Excellent post in an excellent blog.

The good news for those who want to become teachers but are slightly worred about the apparently low pay: There are lots of ways to cover expenses beyond what you get paid for being in the classroom. There are a few examples listed above, and I personally know a fellow who lives and teaches in a very small town in Michigan who makes most of his money trading real estate. Another teacher I know spends summers overseas teaching and tutoring, which means basically traveling for free.

I encourage anyone who is interested in teaching to overcome their fear of math and science. Look into your past and find out why you think you aren’t good at either. Perhaps it was because you had a jock coach for trig and he gave all his athletes B’s just for showing up? Or you had an algebra teacher who was an English major and was angry at the class because she couldn’t teach you about the inner turmoil of Lord Byron?

Many studies show that the quality of the math and science teaching young kids (especailly young girls) get is an influencing factor in whether or not they go on to study math and science in HS and college.

If you want to “man-up,” learn to overcome your own math/science shortcomings and become comfortable with the wonderful ways of looking at the world through math and science. Don’t you agree that a person who did so would make an effective teacher to those students who are struggling with math and science?

QUESTIONS:
My strongest subjects are psychology and economics what subjects would i be able to teach?
As a teacher, are you your own boss, do you have lots of freedom?
I’m still in Undergrad mode, what activities/jobs do you think would be helpful for a teaching career? ( i was thinking of tutoring subjects that i am very fond of at the university)

Separate unions. Primary teachers represented by NZEI, secondary teachers by the PPTA. Pay parity between primary and secondary wasn’t reached until 1998. This gives primary teachers and principals with the same experience and qualifications the same pay as secondary teachers and principals.

But there’s still misgivings and frustration between the groups. Secondary traditionally view primary teachers as generalists, while they are experts. Primary think that secondary teach only subjects – but not the whole student/child.

Personally I think it’s a failure – we’re all meant to be teachers and need to get on with that – not protecting our egos. If there’s a bad/slack teacher we need to call them out – help them get better. We shouldn’t protect those who aren’t doing the best job for our students.

@Ammon

In NZ, we have a teaching graduate diploma – a one year, post-grad course that allows you to get training as a teacher. It’s designed to get more people into teaching. It has some flaws – mainly as it never really prepares you for the amount of paperwork you’ll have to juggle! I went back at 31 to retrain as a teacher – it was a challenge, but it’s been worthwhile. I really enjoy my work, despite it being frustrating at times. Good luck if you do decide to become a teacher.

Mr Kurtz, thanks for your candid responses, it’s very helpful to me, at least.

I hope you can come to Alumni Weekend this week!
http://alumniweekend.uchicago.edu/

Entirely realistic. And you wouldn’t be the first.

Just be prepared to engage in a fairly rigorous alternative certification program through your state that’ll have you engaging in some combination of college coursework and testing. Some states, such as Florida (and specifically, Miami-Dade County Public Schools), even offer alternative certification programs that allow you to completely circumvent any need to acquire college credits via “in-house” classes taught by seasoned educators. Check with your state’s department of education. Almost every website has a section that explains alternative certification procedures.

Also, in most states you can substitute without needing regular teacher certification while you earn your certificate, though some may states require you to acquire a relatively easy-to-get substitute certificate (Illinois does, for example). This is a good way to get a general introduction to the classroom.

And if you’re lucky enough to work consistently at a particular school, you’ll increases your chances of getting hired there once you do have your actual certificate. But this all depends on how your school district distributes their substitutes. Chicago, for example, uses a general pool of substitutes that are available to work system-wide. Many schools in the district, though, don’t use this general sub pool and prefer to keep their own army of day-to-day subs to themselves (my current school does this).

Good luck!

@Tim

No harm, no foul. And did you mean separate unions, or separate bargaining groups? Either way, that’s a little silly and doesn’t unreasonably account for a lot of your frustrations.

My apologies if my comment came across as defensive. I only meant the remark about (baby-sitting). I should have made it clearer – I really did enjoy the rest of the article, and as stated, your triple statement of “Compassion” was excellent.

Here in NZ the secondary and primary sectors are quite separate. To the extent that we’re represented by separate teacher unions. It’s unfortunate IMO – and we need to talk to each other more.

One of the coolest things for me is learning from teachers from around the globe – there’s some excellent teaching and learning being done, and being able to tap into it via blogs, iTunes U and various wikis is great. Our government is in the process of bringing in a system of “National Standards” – ala NCLB. It seems we’ve not learned from the failings of that project.

Thank you for taking the time to write the post Aaron – I apologize for jumping on the one minor negative I saw. I hope you – and other teachers in the Northern Hemisphere have an excellent summer break. I know you’ll all be deserving of it.

You’re right, and so is Tim (albeit dramatically). I take back my implication that primary education is akin to babysitting. I was just being tongue-and-cheek about my personal preferences.

I find your post overly defensive at what was simply a tongue-and-cheek explanation of my personal preferences.

The fact remains is that there are good and bad teachers at all levels of the game. But I don’t sit here and blame primary teachers because Harold, a 10th-grader from a low-incoming area of the district, reads at a 2nd-grade reading level with no perceptible learning disabilities. I think there are more fundamental processes at work than the quality of communication between primary and secondary levels (my Miami high school’s English department did a stellar job of coordinating curriculum with our feeder middle schools, by the way). You’ve simply pointed out one issue that is endemic of larger policy and structure problems.

At least here in the States. I can’t comment on the bureaucratic structure of NZ’s public schools.