Hi, I just found this forum and there is some good information here. I though I'd introduce myself and ask about my plan. I have a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering and a masters in computer science, and have worked at several tech companies. I've just returned from two years of international travel after leaving my last job, and am starting my job search. I could probably find something in my field here in the US, but I'd love to be able to live and work overseas. I can't do that in my field.
I'm already 42, so I sort of want to start setting myself up for a career oversees. If I took another tech job, I'd just get stuck in that again for years. So I've been considering going the international teacher route. As an engineer, I'd prefer to teach math or physics over English.
My understanding is that I need two things to do this: teaching certification and experience. My state of Indiana has something called Transition to Teaching, a one year program for people like me with STEM degrees. It includes ten weeks of teaching experience, and at the end I would get an Indiana teaching license, but no degree. The cost would be about $12,000, but I could commute to Purdue University from home, so would have no housing costs.
I'm curious if that is a viable option for me. While not cheap, it's not that expensive. Especially considering free housing. And one year isn't all that much time, considering I'm already 42.
But what worries me is getting real experience. I'd have to find a teaching job in Indiana, and I'd be competing with folks that have experience and education degrees. I'm not sure how hard it would be to get my first job here. Supposedly there is a math teacher shortage, but I don't know how much that would help me. After two years of teaching here I'd be 46, so I worry that my age will start working against me when I start looking for international jobs.
My other plan would be to teach English. I actually did a CELTA ten years ago, and got a pass A. With this I was able to get a job in a third tier school in Bangkok that rich locals sent their kids to. I enjoyed teaching grades five to seven, but couldn't handle kindergartners, so had to quit. From there I landed a job lecturing at a low tier private international university, but as somebody else said here, lecturing isn't teaching. Man, that was an easy job!
I wouldn't want to teach in a language school, but teaching in a middle or high school would be OK. But like I said, I'd prefer to teach math or physics. If I went this route I'd want to get another certification, since my CELTA was so long ago. The advantage of this route is that TESOL certifications are under $2,000, and only take a month, so I could get going right away.
Anyways, I wanted to hear what the smart folks here though about me doing the Transition to Teaching program. I have four months before I have to apply, so I still have a lot of time to think this through. That's good, since this is a pretty important decision!
Terry
Transition to Teaching?
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wrldtrvlr123
- Posts: 1173
- Joined: Sat Feb 06, 2010 10:59 am
- Location: Japan
Re: Transition to Teaching?
You should definitely do what you need to do to be able to teach Math and/or Science in a K-12 int'l school as opposed to teaching English. Math and Science are usually high needs fields in most parts of the world (and definitely among int'l schools). You age should not be a problem as many schools like a balance among their faculty and you will not run into problems with obtaining visas in some countries until you are closer to 60.
Two years is generally the minimum experience that int'l schools are looking for but as a Math teacher with other relevant experience and training you should still find a nice range of decent to very good schools that would give you an interview.
I'm not expert on alternative certification but if you search Teach Now Teacher Ready you should find a ton of threads about the intricacies and pros/cons of the different options. I can't speak to the job situation in Indiana but in general Math/Physics teachers have a fairly easy time finding jobs.
Two years is generally the minimum experience that int'l schools are looking for but as a Math teacher with other relevant experience and training you should still find a nice range of decent to very good schools that would give you an interview.
I'm not expert on alternative certification but if you search Teach Now Teacher Ready you should find a ton of threads about the intricacies and pros/cons of the different options. I can't speak to the job situation in Indiana but in general Math/Physics teachers have a fairly easy time finding jobs.
Re: Transition to Teaching?
Don't be an idiot, man.
If you are actually any good at engineering, you should be making 6 figures and then some at 42.
Do you just blow all of your money? I can't think of any reason why you can't have enough saved at your age to just live overseas right now and not work. THAT is the REAL overseas experience.
Or get serious NOW and save so that in 7-8 years, you'll only be 50, you can live any place you want.
A LOT of engineers, businessmen/women/computer software people, etc. don't realize that teaching is HARD WORK - to do it well. And a helluva lot never make it for more than a few years in the switch, for whatever reason.
Unless you REALLY hate your job, save $$$ then decide. The travel, the new places, the exotic locations, all begin to pale after some time and you end up doing what you did back home. Almost all of my friends who worked/are working overseas for 10 or more years are traveled out and spend their time off at the beach, shopping, hanging out with friends at restaurants/cafes/the condo pool - like they might do at home.
