Becoming a teacher is one of the most rewarding careers you can find. Here are some ideas about various teaching careers.
But teaching careers are far more varied than these traditional perspectives suggest. If you enjoy sharing knowledge and like to help others meet goals, teaching may be the career for you. Here are some possible job options in the teaching field:
1. Preschool teacher. More than ever before, young children between the ages of three and five are being enrolled in day care and preschool centers around the world. Some parents place kids in preschool for child care reasons; their daytime jobs require that someone look after the kids. Other parents want to provide their children with an early start to education. Preschool teachers generally are certified for the state in which they reside. They teach children basic learning skills, such as how to identify sounds and words, along with elementary social skills, like not interrupting and saying "Excuse me."
2. Elementary schoolteacher. Commonly called K-6 (for kindergarten through sixth grade), this level of teaching requires an instructor to have a teaching degree, usually from a college or university, and be certified by the state. Instructors at this level teach basic academic skills like reading, writing sentences and paragraphs, and math facts along with fractions and rudimentary geometry or other arithmetic formulas. Children's social skills include getting along with others and basic courtesy.
3. Middle school and high school teacher. This level includes grades seven through twelve leading to high school graduation and a diploma. Students will learn advanced English grammar and composition with some literature, algebra and regular geometry with possible advancement to other levels of math skills, and natural as well as social science courses. At this level most teachers will specialize to teach in one or two fields exclusively, such as English or math or English and Spanish.
4. College or university teacher. If hired in a tenure-track position, the instructor will hold the rank of assistant professor. Through advancement and promotion, he or she will earn the rank of associate professor, and finally, after ten years or more, perhaps the rank of professor. The instructor specializes in graduate study within a specific discipline like chemistry, math, or English. In addition to teaching, the instructor is expected to conduct research and participate in professional development activities.
5. Technical school instructor. Some postsecondary institutions are technical schools or business schools, where students study a specialized curriculum to prepare them for a particular occupation, like blueprint reading, machine shop work, or computer science. Instructors trained in these fields teach much as they do in colleges, but with a more technical or focused approach.
Whatever your preferred teaching field, you should learn all you can about the discipline through formal and personal study. Become certified or obtain an advanced degree so that you can apply for professional teaching jobs. When you get hired, you can take pleasure in giving the gift of learning to others.
