Teaching Degree & Certification

[ajacques]

Originally Posted by 7 Wishes

Also, I would advise 1 thing and note another:

1) Try to get the grades up a bit at Buffalo State, many school districts want to see a 3.0 or better when you graduate (though 2.9 is close enough that with some good references (make that student teaching stint count!) you should be OK.

2) NY State, unlike most states, requires a masters degree for teaching. Now you can start out without one and you have I think 3 or 4 years to get one to keep your certification.

So she graduates with her BA; can she then teach for the 3-4 years while she's working on her masters? Can she do anything with her A.A?

[7 Wishes]

Originally Posted by ajacques

So she graduates with her BA; can she then teach for the 3-4 years while she's working on her masters? Can she do anything with her A.A?

With an AA (in fact, with no college degree at all) you can be a teacher assistant, or in most districts a sub (though with a degree and the higher the degree, the more likely you'll be called and also get "long term" single assignments). NY is the one state I know of that has certification for teacher assistants as well, but it simply involves taking a relatively easy test and I know people with just a HS diploma who have one.

I am guessing at the 3-4 years based on my own experiences/research and talking to others (I am trying to career change into teaching math, I have a Masters, though not in education, and looks like I'm going to do it in a neighboring state shortly anyway which doesn't have as strict a requirement). For example, in NY City there are two programs for "career changers" who have a Bachelors, the Fellows and the Teacher Opportunity Program. Both involve getting a special initial certification and they send you to a local college to get your masters a couple of nights/week over the following 2-4 years, with your portion of the subsidized costs coming out of your teacher paycheck.

My mother-in-law was a NY City teacher (retired 1996) and my sisters' husband's parents are both retired educators in the Buffalo area (his father a principal his last 10 years) and they have told me they believe the initial certificate gives you 3 years to get a Masters to renew your certificate, but they weren't exactly sure.

There is something similar to the NY City Fellows program in Rochester, NY that I think involves eventually getting a Masters at Roberts Wesleyan University while teaching in Rochester. It's called the Urban Teachers for Tomorrow program, at this website: Rochester City School District