And you'll need to get certified, etc. and, contrary to what you may think, school admin are not really impressed by your engineering/computer background until you have certification and a proven teaching record to back it up
Once the novelty wears off, you may find yourself in another job you hate making a lot less.
Then again, you may be one of the few who falls in love with teaching and everything I just wrote can be disregarded.
See Mr. Money Mustache site for a great look at early retirement. Good luck, man.
If you are actually any good at engineering, you should be making 6 figures and then some at 42.
Do you just blow all of your money? I can't think of any reason why you can't have enough saved at your age to just live overseas right now and not work. THAT is the REAL overseas experience.
Or get serious NOW and save so that in 7-8 years, you'll only be 50, you can live any place you want.
A LOT of engineers, businessmen/women/computer software people, etc. don't realize that teaching is HARD WORK - to do it well. And a helluva lot never make it for more than a few years in the switch, for whatever reason.
Unless you REALLY hate your job, save $$$ then decide. The travel, the new places, the exotic locations, all begin to pale after some time and you end up doing what you did back home. Almost all of my friends who worked/are working overseas for 10 or more years are traveled out and spend their time off at the beach, shopping, hanging out with friends at restaurants/cafes/the condo pool - like they might do at home.
And you'll need to get certified, etc. and, contrary to what you may think, school admin are not really impressed by your engineering/computer background until you have certification and a proven teaching record to back it up
Once the novelty wears off, you may find yourself in another job you hate making a lot less.
Then again, you may be one of the few who falls in love with teaching and everything I just wrote can be disregarded.
See Mr. Money Mustache site for a great look at early retirement. Good luck, man.
Reponse
First, where is it you want to go?
The reason IE exists for at least one factor is to educate the children of those who are overseas working with a multinational. A lot of those expats are various forms of engineers. Assuming however that your conclusion is accurate, moving on...
First in the interest of full disclosure...
**DISCLAIMER - I know very little about Indiana, my experience with Indiana is that if you give me a few minutes I can find it on a map. I dont know the capital, I dont know what its chief exports are, Im pretty sure its a state, and that its not on the coast...**
There is a lot of grey area in your scenario based on the differences between EE and IE. There are elite tier ISs that pay very good comp and OSH packages, but you will earn every coin of it. On the other side you can work in EE make good coin, and not really have to do anything.
Maths and secondly Physics are in very high demand in IE, especially those ITs who have an academic background in it.
In general the bar to entry in IE is 2 years post certification experience. Most ISs are not resourced or organized for a noob to make their bones and provide the mentoring an IT needs. Its likely however that given your teaching fields you will find lower tier ISs that dont have a lot of options that would appoint you even as an intern class IT. Those ISs are very likely to be negative experiences to some degree or another.
I do not know what the market is in Indiana for DTs in Maths or Science, its probably better than a lot of other fields (aside from SPED), but you could still end up waiting. This is the real issue in entering IE, to get those 2 years of post certification experience you need to start working quickly to build your resume. For some fields that could be a decade or more, for other fields you may be able to start right away.
Degrees in Education from the US are uncommon. Its very difficult to get a B.Ed anymore in anything except primary level education, and most states have moved to B.A.s in teaching, etc.. At the secondary level the typical sequence is a degree in the content subject and a minor in education. Career DTs/ITs typically pursue a Masters in Education once they have been in education long enough to make it a career.
The transition to teaching program you described wouldnt be the cheapest or the best program. Typically a DT candidate spends a semester doing field work about 16 weeks. Your program is a little lite on that at 10 weeks, but there are programs that are as brief as a week as well.
What level is the program being delivered to you? Is it graduate or undergraduate? Are these credit granting courses that will be on a transcript, or is this some other type of ACP program thats just offered through the Uni and you dont get any credits?
The cost is about twice what you can find other ACP programs for at between $5K and $6K, but these programs generally get you certified and maybe a handful of credits. Teach Now and Teach Ready are two providers that are popular in IE.
Most ACP certification programs are about a year (9-10 months), there are some that can reduce that time by half.
There are a couple of issues with the Indiana program (please see disclaimer above):
1) You will have to transition the initial license to a professional license. The initial license is only valid for 2 years, and to transition it to the professional (5 year license) you will have to teach in Indiana for two years to meet both the experience requirement and complete the PD/mentor-ship requirement.
