Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I have wanted to be a teacher since I was a child and am now in college and getting down to the point where I need to decide for sure what I'm going to major in. I'm taking a class in which I am required to complete an academic major research report and speak with people who have been through the program themselves. I need some insight from people who have been through an Education program - I would be particularly interested in hearing from those who have focused on Elementary and/or Special Education.
Here are some sample questions that I would love to hear answers to:
1. What did you like or dislike about the program or classes that you took to get your degree?
2. Is graduate school recommended for educators?
3. How long did it take you to complete your program?
4. Which courses were the most difficult for you during your education to get your degree?
5. What skills did you develop through this major?
6. Are there majors, minors or certificates that would be complementary to this major that would be beneficial to pursue?
7. Is studying abroad a good pursuit for a person with this major?
8. Did you find that you had many career options when you graduated?
9. Are you happy with your decision overall to major in Education?
As well as anything else that you would like for a person to know regarding this major and the career paths that follow graduation.
Thank you so much for your help It is really appreciated!
1. What did you like or dislike about the program or classes that you took to get your degree?
I was frustrated by most of my education classes and the time they took out of my academic schedule. I was secondary education, language arts, and at the time, deeply resented the time being taken away from my beloved English classes. I had a WONDERFUL introductory ed course called Social Foundations of Education that was probably more valuable in the long run than any of the methods classes or teaching in the content area classes I took thereafter.
2. Is graduate school recommended for educators?
Not necessarily prior to starting one's career, but usually preferable once one is a practicing educator. There are schools that will require that their educators pursue graduate study after a certain amount of time in job, and those that don't require it, but offer incentives for those that do.
3. How long did it take you to complete your program?
I graduated in the typical undergrad time frame, four years. I didn't start taking education coursework until I was a sophomore. At the time, more requirements were being added that were necessitating an extra semester for most, but I got grandfathered in.
4. Which courses were the most difficult for you during your education to get your degree?
None of my education classes were difficult, per se, but many were time consuming due to requiring a lot of practicum hours. My student teaching was emotionally taxing.
5. What skills did you develop through this major?
Through my study of education? None, specifically, other than just getting more practice being a student. Most of my teaching skills were developed through hands-on experience. Honestly, college classes don't teach you how to teach. Teaching itself is what teaches you how to teach. Gotta get your hands dirty.
6. Are there majors, minors or certificates that would be complementary to this major that would be beneficial to pursue?
I was secondary ed, which required having a major other than education, in my case, English.
7. Is studying abroad a good pursuit for a person with this major?
From an experiential viewpoint, study abroad can be a great experience that allows you to bring a different perspective into the classroom as an educator.
8. Did you find that you had many career options when you graduated?
Yep...I worked, by choice, outside the classroom for nearly a decade, as an outreach worker running tutoring and mentoring programs for at risk kids for an inner city nonprofit, and later as a newspaper reporter covering, among other things, youth and education issues. I now work for a private school.
9. Are you happy with your decision overall to major in Education?
Initially,and for a long time, I felt like it had been a waste, since I didn't initially pursue classroom teaching.
1. What did you like or dislike about the program or classes that you took to get your degree?
I was frustrated by most of my education classes and the time they took out of my academic schedule. I was secondary education, language arts, and at the time, deeply resented the time being taken away from my beloved English classes. I had a WONDERFUL introductory ed course called Social Foundations of Education that was probably more valuable in the long run than any of the methods classes or teaching in the content area classes I took thereafter.
2. Is graduate school recommended for educators?
Not necessarily prior to starting one's career, but usually preferable once one is a practicing educator. There are schools that will require that their educators pursue graduate study after a certain amount of time in job, and those that don't require it, but offer incentives for those that do.
3. How long did it take you to complete your program?
I graduated in the typical undergrad time frame, four years. I didn't start taking education coursework until I was a sophomore. At the time, more requirements were being added that were necessitating an extra semester for most, but I got grandfathered in.
4. Which courses were the most difficult for you during your education to get your degree?
None of my education classes were difficult, per se, but many were time consuming due to requiring a lot of practicum hours. My student teaching was emotionally taxing.
