Miguel Said:

Primary school teaching as a career?

We Answered:

You will have to have GCSEs in maths and English at grade C or above. It's also very useful to have a decent science grade. IT is also a good one to take and a lot of primary schools will love you if you can play a musical instrument well!

Nowadays you'll be expected to have three a-levels - different unis will ask for different grades, so check who will ask for what - you can look for these online, on uni websites.

You can either do a three-year uni degree in your chosen subject, followed by a PGCE (one year) or you can take a 4-year degree, which will include qualified teacher status at the end of the course. Someone in my family did the first option and found it a good way, but I know others who chose the second route. It depends on your personal choice. Try to go to an open day at your chosen uni, as they'll be able to answer all your questions. Also, get a prospectus and read all about it.

It's a good career - challenging but can be rewarding.

Good luck for the future.

Frank Said:

Teachers..would you recommend teaching as a career to a family member?

We Answered:

had i known what i do now, i would have never went into teaching. underpaid, tons of work and no appreciation. when students are low, it's the teachers fault. waitresses get paid more than i do. if they still want to do it, they will need that second income.

Edna Said:

What are the best three factors that define teaching as a professional career?

We Answered:

1. The ability to make decisions swiftly and effectively. Teachers make more decisions daily than any other profession. Decisions that teachers make affect not only themselves, but also the students.

2. Content knowledge. Teachers must know what they're teaching in order to pass the information on to students.

3. Assessment-Teachers must know if the students "get" what has been taught. Teachers can teach a concept all day long, but if a student hasn't mastered the concept, then the teacher hasn't "taught" the material effectively. That's why teachers have to assess their students often in order to determine whether they understand the concepts or not. If students are not demonstrating understanding, then the teachers may need to employ an alternative teaching strategy.

Glenn Said:

What are the benefits of teaching as a career.?

We Answered:

I have been an educator for 30+ years. I have taught pre-school and grades 7 through 12 as well as at the college level. I admire your goal. I am curious as to whether you plan to finish your education goals before getting into the classroom or at the same time as teaching.
In either case, let me try to answer some of your questions.

My insurance benefits are not the best but they are adequate. I do pay extra for dental coverage. The drug benefits are a lifesaver.

After 30+ years I have finally made it over the $50,000 mark. Other occupations pay more, but this is what I was called to do.

Vacation time is good. Thanksgiving, Christmas, Spring break, Summer. they all coincide with my own kids.

Sick leave is good. State and local days can accumulate. Our district has a sick leave bank that we can join. I have enough days stored up that I could call in sick for a whole year.

Continuing Ed is required but if it is at a university, tuition is at my own expense. Some things are offered by the district

Teaching young people keeps me young.

Seth Said:

I am looking into teaching as a career. I was told to get my b.a. in human services then masters in teaching.?

We Answered:

That is what I'm doing. I am about to receive my Bachelors in human services. I am then going to get my MAT.

I wanted to go into some sort of counciling and human services (preferably with kids), but not psychology or social work. I would rather access, guide and help as a first line; I don't want to be the one to treat problems and provide long term help.

My fiancee is a change of career teacher, and he pointed me to school guidence councelor. I didn't want to be a school psychologist or school social worker, and I didn't want to teach, but this sounded good to me. It would let me do exactly what I want to, and let me help kids.

In Michigan, there are two ways to be a school councelor. You can get a guidence councelor license through a masters in guidence counceling: this way you are a councilor but not a certified teacher. You can also get a guidence counceling endorsement on a teaching certificate: this allows you to ba a councilor and a certified teacher.

I am going for a MAT and teaching certification (and I never wanted to be a teacher) with teaching endorsements in psychology and guidence counciling.

This gives me teaching certification, even though I wouldn't actually be teaching any classes, and allows me to be a guidence councelor.

If this scenerio is similar to yours, then it is a very good option. However, if you actually want to teach classes and not guidence counciling, then it will probably NOT be the best option for you, unless you already have the B. A. in human services or the time to get your backup done first.

The MAT does not provide any subject area courses. Any education about the subject you want to teach, you have to have done before the MAT program (i.e. with the human services degree). The human service degree gives you the subject area requirements for psychology, but not much else (at least as far as teaching subjects). If you wanted to teach anything other than psychology (which I hope so: you wouldn't get hired anywhere with just psychology), you would have to take extra classes beyond those for your human service degree. You would be taking an extra year of classes before your MAT inorder to meet the subject area requirements for any other subject you wanted to teach.

If you already have (or are almost done with) a human service degree, you would probably be best to take the extra classes and then get your MAT.

Also if you wanted to go into school guidence counciling and not actually teaching a regular class, it is a good option as well.

I would say that if you do not already have a bachelors degree, then getting a non-teaching bachelors degree followed by the MAT for teaching certification is the best option you can do to keep other doors open if you don't want to teach. That way, you still have a bachelors degree in a field to fall back on (with a masters that can't hurt you). Just make sure that the non-teaching bachelors degree will meet the subject requirements for what you want to teach or you will be taking extra classes. Saying that, a MAT program is a lot of work, time, and money. It is probably not something you would want to do if you were not fairly certain teaching is what you want to do.

If you have an interest in human services and want to do that type of work without actually being a classroom teacher, being a guidence councelor might be an option to consider if you haven't.

Also be aware that (in most states) you will have to do a semester of full time student teaching every weekday during the school day. This may limit your ability to work.

All of the specific requirements vary greatly by the state you are in at the university you get your MAT at. Check the departmant of education for the state you are in and the university you want to get your MAT at for specifics that apply to you.

Also be aware of the time to do this, depending where you are in the process:

Bachelors: 4 years
Making up subject area classes: 1 year?
MAT: 2 years: this includes 1/2 to 1 year of student teaching.