2) After 6 years if you havent transitioned the license, you will need to add another teaching area, which you can do by examination, but Indiana has its own test which youd have to likely take in Indiana.
3) Its highly unlikely the initial license is transferable, and if it is only equivalent to an initial license in another jurisdiction. Its unlikely youd get QTS with it (but you might).
This scheme really sucks. Based on the first problem, youd be better off doing a certification program in another state that gives you a standard/professional license. There are three types of licenses (entry, professional, advance) and 2 criteria that determines the type of license: 1) Does the license have deficiencies (something you have to do to transition it), and 2) Is it renewable or lifetime. A professional license meets both criteria, an entry level license doesnt meet both criteria, and an advance license meets both criteria but requires some additional work or achievement (typically a masters degree).
Your situation is better than CA, where a preliminary certificate expires after 5 years and isnt renewable, you can renew the Indiana initial license by completing a content exam, but thats a lot of renewals and PD for those renewals.
OPTIONS:
1) You could cut some time and expense by taking the advance degree route. Since you have a masters in CSCI Indiana may accept your previous ESOL experience, or you might be able to find a DS/IS somewhere that would hire you to teach ICT (or possibly something else such as Maths). You wouldnt have the program cost, and that year of teaching would count as experience on your resume. Of course you have to get a job based solely on your degree.
2) Apply for an Indiana charter school license, or a career specialist permit and then apply for QTS, since your academic background is closely aligned to your teaching field (QTS is the professional educator license in the UK). You could then let the Indiana licenses expire, assuming the TCL issued you QTS. Its a short and inexpensive pathway. Some transcripts, and an application, and maybe a content exam. You could apply for both and hope the TCL issues you QTS.
3) If your going to spend a year and do an EPP, using a global ACP program like Teach Now or Teach Ready can be done anywhere. Teach Ready would be especially attractive to you, as the field work requirement is only 5 days, and youd have a much easier time convincing a DS/IS in Indiana to do that over giving you a classroom for 3 months without a license. You could talk to local DSs and hopefully find one where a DT needs to be absent for a week for some reason and you fill in for the week. If speed was essential Texas Teachers in Texas has an online clinical teaching program that can certify you in 4 months, you would have to relocate to Texas for 3 of those months.
4) Maths and science are in very high demand in the UK, there are programs for school direct where you would work in a UK DS for a year and then receive QTS. The other option is there are Unis in the UK that will provide you a bursary (scholarship) to do a PGCE.
5) Complete an EPP/ITT program in another state such as TX, FL, D.C., etc.. that would issue you a professional certificate upon completion of the program. You would have to relocate to those states for a year of course.
If you were to stay in Indiana and complete an EPP/ITT program Id recommend doing Elementary Education, since you cant add it by examination, and there is a market for maths and science specialists in primary. You can then add ICT, Maths, Pysics and other Science by examination. This way you can market yourself as an all grade/all level maths/science/ICT IT.
The reason IE exists for at least one factor is to educate the children of those who are overseas working with a multinational. A lot of those expats are various forms of engineers. Assuming however that your conclusion is accurate, moving on...
First in the interest of full disclosure...
**DISCLAIMER - I know very little about Indiana, my experience with Indiana is that if you give me a few minutes I can find it on a map. I dont know the capital, I dont know what its chief exports are, Im pretty sure its a state, and that its not on the coast...**
There is a lot of grey area in your scenario based on the differences between EE and IE. There are elite tier ISs that pay very good comp and OSH packages, but you will earn every coin of it. On the other side you can work in EE make good coin, and not really have to do anything.
Maths and secondly Physics are in very high demand in IE, especially those ITs who have an academic background in it.
In general the bar to entry in IE is 2 years post certification experience. Most ISs are not resourced or organized for a noob to make their bones and provide the mentoring an IT needs. Its likely however that given your teaching fields you will find lower tier ISs that dont have a lot of options that would appoint you even as an intern class IT. Those ISs are very likely to be negative experiences to some degree or another.
I do not know what the market is in Indiana for DTs in Maths or Science, its probably better than a lot of other fields (aside from SPED), but you could still end up waiting. This is the real issue in entering IE, to get those 2 years of post certification experience you need to start working quickly to build your resume. For some fields that could be a decade or more, for other fields you may be able to start right away.