5. What skills did you develop through this major?
Through my study of education? None, specifically, other than just getting more practice being a student. Most of my teaching skills were developed through hands-on experience. Honestly, college classes don't teach you how to teach. Teaching itself is what teaches you how to teach. Gotta get your hands dirty.
6. Are there majors, minors or certificates that would be complementary to this major that would be beneficial to pursue?
I was secondary ed, which required having a major other than education, in my case, English.
7. Is studying abroad a good pursuit for a person with this major?
From an experiential viewpoint, study abroad can be a great experience that allows you to bring a different perspective into the classroom as an educator.
8. Did you find that you had many career options when you graduated?
Yep...I worked, by choice, outside the classroom for nearly a decade, as an outreach worker running tutoring and mentoring programs for at risk kids for an inner city nonprofit, and later as a newspaper reporter covering, among other things, youth and education issues. I now work for a private school.
9. Are you happy with your decision overall to major in Education?
Initially,and for a long time, I felt like it had been a waste, since I didn't initially pursue classroom teaching.
I have wanted to be a teacher since I was a child and am now in college and getting down to the point where I need to decide for sure what I'm going to major in. I'm taking a class in which I am required to complete an academic major research report and speak with people who have been through the program themselves. I need some insight from people who have been through an Education program - I would be particularly interested in hearing from those who have focused on Elementary and/or Special Education.
Here are some sample questions that I would love to hear answers to:
1. What did you like or dislike about the program or classes that you took to get your degree? Little focus on teaching and a lot of focus on liberal propaganda.
2. Is graduate school recommended for educators?It depends on the state you are working in. In Indiana, a masters degree can make it impossible to get hired. In AZ, it didn't seem to matter so much.
3. How long did it take you to complete your program? Five years.
4. Which courses were the most difficult for you during your education to get your degree?Physics
5. What skills did you develop through this major?I didn't really get to develop my skills through my elementary education major. I didn't develop skills until student teaching.
6. Are there majors, minors or certificates that would be complementary to this major that would be beneficial to pursue?Special education, math, or science. It is next to impossible to find a job in anything else.
7. Is studying abroad a good pursuit for a person with this major?A friend of mine completed 6 weeks of student teaching in Kenya. She still had a hard time finding a job.
8. Did you find that you had many career options when you graduated?Heck, no! I had to fill out 300 applications just to find one job. This was before the recession began.
9. Are you happy with your decision overall to major in Education?No, because I am sitting on unemployment and can't even get a job at a preschool because I am "overqualified." If I had it to do over, I would have went into something with a better job market.
As well as anything else that you would like for a person to know regarding this major and the career paths that follow graduation.I would avoid teaching unless you are interested in special ed, math, or science endorsements. An elementary education degree is worthless in this economy.
Thank you so much for your help It is really appreciated!
Thank you for your input. I'm sorry that you are in that situation I was a bit worried about this - there's such an inflation in the number of people with degrees and such a low number of people hiring...that's got to be tough Good luck with the job search.
I have some answers you requested and some thoughts from my perspective.
I graduated in 2004 with a degree in Elem. Ed. degree - Major was Lang. Arts, Minor was Speech. It took me 6 years because half way through, the counselor talked me into switching my major from education to Communications and a minor in Business Admin. My heart wasn't in it. I wanted to teach so badly so I switched back to education. I graduated with honors and couldn't wait to get into my own classroom. I was told to get certified in the "buzz" areas, so I completed different reading and writing certifications to make me more marketable. Didn't work. I subbed and long term subbed. Taught summer school for 4 years. I ended up getting a job offer (in another field) when I wasn't even looking. It has been 4 years now and I have met MANY, MANY people out there with teaching degrees working in other areas because there are no jobs. I had a steller resume, teaching website, teaching brochure that did get me a lot of interviews, then second interviews.. The person who ultimately got hired was someone that already had an "in" with the district (a friend or relative of someone who worked there). Two men I graduated with got jobs because their wives were already teachers in the district. One got hired for Social Studies (in a GOOD district around here) and told me, "Heck, I don't know anything about Social Studies." It made me furious as you can imagine.
Some people I graduated with moved to FL, SC, and AZ for teaching jobs. I have read terrible stories about teaching in AZ (very overcrowded classrooms, long days, and no support from admin). Definitely do your research before thinking about going somewhere.
