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I have a bachelor's degree in secondary education and linguistics & a Master's in ESOL. I have another unfinished bachelor's degree in Economics (3 years out of 4). I am in the process of getting my first teaching license (ESOL) in TN. I understand that the job market is tough. I do not have any official teaching experience except for student teaching for 6 months. I would like to get additional endorsements.
How do you go about getting them? I am interested in Middle Grades Math & maybe SPED. I only have 12 credit hours of Math from my education in economics. I am getting ready to take PRAXIS Middle School Math & PRAXIS Principles of Learning and Teaching 5-9. I have already passed ESOL K-12.
Do you just take PRAXIS exams for those areas or do you have to go get additional degrees? How does it work in your state?
I am particularly interested in Tennessee, Virginia & Maryland. I live close to Tennessee but I am in love with Washington D.C.
Thank you so much!!!
Last edited by Caramelka; 01-01-2010 at 10:33 AM..
Reason: added more info
I believe you need X amount of hours in a content area. Some states may require student teaching for each content area as well.
I had to take an general education Early Elementary test to be highly qualified for special education high school resource room (Michigan) but was not certified to teach general education at early elementary level without course work.
Kind of ironic, you could pass the appropriate Praxis test and not be considered "qualified" to teach that subject since the course work is supposed to prepare you to pass the Praxis...
NC allows additions with just passing another praxis. I also took the content and pedegogy classes for each new addition just because I thought it was important.
Middle school mathematics and SPED? Personally, I think that is a great combination even if you go into a regular ed class.
I think it depends. In VA, I added an endorsement by taking the Praxis II in that area. However, I am not sure that is true with adding an LD/ED endorsement. I just don't know. Sorry.
I think the combination of LD/ED and Middle Grades Math is great! I'm sure you will be quite valuable.
NC allows additions with just passing another praxis. I also took the content and pedegogy classes for each new addition just because I thought it was important.
Middle school mathematics and SPED? Personally, I think that is a great combination even if you go into a regular ed class.
Seriously? Does this hold true for SpEd? Like learning disabilities?
This would so save me from having to be in class for 30 credits to get a LD endorsement and take a few classes I really want to like admin...
Seriously? Does this hold true for SpEd? Like learning disabilities?
This would so save me from having to be in class for 30 credits to get a LD endorsement and take a few classes I really want to like admin...
I honestly do not know for LD endorsement. When I called the NCDPI about adding licenses, I was asking only for subjects. With today's job market I want as much flexibility as possible when I start looking for a job in my children's school district.
The woman who answered at NCDPI was very nice and helpful, by the way.
Not that you are looking in MN but here you have to have a degree in a subject area, math for example, and a minor in secondary education to get your license. With a degree in Economics you would not be able to get a job here-you would only be certified to teach Econ and although it is required at many high schools you would be up against teachers with more certification areas (social sciences). To teach SPED you would have to have a degree in SPED.
I'm not sure if I understood your OP correctly, so can you tell me if you're actually licensed to teach in your state? I know sometimes people do the coursework and then for whatever reason, never get licensed. I'm not sure about your state, but here we can't just take a praxis, w/o the appropriate coursework, but you've done that. Have you contacted the Dept of Elem and secondary ed for your state?
Here in MO, once you are licensed to teach, you can pick up additional certification by taking the praxis for that subject. I found out which ones I'm eligible to take by going on our state's DESE website, and there is a list of tests and those with a red star by them were ones I'd be eligible to take, so I'm planning on taking the sped ones next Saturday, though I've never had a course on that in my life. Well I can read a textbook whether I'm paying for a college course or not, and if I have any questions I can just ask any sped teacher I know, and I know a lot of them.
I also have my degree in economics and decided much later in life that I wanted to teach, so I went thru the ABCTE program to get my teaching license and got it in English Language Arts 6-12, but wasn't able to get sped thru that program, so I'm getting that by taking the praxis. I'm glad I was able to do this b/c my oldest starts college next fall and I didn't want to use her college money to pay for mine.
I started out in NYC as a dual-certified SPED (gr. 5-9) and Middle School generalist, both granted when I completed my M.Ed. When I moved to another state, they accepted only the SPED credential (reclassified to K-12), so I added Middle School Math by way of the Praxis exam. I can add the other Middle School subjects by Praxis as well, but for now it's not worth the extra $$$.
Unfortunately, it does vary by state, so I'll second the suggestion to contact the DoE for the state where you want to teach.
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