Degrees in Education from the US are uncommon. Its very difficult to get a B.Ed anymore in anything except primary level education, and most states have moved to B.A.s in teaching, etc.. At the secondary level the typical sequence is a degree in the content subject and a minor in education. Career DTs/ITs typically pursue a Masters in Education once they have been in education long enough to make it a career.
The transition to teaching program you described wouldnt be the cheapest or the best program. Typically a DT candidate spends a semester doing field work about 16 weeks. Your program is a little lite on that at 10 weeks, but there are programs that are as brief as a week as well.
What level is the program being delivered to you? Is it graduate or undergraduate? Are these credit granting courses that will be on a transcript, or is this some other type of ACP program thats just offered through the Uni and you dont get any credits?
The cost is about twice what you can find other ACP programs for at between $5K and $6K, but these programs generally get you certified and maybe a handful of credits. Teach Now and Teach Ready are two providers that are popular in IE.
Most ACP certification programs are about a year (9-10 months), there are some that can reduce that time by half.
There are a couple of issues with the Indiana program (please see disclaimer above):
1) You will have to transition the initial license to a professional license. The initial license is only valid for 2 years, and to transition it to the professional (5 year license) you will have to teach in Indiana for two years to meet both the experience requirement and complete the PD/mentor-ship requirement.
2) After 6 years if you havent transitioned the license, you will need to add another teaching area, which you can do by examination, but Indiana has its own test which youd have to likely take in Indiana.
3) Its highly unlikely the initial license is transferable, and if it is only equivalent to an initial license in another jurisdiction. Its unlikely youd get QTS with it (but you might).
This scheme really sucks. Based on the first problem, youd be better off doing a certification program in another state that gives you a standard/professional license. There are three types of licenses (entry, professional, advance) and 2 criteria that determines the type of license: 1) Does the license have deficiencies (something you have to do to transition it), and 2) Is it renewable or lifetime. A professional license meets both criteria, an entry level license doesnt meet both criteria, and an advance license meets both criteria but requires some additional work or achievement (typically a masters degree).
Your situation is better than CA, where a preliminary certificate expires after 5 years and isnt renewable, you can renew the Indiana initial license by completing a content exam, but thats a lot of renewals and PD for those renewals.
OPTIONS:
1) You could cut some time and expense by taking the advance degree route. Since you have a masters in CSCI Indiana may accept your previous ESOL experience, or you might be able to find a DS/IS somewhere that would hire you to teach ICT (or possibly something else such as Maths). You wouldnt have the program cost, and that year of teaching would count as experience on your resume. Of course you have to get a job based solely on your degree.
2) Apply for an Indiana charter school license, or a career specialist permit and then apply for QTS, since your academic background is closely aligned to your teaching field (QTS is the professional educator license in the UK). You could then let the Indiana licenses expire, assuming the TCL issued you QTS. Its a short and inexpensive pathway. Some transcripts, and an application, and maybe a content exam. You could apply for both and hope the TCL issues you QTS.
3) If your going to spend a year and do an EPP, using a global ACP program like Teach Now or Teach Ready can be done anywhere. Teach Ready would be especially attractive to you, as the field work requirement is only 5 days, and youd have a much easier time convincing a DS/IS in Indiana to do that over giving you a classroom for 3 months without a license. You could talk to local DSs and hopefully find one where a DT needs to be absent for a week for some reason and you fill in for the week. If speed was essential Texas Teachers in Texas has an online clinical teaching program that can certify you in 4 months, you would have to relocate to Texas for 3 of those months.
4) Maths and science are in very high demand in the UK, there are programs for school direct where you would work in a UK DS for a year and then receive QTS. The other option is there are Unis in the UK that will provide you a bursary (scholarship) to do a PGCE.
5) Complete an EPP/ITT program in another state such as TX, FL, D.C., etc.. that would issue you a professional certificate upon completion of the program. You would have to relocate to those states for a year of course.
If you were to stay in Indiana and complete an EPP/ITT program Id recommend doing Elementary Education, since you cant add it by examination, and there is a market for maths and science specialists in primary. You can then add ICT, Maths, Pysics and other Science by examination. This way you can market yourself as an all grade/all level maths/science/ICT IT.
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engineer2teacher
- Posts: 2
- Joined: Sun Aug 21, 2016 12:54 pm
Re: Transition to Teaching?
