Empire state college grads become teachers

[Giznot]

Has anyone had difficulty in finding a job?

[bmm238]

I haven't heard of anyone who got a teaching job on Long Island after graduating from an online school but I'm sure it varies from district to district. I know in my district the board doesn't always even approve professional development courses online but I'm sure that also varies in different districts.

[Giznot]

It is very difficult to study online with SUNY Empire state.

[budsvtec]

I have been going to Suny Empire State for 2 years now and I will be finished in 2 semesters with my BS in Business and Marketing. I have to agree it is harder online but it is also a lot better than driving to class, trying to find a spot, and sitting in a class room for 1.5 hours. I would prefer online to sitting in a classroom anyday

[Giznot]

ANYONE? Can you add to this thread?

[Giznot]

What about teachers? Any teachers out there?

[7 Wishes]

While I can't vouch for Long Island per se, I can probably help answer you somewhat. I live in Westchester. My wife has a NYS Teaching Assistant (not teaching) certificate. I recently graduated from an "alternate route" program in CT that leads upon employment to a license in middle school math there.

Unfortunately, despite reports about teaching being "recession proof", this is one of the hardest years in history to get a teaching job. It's not necessarily demand, it's that budgets are severly strained and districts are either not hiring or even outright laying off teachers. In some cases even with increased enrollment and just having larger class sizes to make up for it.

Historically, most districts in Long Island, Westchester County and Fairfield County are quite "sought after" and usually when they have openings, they are filled by teachers in NY City or other "urban" districts (like Yonkers or Mt. Vernon up by me) with experience looking to "move up" to a suburban district, so to my limited knowledge, LI is usually a hard place to begin a teaching career. Usually, in this area it was relatively easy to get a beginning teaching job in New York City, especially in "tougher" districts, but this year even that is a problem because of the "Teacher Reserve". In NYC there is a glut of experienced teachers with tenure whose schools were closed for various reasons and they were on a "reserve" where they still got paid while waiting for an opening. Well, it has grown so much that for the most part NYC can now only hire from that group until it is whittled down more and not hire teachers from outside the system.

My wife has had this certificate for 2 years now, and there are very few asst. openings in NY. At best she has been able to be an on-call sub in a couple of places.

The reason I went to CT is that NYC Teaching Fellows (interviewed by didn't get in) had to basically cut the amount of people they took in this year drastically. They used to have both a summer and a mid-year group; the mid-year group is no more and they only took in 1/3 of the people they normally take in for the summer group. They did this hoping that most of the people they took in would still get jobs within 6 months of "graduating". Some believe there may not be a program at all next year.

With my own job search, I am quite open to relocation (with my license being for CT, I could commute to most of Fairfield County, not as easily beyond that), but this year is tough. Math and science are normally "shortage" areas, especially in urban districts, yet only about 1/4 of my fellow students in my group have jobs (in "normal" years I think it's like 75-85% by Sept.). I have actually had an interview or two, and was told that in "normal" years I'd probably easily have a position now, but there is a lot more competitition with veteran teachers for jobs this year (and a lot less open positions as teachers put off retirement, or others who feel "burned out" or opt for higher salaries in the private sector are not quitting as fast as they usually do).

My advice to you if you have nothing lined up is to try to sub all you can (builds experience too) while doing a little networking (i.e. stay in touch with school districts you apply to from time to time, just don't be a pest, most will be nice if you are not one). You might want to focus on NYC and urban districts (my guess in your area would be Hempstead, Roosevelt, Wyandanch at the least) as you are more likely to get your start in teaching there than in the "elite" districts. If you are close enough to Queens to commute over a bridge, you want to consider Yonkers as well. Lots of luck to you!

Your teaching certificate is more important than your degree in the sense of being employable.

Seek out if the school you go to has a school certification office and if they are the ones pushing through your paperwork to Albany.

If so the requirements you need are more limited- if not when you have to apply for an Initial Cert. on your own- you may need to provide more things or take classes (such as ones in Drug & Alcohol awareness or project SAVE) that could possibly overlap what you are doing in school.

As far as getting a job in Suffolk goes- it all depends on your field of teaching.
Generally speaking though, there are probably 50 applicants to even the more difficult posts to fill like Science and Foreign Language ... and 100-150 for things like English, Social Studies, Business Art, Elementary.

Once you put that into play- then you have to imagine, out of these 49 other applicants for a job, did any of them go to Ivy League Schools or somewhere that the Superintendent or Director did?

... plug away at it; but it's no easy task.