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How do you figure out what grade level you should teach?

Hello, I am a sophomore in high school and plan to go into a teaching career. I keep flipping back and forth between wanting to be an elementary school teacher and a high school teacher. I love working with young children and helping them learn. However, I love history and high schools have classes taught specifically for that, whereas elementary schools do not go into much depth with those kinds of things. I am torn between what I should do and was wondering if there are any indicators that could help me decide for sure. #teaching #elementary-education #secondary-education

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Katelyn’s Answer

Rachel,


If you decide to pursue a major in education, most programs provide you the opportunity to intern at a school. You could then try out a setting, and even look into working with an after-school program to gain some additional experience. In most cases when you are looking for job positions open in a county, you look for the vacancies in the subject or school setting you want. If you are lucky, you might find the grade you are most interested in, if not, be flexible. Positions open up every year and even during the year too!

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Nan’s Answer

I really enjoyed the upper elementary grades. I could enjoy teaching social studies as a broad themes while not having to go too much into it. Fourth grade covered the time from Pangea through the Civil War and fifth grade covered from reconstruction to the current times. (United States history, not ancient Europe) I could introduce history but broadly rather than concentrated in one period of time. High Schoolers may be in class because it’s required, rather than because they are interested. But you do get to detail events much more. There is also a lot more to read when grading papers than elementary school would require. Elementary school most likely would have you teaching more subjects than just the history, so you’d have to like math, science, and language arts as well. It would sacrifice how much of your day would be only on history, but you can bring history into language arts often. Just remember you’d be spread out more. Good luck!
Thank you comment icon To clarify and clearly address the question, are you saying that you weighed the difference between teaching different grads such as subject matter, time spent grading assignments, etc? Gurpreet Lally, Admin
Thank you comment icon Yes. Elementary school requires teaching more than just history. If one only desires to teach history, elementary school grades would not work. However, the writing those kids do is much less than higher level kids so time to grade would be less. Check the time for planning when selecting a level. Some schools offer more than others. Be ready to always work at home after hours regardless off the grade level. Nan C
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Simeon’s Answer

If you can find ways to volunteer looking after kids or doing substitute teaching, you'll find out much more quickly than if you compare pros and cons that are listed. It also might partly depend on how teaching feels in your school districts.
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Rachel’s Answer

Many colleges provide incredible teaching programs. A few of the best in the nation are Johns Hopkins University, NYU, and UConn

Teaching involves a number of different skills and qualities. I would say the most important are:


  1. People skills - being friendly and working well with others. You will need to be personable, caring, kind, friendly, compassionate, and understanding. These qualities make a great teacher. But you also need to be stern and firm in your directions, rules, and discipline
  2. Public speaking - every day in your class you will need to be able to speak and present information to your students, practice speech, and practice fluency of language and talking in front of others
  3. The subject you plan to teach - become a master of the subject you plan to teach, make sure you know as much as possible and learn as much as you can about the subject you plan to teach. Take as many classes as possible in this subject and learn everything you can about it.
  4. Psychology & Human Development - start reading books and research articles on human development and psych. It will be helpful for you to know how people learn at different stages and the best ways to teach them at these stages (depending on stage of development and schema).


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Marlene’s Answer

You could volunteer at an elementary school to determine if there is a particular group of students that interest you more. Many people also find the spending time with varying age groups at church or as a part of a social activity helps them to solidify the age group they would prefer to work with.
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