Wow, PsyGuy, lots of information to digest! Can you help with the acronyms? Thanks for pointing out the problem with the initial Indiana license. I actually wouldn't mind working in Indiana for two years, assuming I could find a job here. As senator pointed out, nobody cares about my professional experience. I'd have to compete for jobs with experienced teachers, and new grads with education degrees. So if I couldn't find a job in Indiana I'd be out of luck, since I wouldn't be able to do anything with that license. I can't imagine getting a license based only on my professional experience. I need some training and practice in front of a real classroom.
That's why the in person Program at Purdue appeals to me. I think the practice teaching is 16 weeks, and I wouldn't have to try to organize it myself like the online programs. But it costs twice as much, and I only get an initial license. But the courses are graduate level and could be applied to a masters. I like the way the courses are in person, and not online. For me the more practice the better. The online programs make it look like it's easy to find a practice classroom. How easy is it to organize this?
Can Americans participate in the UK's Schools Direct Programs? What does your option 2 get me? If it worked I would get a UK QTS, but I would have no experience or training.
As senator pointed out, working and saving is probably the ideal option from a financial standpoint. But I have to take career break every seven years, so I'm currently between jobs and looking for something now. If I get an engineering job the online programs seem like a good way to set me up for a career change in my late 40s. But I kind of don't want to go back to years of 60 hour weeks and two week vacations, which is why I'm considering the career change now. If I do the career change now, I would want to make sure I'm adequately trained and get lots of practice training.
That's why the in person Program at Purdue appeals to me. I think the practice teaching is 16 weeks, and I wouldn't have to try to organize it myself like the online programs. But it costs twice as much, and I only get an initial license. But the courses are graduate level and could be applied to a masters. I like the way the courses are in person, and not online. For me the more practice the better. The online programs make it look like it's easy to find a practice classroom. How easy is it to organize this?
Can Americans participate in the UK's Schools Direct Programs? What does your option 2 get me? If it worked I would get a UK QTS, but I would have no experience or training.
As senator pointed out, working and saving is probably the ideal option from a financial standpoint. But I have to take career break every seven years, so I'm currently between jobs and looking for something now. If I get an engineering job the online programs seem like a good way to set me up for a career change in my late 40s. But I kind of don't want to go back to years of 60 hour weeks and two week vacations, which is why I'm considering the career change now. If I do the career change now, I would want to make sure I'm adequately trained and get lots of practice training.
Reply
@engineer2teacher
IE = International Education
DE= Domestic Education
IS = International School
DS = Domestic School
IT = International Teacher
DT = Domestic Teacher
EE = English Education
ES = English School
ET = English Teacher
SPED = Special Education
B.Ed = Bachelors of Education
ACP = Alternative Certification Program
EPP = Educator Preparation Program
ITT = Initial Teacher Training
QTS = Qualified Teacher Status
PGCE = Post Graduate Certificate in Education
ICT = Information Computers Technology
I hope that helps, Education is really big into acronyms, something really isnt a thing until there is an acronym for it.
You may not mind working in Indiana, the issue is will you be able to. Entry level credentials dont cross states very well.
Nobody really cares about professional experience unless they want you, you may get a couple steps on the salary scale just to bump your salary at some point in your career if an IS really wants you. There are lots of entry and intern classes ITs with resumes similar to yours job hunting every year. Again, a lot of new grads do not have education degrees. The majority of UK ITs have a PGCE not a B.Ed, and the majority of US ITs dont have education degrees unless they have a Masters. You really are in a better boat than many entry level ITs.
I think you believe that field work is something like an apprenticeship, there isnt such a thing as "practice teaching". Youre either in a mentor relationship in a classroom with a DT/IT and your somewhere between an observer and a teaching assistant or your the TOR (Teacher of Record) and youre the DT/IT who is delivering instructional services. You may have a designated mentor to talk with but its otherwise youre show just as much as it is for any DT/IT.
There are basically 4 tasking skills an IT/DT needs: Preparation, Performance, Production and Presence.
Preparation; Is all the thinking and feeling (head and heart) tasks that an IT needs to do to take the resources they have and using the guidelines (curriculum) to organize and develop a lesson. You have a book, assume its aligned to curriculum (maybe a mistake), do you organize the material into vocabulary and chronology. Do you lecture, or is this exploration. This is the tasking skill that allows you to conceptualize a behavior and classroom management plan.
Performance; is the sage on stage and being able to make a delivery of the lesson, its the speech and acting component of teaching. Whats your style of interaction. A major part of it is implementing and applying behavior and classroom management.
