High School Teaching (job, medical, college)

[mosaaik]

Hello everyone! I am new here, and really joined to ask a question regarding education in East Tennessee. I am currently finishing work on my B.S. in Biology at a private college in Raleigh, NC and applying to medical school. I will graduate in May. Everyone who applies is encouraged to have a plan b since only about 10% of applicants get accepted on their first try. My plan B is teaching high school biology. I have talked to some TN teachers about this and they said that there is some sort of provisional program that allows someone to teach in TN for 2-3 years without a full license (I'm not sure of the details) and this is pretty much what I would be doing, unless I get into it and decide to stick with it life long for whatever reason. My question is, how hard or easy is it to get a teaching job in (ideally) East TN as a science teacher? When do I need to start applying? I won't find out about acceptance to medical school until possibly May 15.

Thank you so much for reading through this long post and sharing your knowledge.

-Molly

[tsimmu]

I wouldn't think it'd be a problem especially with NCLB requiring new secondary teachers to have a degree in the subject in which they teach. Also, once you have an endorsement in Biology it is no problem getting add-on endorsements in Chemistry and related sciences. There is a need and I know UT has the Lyndhurst program for folks looking to teach who already have a B.S. I'd go to the state.tn.us website and click on "education", then "dept of education" where the office of teacher licensure lists all alternative routes to licensure.

[mosaaik]

Thanks for the information!