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How did you become a teacher?

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Kathryn’s Answer

Hi Anastasia!

I was a special education teacher for four years. Although I wasn't sure I wanted to be a teacher until I was about to graduate college, I had worked with students a lot. In college, I volunteered for a youth after school program every week. When I was a senior in college, I applied to a lot of jobs and programs, including Teach for America.

I ended up joining Teach for America (TFA) right out of college, which was a fast-track to teaching but a very challenging path. You apply to the organization, but they accept you to a specific location, so you can't really choose where you'll be. Over the summer, you are basically a student teacher, while TFA helps you get together all your materials to get a teaching certification. They send you on interviews after you're accepted and you are expected to accept your first job offer; again, you won't have a lot of control. Once you have a job offer, you're a teacher!

Your experience as a teacher will depend a lot on your state and school. In New York, I had to go to night classes to earn my Master's degree while teaching. I was lucky to work in a public school that I loved. However, it is important to know that teaching is very demanding and becoming a teacher without any experience (like through TFA) causes a lot of teachers to burn out and quit within a few years.

Other ways to become a teacher include studying education in college and doing student teaching for a longer time. You may need a master's degree too, depending on the state. The college will usually help you figure out all the certification requirements too. Or, there are other TFA-like programs, like the NYC Teaching Fellows that are faster, but may leave you less prepared.

Kathryn recommends the following next steps:

Volunteer to see if you like teaching! Your local school may welcome a classroom assistant or you can work at any youth organization
Research colleges with good education programs. At some schools, you can get a bachelors degree and masters degree in 5 years and graduate ready to teach!
Check out the application process for programs like Teach For America, if it feels like a good fit. See what they look for when you apply, so you can get a head start preparing.
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Szabina’s Answer

I thought I wanted to be a teacher since I was very very young, and went to college and received my undergraduate degree in teaching, and a graduate degree in Children's literacy. Other ways of becoming a teacher include Teach For America (TFA), Americorps, and other programs that fast track you into teaching.

With the college route you get to choose where you want to work, specialize in, and the type of school you want to teach in. With some of the other programs you are assigned a city and school, and do not have much of a say. Many of those programs cater to inner city schools that are hurting for teachers.

I think your teaching experience really depends on where you end up and the community (teachers, students, parents, and the broader community) you work in. It takes a special kind of heart to work in impoverished communities and be able to empathize with the life realities of your students. It not only takes a lot of heart, but a lot of time and passion. In order to be successful in a situation like that you need to have a great school community that helps support you, so you don't burnout too quickly.

Hope this helps.

~Sheila

Szabina recommends the following next steps:

volunteer in different schools to get a better idea of age groups you want to work with, and type of school you like
research education programs to figure out which ones are well known, specialize in areas you are interested in, etc
look into application requirements for the variety of teaching programs that fast track you into teaching like TFA and Americorps
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