Production; is the creation and labor skill tasking of teaching. Its the work and includes marking/grading, documentation, the physical lesson plan, the communication between stakeholders, the gathering and organization of resources.
Presence; is the secret component, its your social and political game. The networking and building of relationships within the IS/DS environment. Do you sit in the back of meetings, rarely contribute, and generally keep a low profile, or do you shake things up with the hopes your ideas earn you recognition. Do you go out with the happy hour group or keep work and home life separate.
There really isnt a lot of training thats revolutionary. If you have those 4 skills and "click" with how children learn (they arent just small adults) there isnt much more to teaching. You spend a lot of time in EPP/ITT programs learning how to do things one way, only to find out once your in the classroom that the way youve been doing them doesnt work for you. Then you have to figure out a whole new way of doing things that actually works for you and works for your kids. No lesson plan survives the first engagement unscathed. You will spend huge amounts of time creating complex and detailed lesson plans that you keep in a binder, but are so unwieldy you cant practically use them during a class, so instead you map out the activities in bullet form and reduce the whole lesson to a note card. At best EPP/ITT programs teach you how to communicate among stakeholders, but they dont teach you how to think, because thats what a lesson plan is, an attempt of communicating your instructional meds/peds (thats methodology and pedagogy) to other educators. Your maths lesson internally may be as simple as review yesterdays skill, turn page, introduce/describe new skill, demonstrate new skill, students practice new skill under supervision, students practice skill independently, assessment. There are only so many variations you can observe and incorporate before nothings new/original anymore.
I can understand your position, you know what your learning style is, but dont confuse finding something appealing with actual value, thats confirmation bias. You can find ACP programs that are F2F (Face Too Face) or onsite delivery as well too.
You really WANT to organize your own field experience. If you let the program do it, they may well stick you in an inner city public school classroom of at risk degenerates where you wont learn anything applicable to IE, and may run screaming from the room. Try using a token economy with a room full of gang-bangers, like stars on a poster you get to trade for a piece of candy which would work great in a primary year 3 classroom suddenly doesnt, you wouldnt survive. Choosing and organizing your own field experience means you can actually focus on something like finding an IB DS to do your field experience at or a DS/IS thats more like IE.
You would have an easier time identifying a field placement, especially in maths. Its as easy as you need it, I know nothing about Indiana, but globally there is a definite shortage of maths DTs, and theres probably some charter DSor other high risk DS that will salivate at the mouth for someone in maths.
Teach Now is a harder sell to make to a IS because they have to give you a classroom for a semester/term and ISs are fee generating institutions and parents dont pay good coin for their kids to be used as lab rats for inexperienced ITs. Teach Ready is a lot easier, as their field experience is only 5 days. The problem with those is that while Teach Ready is much shorter and easier to organize it also has less value. One of the goals of your field experience is to come out of it with a reference that has utility and value. A principal isnt going to be able to say much of anything about you after having you teach for a week. No one really complained, what else is there to say. Compared to a 3-4 month field experience thats sufficient time to evaluate an IT.
It costs twice as much easily, you need to add the cost of books and other costs. You will also have to consider the cost of PD and travel every two years to maintain that certification. Your going to get certified and immediately have to start planing your PD, two years goes by wickedly fast. Then you have travel costs to add additional certifications.
What are you going to do with those graduate credits? Many Unis have limits on transfer credit they will accept towards an advance degree, somewhere between 6 and 12 credits, unless you return to Purdue for your masters which will remove you from IE for 2 years, at which time your resume will have taken some degradation to your resume. The rule is you can do anything for about a year without any ill effects, after that year your marketability starts to fall.
Yes Americans can participate in School Direct, there isnt a bar to it, you would need a DS in the UK that was desperate enough (and there are) to hire you and sponsor a visa. These DSs are going to be the UK equivalent of an inner city high risk DS you would find in the US, but you would have the added benefit of having experience in the UK education system and curriculum.
It would hopefully get you QTS while its not grade or subject specific (there are assignment restrictions). The idea is that the TCL (Thats the Teachers College for Learning, a lay term for the National College for Teaching and Leadership, the regulatory and licensing authority in the UK) knows very little if anything about Indiana and looks at your record sees the charter school and career specialist credentials and that they are in maths, science, ICT and issues you QTS. QTS doesnt cost anything takes 15 minutes to apply, and is issued in about 2-4 weeks. The cost to apply with Indiana is $35 (assuming you apply for both x2 so $70) and the cost of transcripts, etc.. You would have to take the core exam and maybe a content exam.
