Questions for any teachers here

[GalDisney]

Hi
I have a question for any teachers here. I am an adult student attending colege(again). I am an education major. I am also a cast Member. I am still early in my schooling. I know i will have to do student teaching. My problem is I have to work full time to support myself. Is it possible to do both? Or should i change my major to something else before i get too far into my current major?

 

[woodkins]

I worked full time my entire 4 years of college and then taught while getting my masters degree. It is alot of work and you won't have much of a social life, but it is doable. In NY we have to full time student teach for your entire last semester and the previouse 3 semesters you "participant observe" meaning you are not student teaching full time but have to do 60 hours of observing and teaching at least 1 lesson per day.

I worked at a Gold's Gym franchise as a sales/counter person and worked the 4-11 shift during the week and then opened from 5am-12 on Sat & Sunday. It enabled me to go to school and work & when it was super early and really late I was able to sneek in a little bit of studying.

Good luck & study what you love!

 

[MushyMushy]

I've never known anybody to be able to do it. On top of what amounts to a full time job with no pay, you'll probably still have at least one college class where you'll be working on your portfolio. When I did my student teaching, our university told us to do anything, even take out extra loan money, so that we could support ourselves. I was lucky to be married and supported by my husband when I student taught. I put a lot of time and my own money into it (professional clothes, supplies, gas mileage, etc).

But, what is your specialty? If it's something like math, science, or special ed it's possible that you could do your student teaching AS a first year teacher and get paid. I forget what it's called when you do that, but it really has to be in a high need area.

 

[Pembo]

Check your state rules...my friend got her degree in VA and she got a teaching job before student teaching.

 

[MM27]

At my school, they suggested that when you were ready to student teach, you stopped working or greatly reduced hours. Student teaching is a lot of work. You will be doing a crazy amount of plans and they are not like plans done when you get a job. We had to do a full multi-page lesson plan for every lesson taught. I kept my part-time job, but they were flexible and allowed me to tell them what would work for me because I was there all through high school and college.

 

[Cindy B]

In my state you can get a substitute teachers certificate without being a fully certified teacher.

While I was student teaching, I not only had the massive plans, the portfolio, I also co-advised the Student Government Association at my school,PLUS

had my seminar class one night a week and took my Adolescent Psychology course another night.


WORK just didn't happen. I was on a sub list, so I was able to sub very occasionally on the odd day that my student district was off and my subbing district wasn't. There also were some days such as different dates of spring break, in-service days, etc.

Some people were able to tutor in the after school program in the school where they were student teaching. Some people continued to coach. Some waitressed, babysat or did some nannying. Some tutored adult students.

If you can save now, do it. I saved a lot of my sub income the year prior because I knew this would become an issue later.

 

[paintnolish]

I have a dh and 2 dcs. I went to school full-time and worked part-time until I began student teaching in fall. It is an insane amount of work. I LOVE it, but it is totally crazy!

 

[barkley]

i worked part time while student teaching in the 80's, but the certification program dh was looking to do recently entirely prohibited ANY kind of employment during the student teaching quarters (and believe me when i tell you-they had mandatory courses, advisor meetings, and oddly (i.m.h.o.) schedualed observations set up in such a manner that it would have been the rare employer that would have been able to facilitate keeping a participant as a part time let alone a full time employee-these were schedualed such that normal school hours, afternoons, evenings and weekends were rotated in and out with no rhyme or reason to anyone but those at the university who put them together).

 

[hambirg]

I student taught on an emergency certificate while I was going to school for my certificate, but it was not possible for the quarter I did my student teaching. Really, I think it would very hard to impossible. I don't know anybody that was able to work another job while doing their student teaching. . .and there were people that had a hard time making it happen. You have to be able to live on savings or student loans during that time. HTH

 

[Silly Little Pixie]

I worked on an intern credential while finishing my teaching credential (post bachelor's in California). I was able to have a teaching job during the day, go to school at night, and my faculty advisor came to observe me/review my lesson plans every week. I did this for a year! It was the only way I ever could have become a teacher. I had a baby at the time and we definitely needed some sort of income, plus benefits. It was a great program, and I actually got more faculty support than my coworkers who did traditional college student teaching programs.

You might want to check into which universities near you have intern programs. In California, not all school districts will take interns, and not all universities offer them. Of course, we keep laying off teachers every year as it is... hope you aren't in Cali, OP!