This is a huge decision for you . You are off to a great start by researching. However, I would go chose various city forums, use the Advanced Search, and put in "teaching" under various cities. See what people are saying in other areas. I know around here, the teachers who could retire are not because they lost so much money in the stock market. That leaves a saturated field of new graduates with no jobs to go to.
If I had to do it all over again, I would have chosen Nursing in a heartbeat. Now, I love my job (tourist industry/event planning), but could have made more money and had better benefits if I would have went into the health field.
Think long and hard before making a decision. I hate making that student loan payment each month for a degree I am not using.
Last edited by cyberbehms; 02-20-2010 at 02:08 PM..
Reason: added sentence
6. Are there majors, minors or certificates that would be complementary to this major that would be beneficial to pursue?
It used to be that elementary education and social studies positions were the toughest to get, and if you had the right credentials or specialty, jobs were available. It think it's a tough market for teachers now no matter what you specialize in.
In my area, schools have been laying off teachers due to budget cuts. This has impacted people I know personally who are great teachers.
I have a close friend who teaches English with stellar credentials (Ivy league undergrad, master's in education from an excellent school, teaches AP level) who is about to be laid off (along with many others at her school).
I know several other people through friends and co-workers who have gone back to school to get their teaching certifcates after being laid off but who have not been able to find jobs due to cutbacks in hiring. The husband of a co-worker is certified to teach math and is still working as a substitue teacher.
Make sure you do your research and keep costs down!
Two very important things to remember about teaching:
1) Be prepaired to spend a few years while trying to find a job fresh out of school. If you want to stay/teach in Wisconsin(I love Madison), you're in a good corridor for well paying states that offer job tenure.
2) Teaching from state to state varies TREMENDOUSLY. Salary, benefits, requirements, hours, etc can be night and day from one place to the next. One state's certificate doesn't always carry over into another's either. It's best to ask around about which certifications carry over into surrounding states and whatnot(feel free to DM me with questions).
Teaching as a whole is very much up in the air right now with NCLB stipulations and potential restructuring. I'd say that things are "turbulant" as is. If you absolutely 100% want to be a teacher....just know full well that it won't be easy and that it's a very tough job. ESL/Special ED/Math/Science are the fields to go into if you want some sort of shot at a job, nothing else. Elementary is dime/dozen as far as applicants go, don't do it unless you already have a job lined up and have amazing connections.
If you really think that you just enjoy helping others...strongly consider a medical field or health care as a possible alternative. Nursing, Physical Therapy, etc are good to go into. I'm employed with a nice district in PA with good pay/benefits at the age of 24, and I've even had times where I've thought "I really do like my job and am lucky to have this..but I wouldn't have minded physical therapy". Healthcare really is fullproof in terms of being able to get a job quickly while also being able to jump from state to state/city to city easily...just consider it if you're a mobile person and crave having the freedom and flexibility to jump around. Teaching will ground you within one spot for life, often times you won't be able to choose that one spot, which is my only issue with the career taht I have.
Also, be smart and get out of debt as soon as possible. If you're paying loans, then try to stay at home and work throughout school if possible. If you can attend a nice, smaller school for little or no debt while commuting at home...well in the end that 4-6 year vacation at USC or FSU won't look so good when you've got $50k+ in loans to start paying off with no job in sight. Don't make the mistake that so many of my friends did..college is fun, but don't arrange for yourself to live it up for 4-6 years in exchange for debt and and impossibly tough 20s/30s. There's life after college and don't toss out the rest of your twenties just for four years of school fun...I'm enjoying being 24 and employed more than I did being a poor 20 year old college kid. 4 years of fun isn't worth 10+ of hardship, college comes and goes like any other time in life. Just be smart and remember the big picture and work towards that most of all. It's good that you're off to a nice start and are trying to be ambitious.
Last edited by TelecasterBlues; 02-25-2010 at 11:27 AM..