Yes you would have no experience or training, but QTS would permit you the opportunities to get experience. No one in IE is going to be impressed with what you did during your EPP/ITT field work, and depending on your field experience may not be worth anything or of much benefit to you. If your just an observer and glorified teaching assistant what are you really going to learn? So much depends on the placement and who your mentoring DT/IT is. You could find yourself in some grey stone classroom with a maths DT who is just counting the days until retirement who lectures from their desk for 10 minutes, and gives out worksheets, all the while using you as a secretary who does nothing but mark/grade worksheets. What are you going to learn, other than wear gloves or youll get callouses on your fingers.
On the flip side of the coin you could find yourself in an IB classroom with a DT whos half your age, with a horticulture degree who managed to barely pass the Maths licensing exam and is EPICLY happy to turn over their class to you for three months while they sit in the back on their computer/phone managing their social networking presence and playing Pokemon Go. Could go either way, probably something in the middle, but you dont know.
IE = International Education
DE= Domestic Education
IS = International School
DS = Domestic School
IT = International Teacher
DT = Domestic Teacher
EE = English Education
ES = English School
ET = English Teacher
SPED = Special Education
B.Ed = Bachelors of Education
ACP = Alternative Certification Program
EPP = Educator Preparation Program
ITT = Initial Teacher Training
QTS = Qualified Teacher Status
PGCE = Post Graduate Certificate in Education
ICT = Information Computers Technology
I hope that helps, Education is really big into acronyms, something really isnt a thing until there is an acronym for it.
You may not mind working in Indiana, the issue is will you be able to. Entry level credentials dont cross states very well.
Nobody really cares about professional experience unless they want you, you may get a couple steps on the salary scale just to bump your salary at some point in your career if an IS really wants you. There are lots of entry and intern classes ITs with resumes similar to yours job hunting every year. Again, a lot of new grads do not have education degrees. The majority of UK ITs have a PGCE not a B.Ed, and the majority of US ITs dont have education degrees unless they have a Masters. You really are in a better boat than many entry level ITs.
I think you believe that field work is something like an apprenticeship, there isnt such a thing as "practice teaching". Youre either in a mentor relationship in a classroom with a DT/IT and your somewhere between an observer and a teaching assistant or your the TOR (Teacher of Record) and youre the DT/IT who is delivering instructional services. You may have a designated mentor to talk with but its otherwise youre show just as much as it is for any DT/IT.
There are basically 4 tasking skills an IT/DT needs: Preparation, Performance, Production and Presence.
Preparation; Is all the thinking and feeling (head and heart) tasks that an IT needs to do to take the resources they have and using the guidelines (curriculum) to organize and develop a lesson. You have a book, assume its aligned to curriculum (maybe a mistake), do you organize the material into vocabulary and chronology. Do you lecture, or is this exploration. This is the tasking skill that allows you to conceptualize a behavior and classroom management plan.
Performance; is the sage on stage and being able to make a delivery of the lesson, its the speech and acting component of teaching. Whats your style of interaction. A major part of it is implementing and applying behavior and classroom management.
Production; is the creation and labor skill tasking of teaching. Its the work and includes marking/grading, documentation, the physical lesson plan, the communication between stakeholders, the gathering and organization of resources.
Presence; is the secret component, its your social and political game. The networking and building of relationships within the IS/DS environment. Do you sit in the back of meetings, rarely contribute, and generally keep a low profile, or do you shake things up with the hopes your ideas earn you recognition. Do you go out with the happy hour group or keep work and home life separate.
There really isnt a lot of training thats revolutionary. If you have those 4 skills and "click" with how children learn (they arent just small adults) there isnt much more to teaching. You spend a lot of time in EPP/ITT programs learning how to do things one way, only to find out once your in the classroom that the way youve been doing them doesnt work for you. Then you have to figure out a whole new way of doing things that actually works for you and works for your kids. No lesson plan survives the first engagement unscathed. You will spend huge amounts of time creating complex and detailed lesson plans that you keep in a binder, but are so unwieldy you cant practically use them during a class, so instead you map out the activities in bullet form and reduce the whole lesson to a note card. At best EPP/ITT programs teach you how to communicate among stakeholders, but they dont teach you how to think, because thats what a lesson plan is, an attempt of communicating your instructional meds/peds (thats methodology and pedagogy) to other educators. Your maths lesson internally may be as simple as review yesterdays skill, turn page, introduce/describe new skill, demonstrate new skill, students practice new skill under supervision, students practice skill independently, assessment. There are only so many variations you can observe and incorporate before nothings new/original anymore.
