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First, I don't blame you one bit! It takes a special type of person to *want* to teach MS, and kudos to anyone who realizes that before going too far into a career.
As someone who has taught science HS, CC, and University (and supervised teacher interns at MS and HS), here are my 2 cents: I have found that HS students can have better attitudes than MS students, but it really depends on the grade and the level of the course. CC students and university freshmen really aren't that different than HS juniors and seniors.
Like a previous poster said, finding a full time position at the CC level is extremely difficult, especially for someone with an MA or MS (rather than a PhD). If you are sure you want to go with higher education, than you really should consider going for a PhD in science education or something similar. BUT, if you want to teach science (and not just teacher ed classes), then make SURE the program requires at least 18 hours of your chosen field of science. That's just a minimum requirement at most places. If you check the Chronicles of Higher Ed and/or Higher Ed Jobs sites, you will see that there are still a number of postings for science education faculty at the university level. This is partly because it's becoming more of a trend for individual science departments to hire a couple of science educators (in addition to their regular science faculty) to teach their non-majors and/or science courses for teacher ed majors (and sometimes for their regular majors as well). Of course it's still competitive like any other field, but the outlook isn't *quite* as dire, especially if one can get a publication or two before completing the program and has made attempts to get external grant funding (even for a CC job, it will rank you higher among most search committees). Anyway, feel free to PM me if you have any additional questions.
I'd look very, very carefully into that option before making any big decisions; finding a community college job these days isn't so easy (especially if you want to be on staff, and not just teaching classes as an adjunct) and you'll be competing against people with PhDs. There are jobs out there, and some of them are regular, full-time faculty positions, but it won't be easy. The academic job market is extremely tight. I know one person who has a good gig as a full faculty member at a community college, but everyone else I know who works in that environment teaches classes as several different places, as well as does freelance work or other jobs to supplement the income. If you're willing to move anywhere I assume it's a little easier to find a FT job.
I would note the adjunct model is increasingly taking over the CC world and there probably will only be a handful of full time jobs available at that level at each school. I'm not sure teaching at the CC level is a viable career path for a new graduate.
The faculty at CCs and JCs has gradually been changing over the last 10-15 years. There is a significant percentage of adjunct faculty, sometimes a higher percentage than full time faculty. Many schools are also moving toward hiring PhD's, and in some cases, MDs and chiropractors, over MS or MA holders.
Since you said that you want to teach science, keep in mind, not all science classes are created equal. The type of student you get in General Bio is very different from one in Anatomy/Physiology. Essentially, General Bio is like teaching seniors in high school. Since the number of students going into nursing has been skyrocketing, many schools are looking for adjuncts to teach A&P. It would be to your benefit to take a graduate level A&P course (or something similar), and if possible, be a TA for it. However, the way things are going, an MS may not be enough in 5 years.
You need 18 hours minimum of grad level credits to be able to teach. Being able to find a job is easy. Go online to a school you want to teach for and apply. Whether you'll get it or not is another story. Getting a full time position, well, that's a whole other can of worms.
Thanks for all of the great advice and feedback. I'll definitely be looking more into this career path before I commit myself one way or another, and am more than happy to hear any thoughts or suggestions. I'm meeting with my adviser on Thursday to see what her take on this idea is, so I should have a better idea after that.
Either way, I'll eventually end up getting my masters. Many districts now seem to require new teachers to get a master's within 5 years of getting a job anyways, so I might just be saving myself some effort later. Also, being young and single I'm not tied to one location, so finding a job may be a bit easier Many of the substitute teachers around the building are saying they've been looking for a teaching job for the past couple of years- that along with other evidence makes me think that the public ed teaching job market is also very tight.
As far as teaching at a high school level goes, I think it really depends on the high school. I did 80 hours of observation (not a whole lot but enough to get an idea...) at a local high school, and many of the kids there acted as bad as, if not worse than, some of my students. Basically the kids that aren't growing up in middle school don't seem to grow up in high school. Maybe the key is to find a good school to teach at, but that's not really feasible at the moment
Finally, it's not the teaching lifestyle I have a problem with. I'm absolutely fine spending some of my free time grading and planning, which I have been doing for the past few months. My problem is the fact that (a) I'm not very good at inspiring kids to take their work seriously and not goof off in class, and (b) Even when I am successful at it, I'm not feeling the satisfaction that many of the other teachers seem to thrive on. I feel more successful when I help a "slower" student get a difficult concept or have a class express a deep level of interest in what I am teaching, and that just doesn't seem to be happening much at this level.
Anyways, thanks again for the helpful replies. I'll be interested to see what my adviser says on Thursday and will probably make some updates then
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Many of the substitute teachers around the building are saying they've been looking for a teaching job for the past couple of years- that along with other evidence makes me think that the public ed teaching job market is also very tight.
