More than likely your best bet would be to apply to school districts in the outskirts of town- Manor, Elgin, Marble Falls as it's rare for alt-cert first year teachers to get an elementary job in a prime school districts.

ESL cert doesn't have much to do with being bilingual- alot of teachers are now getting ESL and Special Ed certs to add to their background. If you think you know enough to be bilingual, take the bilingual test. Being bilingual would be your best bet to getting a job.

Not to sound snarky- but schools don't really care if you found your calling volunteering overseas. Schools are businesses and they want they want the best teachers that require the least amount of hand holding. UT and Texas State churn out great young teachers every year who have taken 4yrs of classes and studied more in detailed than any 10 week alt-cert program can provide. Not to say it's not do-able, but when I went through the program, only 1 person out of my 8 person study group got a job the following semester.

Good luck!

[mesmer]

I heard the district 13 program is the best way to nab a job, but I don't know what that means or where to find them. It was a pretty casual conversation and I have no interest in teaching. I just remember because I thought it sounded like the hunger games! Best of luck!

[mang0]

Originally Posted by sheaday

Your best bet would be to call one of the alt cert programs directly as they can answer all of your questions. I did the TX Teachers program a few years ago but in the end decided to stay in my current field. When I went through the program, I paid approx $450 upfront to start the program and then the rest would be taken out of my paycheck once I landed a probationary teaching job- approx $400-425ish over the course of the 9 month school year. Of course, the program may be more now. Since I didn't complete the process, I was only out the $450 (and my time) so it wasn't a huge money loss.

You can do the unpaid student teaching option which is exactly the same as if you were a senior in college and student teaching. Once you complete your unpaid teaching, you get your cert. But if you go this route, I think you had to pay the full $4000ish upfront instead of having it taken out of your check each month- but I could be wrong about this. Getting an unpaid teaching job is a lot easier.

If you go the other route and do the probationary teaching, you are hired on like a 'regular' teacher with the standard first year teacher pay but there's more in-class reviews and monitoring etc than if you would have went the regular teaching route. As long as you do well with your reviews, follow what the program and your school requires you to do, you will receive your full teaching certificate at the end of your first year....but that doesn't mean the school has to offer you a job again for the following year.

The problem isn't getting your full certification after your first year- the problem is actually getting a teaching job. The alt-cert programs do not place you or help you find a job. They'll send out emails alerting you to upcoming teaching fairs but that's about it. You will have to apply for jobs yourself and find a way for your application and portfolio to stand out against teachers who completed the standard 4 year degree program. More than likely your best bet would be to apply to school districts in the outskirts of town- Manor, Elgin, Marble Falls as it's rare for alt-cert first year teachers to get an elementary job in a prime school districts.

ESL cert doesn't have much to do with being bilingual- alot of teachers are now getting ESL and Special Ed certs to add to their background. If you think you know enough to be bilingual, take the bilingual test. Being bilingual would be your best bet to getting a job.

Not to sound snarky- but schools don't really care if you found your calling volunteering overseas. Schools are businesses and they want they want the best teachers that require the least amount of hand holding. UT and Texas State churn out great young teachers every year who have taken 4yrs of classes and studied more in detailed than any 10 week alt-cert program can provide. Not to say it's not do-able, but when I went through the program, only 1 person out of my 8 person study group got a job the following semester.

Good luck!

Thanks for the honest truth...and no, you don't sound snarky. I'm curious, did your study group mates all apply in AISD? I agree that it'd probably be next to impossible to get a job there as a 1st year alt-cert teacher. I have no problem applying in the outskirts of Austin.

My lil sister got a job in Bastrop ISD as a Speech Language Pathologist and she said a lot of teachers there are alt-cert teachers.

How does one know if he/she is truly Bilingual-or at least enough so to pass the proficiency test? I've heard native Spanish speakers fail this test and I'm wondering if that has more to do with not doing so well on the written portion. I'm hoping some others might be able to chime in on this.

Thank you for the time you've taken to write the long response.

To the other responses as well, se los agradezco mucho!

Ryan

[usernamenottaken]

Originally Posted by mang0

Thanks for the reply. It seems that Texas Teachers churns out the most certified teachers in comparison to the rest (4,500 in 2013). I thought that most of the program costs are paid out of your monthly paycheck once you land a probationary teaching job, but I guess there are other options and I need to investigate more.

Do you know if she chose the 12 week unpaid student teaching option? Perhaps even though it's unpaid, it might be a better chance at receiving a certificate instead of teaching for a year on a probationary certificate and hoping at the end you will receive a certificate. Is she doing this in AISD?

I'd love to pick your friend's brain about the program. Is there any chance you could PM me her contact info?

Once again, thanks for the reply!

Que ten buen dia ,
Ryan

She is getting paid with LISD. And I believe will be going with the option of paying the program costs out of her paycheck. I would imagine the probability of getting a job would vary depending on the grade, location, and subject you are able to teach, if there is a need or an opening.

[hillcountryheart]

The highest demand is for math and science teachers. There's a secondary demand for fully bilingual teachers to teach other subjects in Spanish. There's almost no need for Spanish-as-a-second-language teachers.

I once met a guy in a pub who was teaching out in Geronimo. Yeah, that'd be a commute, but he was happy and loved his job.

[lueet]

I did an alt cert program (Web-Centric Alternative Certification) and got a job with LISD this year. I had originally tried to go the probationary route, and scored interviews with a few schools the summer before I finished, but ultimately did not get picked, so I took the student teaching placement instead. I am really thankful for that opportunity and all that I learned, because as a current first-year teacher I can't imagine coming into this as blind as I was. I highly recommend student teaching if you can swing it financially.