I can understand your position, you know what your learning style is, but dont confuse finding something appealing with actual value, thats confirmation bias. You can find ACP programs that are F2F (Face Too Face) or onsite delivery as well too.
You really WANT to organize your own field experience. If you let the program do it, they may well stick you in an inner city public school classroom of at risk degenerates where you wont learn anything applicable to IE, and may run screaming from the room. Try using a token economy with a room full of gang-bangers, like stars on a poster you get to trade for a piece of candy which would work great in a primary year 3 classroom suddenly doesnt, you wouldnt survive. Choosing and organizing your own field experience means you can actually focus on something like finding an IB DS to do your field experience at or a DS/IS thats more like IE.
You would have an easier time identifying a field placement, especially in maths. Its as easy as you need it, I know nothing about Indiana, but globally there is a definite shortage of maths DTs, and theres probably some charter DSor other high risk DS that will salivate at the mouth for someone in maths.
Teach Now is a harder sell to make to a IS because they have to give you a classroom for a semester/term and ISs are fee generating institutions and parents dont pay good coin for their kids to be used as lab rats for inexperienced ITs. Teach Ready is a lot easier, as their field experience is only 5 days. The problem with those is that while Teach Ready is much shorter and easier to organize it also has less value. One of the goals of your field experience is to come out of it with a reference that has utility and value. A principal isnt going to be able to say much of anything about you after having you teach for a week. No one really complained, what else is there to say. Compared to a 3-4 month field experience thats sufficient time to evaluate an IT.
It costs twice as much easily, you need to add the cost of books and other costs. You will also have to consider the cost of PD and travel every two years to maintain that certification. Your going to get certified and immediately have to start planing your PD, two years goes by wickedly fast. Then you have travel costs to add additional certifications.
What are you going to do with those graduate credits? Many Unis have limits on transfer credit they will accept towards an advance degree, somewhere between 6 and 12 credits, unless you return to Purdue for your masters which will remove you from IE for 2 years, at which time your resume will have taken some degradation to your resume. The rule is you can do anything for about a year without any ill effects, after that year your marketability starts to fall.
Yes Americans can participate in School Direct, there isnt a bar to it, you would need a DS in the UK that was desperate enough (and there are) to hire you and sponsor a visa. These DSs are going to be the UK equivalent of an inner city high risk DS you would find in the US, but you would have the added benefit of having experience in the UK education system and curriculum.
It would hopefully get you QTS while its not grade or subject specific (there are assignment restrictions). The idea is that the TCL (Thats the Teachers College for Learning, a lay term for the National College for Teaching and Leadership, the regulatory and licensing authority in the UK) knows very little if anything about Indiana and looks at your record sees the charter school and career specialist credentials and that they are in maths, science, ICT and issues you QTS. QTS doesnt cost anything takes 15 minutes to apply, and is issued in about 2-4 weeks. The cost to apply with Indiana is $35 (assuming you apply for both x2 so $70) and the cost of transcripts, etc.. You would have to take the core exam and maybe a content exam.
Yes you would have no experience or training, but QTS would permit you the opportunities to get experience. No one in IE is going to be impressed with what you did during your EPP/ITT field work, and depending on your field experience may not be worth anything or of much benefit to you. If your just an observer and glorified teaching assistant what are you really going to learn? So much depends on the placement and who your mentoring DT/IT is. You could find yourself in some grey stone classroom with a maths DT who is just counting the days until retirement who lectures from their desk for 10 minutes, and gives out worksheets, all the while using you as a secretary who does nothing but mark/grade worksheets. What are you going to learn, other than wear gloves or youll get callouses on your fingers.
On the flip side of the coin you could find yourself in an IB classroom with a DT whos half your age, with a horticulture degree who managed to barely pass the Maths licensing exam and is EPICLY happy to turn over their class to you for three months while they sit in the back on their computer/phone managing their social networking presence and playing Pokemon Go. Could go either way, probably something in the middle, but you dont know.