Mchelle, I cannot answer any of your questions because I did not major in education. My undergrad school, however, recruited me to be an education major. I decided against it based on what my parents and my uncle told me about the field (all were teachers right out of college, but they didn't last long in the schools). They told me that I wouldn't learn much about the world as an education major. Rather, I'd learn how to operate in a bureaucratic environment and how to please my superiors. Once in the schools, my relatives said they conducted crowd control rather than teaching, and they said they quickly discovered they were not nearly competent in their subjects to teach it effectively. My father taught high school history, but found that he didn't master the content of the topic to teach it effectively. Consequently, he went to OCS and remained in the Navy for 20 years.
My mother taught English right out of college, while working on her master's degree in English (not education). After a year of teaching English, the school she worked at lost an algebra teacher and they converted her to it since she scored highly on the math section of the GRE. She claims today that she was probably the worst algebra teacher the world has ever seen. She quit after she obtained her M.A. in English.
My uncle studied secondary ed, joined the Marines, became a pilot and stayed in the military for 25 years. He obtained a master's and doctorate in education, and another master's degree in information systems (whatever that is). He's never taught in the schools, and has no desire to do so. Today and for the past few years since he left the Marines, he's been a software developer for General Dyanamics and makes about $650K a year. He is the most critical of schools of education among my family members who have experience in the field.
He says schools of edu focus on so much psychology and sociology that teaching methods and subject content take a backseat and these schools then churn out teachers who are quite capable expounding on pyschological theories, but cannot handle a classroom. He claims today that schools of edu are robbing students and graduate students of a quality education.
After my undergrad, I worked as a newspaper reporter for a big-city daily (back when newspapers were still read in our society). The job paid 20K a year and I worked some 90 hours a week on average without any overtime pay. I routinely covered state legislature politics about upping teachers' pay. At the time, 1999, teachers in my state made in most counties $32,500 their first year. After five years and receiving proper licensure, the pay went up to $38,500 annually. I thought this was rather good pay for some one with only four years work in an undergraduate program. Yet most of the teachers I interviewed for stories complained ad infinitum about the low pay, claiming it was the lowest paid profession on the earth (until I showed them one of my pay stubbs).
After a couple of years working as a reporter, I thought about turning teacher through the alternative route toward licensure. Most teachers I knew through my work advised me against this, claiming that unless you can teach physics or Spanish, French, or German, then forget it. I wouldn't be able to find a job. School superintendents, they said, have a preference for edu graduates, not humanities graduates. Others said that I'd hate being a glorified "prison warden" or their moniker for a modern-day teacher.
After my undergrad, I worked as a newspaper reporter for a big-city daily (back when newspapers were still read in our society). The job paid 20K a year and I worked some 90 hours a week on average without any overtime pay. I routinely covered state legislature politics about upping teachers' pay. At the time, 1999, teachers in my state made in most counties $32,500 their first year. After five years and receiving proper licensure, the pay went up to $38,500 annually. I thought this was rather good pay for some one with only four years work in an undergraduate program. Yet most of the teachers I interviewed for stories complained ad infinitum about the low pay, claiming it was the lowest paid profession on the earth (until I showed them one of my pay stubbs).
This was my experience, too, going into print journalism handily armed with my English/ed degree...it was awesome interviewing striking teachers and quoting them on their outrage at salary/benefits packages that easily dwarfed those of most print journalists.
Quote:
After a couple of years working as a reporter, I thought about turning teacher through the alternative route toward licensure. Most teachers I knew through my work advised me against this, claiming that unless you can teach physics or Spanish, French, or German, then forget it. I wouldn't be able to find a job. School superintendents, they said, have a preference for edu graduates, not humanities graduates. Others said that I'd hate being a glorified "prison warden" or their moniker for a modern-day teacher.
What worked out really well for me was that about a decade after obtaining my degree and teaching credentials, and spending the intervening time working outside of education, I got a chance to sign on as a teacher at a very unique private school that does all 1:1 education...no crowd control issues whatsoever, which was easily my most hated thing in the traditional classroom. I didn't need to get an alternate certification, because I already had earned a traditional state certification, but I was fortunate enough to find a niche in a nontraditional environment.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I was a bit worried about this - there's such an inflation in the number of people with degrees and such a low number of people hiring...that's got to be tough 
(tourist industry/event planning), but could have made more money and had better benefits if I would have went into the health field. 
