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I would not go in expecting to teach exclusively high level motivated students in your first 3-5 years, most schools are going to ask you to pay your dues. Best case scenario expect 1 AP with several Freshman or remedial courses in your first year.
Edit: also the publicly projecting the attitude that you only want to teach advanced students isn't going to go over well with most education professionals.
Yeah, the last is one way to really get your colleagues pissed.
We had one guy who had issues with classroom management, actually a couple my last few years, who were assigned all Honors and AP classes. They still had discipline problems.
Now that I think about it we had numerous teachers over the years who were assigned all upper level classes.
Yeah, the last is one way to really get your colleagues pissed.
We had one guy who had issues with classroom management, actually a couple my last few years, who were assigned all Honors and AP classes. They still had discipline problems.
Now that I think about it we had numerous teachers over the years who were assigned all upper level classes.
In every campus I taught at, there were always people arguing for why they should get to teach only the honors/AP kids. Health. Seniority. Extra certifications. Scheduling. It was the best fit for the department.
No matter how you cut it, giving all/most the highly motivated classes to one teacher and forcing the rest of the department to be overloaded with harder to teach sections is going to cause major resentment. It also increases faculty turnover. It's a lot easier on everyone when the load gets evenly distributed.
In every campus I taught at, there were always people arguing for why they should get to teach only the honors/AP kids. Health. Seniority. Extra certifications. Scheduling. It was the best fit for the department.
No matter how you cut it, giving all/most the highly motivated classes to one teacher and forcing the rest of the department to be overloaded with harder to teach sections is going to cause major resentment. It also increases faculty turnover. It's a lot easier on everyone when the load gets evenly distributed.
Keep in mind that one technique to get rid of a teacher you don't like that you're taught in Principal training is to assign him/her all **** classes, with at least one of them being out of field. Maybe add in making the teacher float rooms.
So there are administrators who welcome internal staff conflict over assignments, it's what they've been taught. It was what I was taught.
What is your degree in? Do you already have coursework completed in science? In my experience, alt cert teachers (who are required to complete a probationary year in many states before being granted a true certificate like a regular first year teacher) are usually plugged into holes no one else wanted to fill. Which is okay. It's a foot in the door. But the idea that you're going to go into this and be handed the best and most motivated students... may be unrealistic.
Every teacher on campus wants the best and most motivated students. At all the schools I taught in, those classes were given out in two ways. Most commonly: divided up so that everyone in the department taught one honors level class, two advanced classes, and 3 regular level classes. Or, those desirable classes like physics or honors courses were given to teachers with advanced degrees, seniority on campus, and many years of teaching experience. With courses like Physics, many schools are looking for someone with the expertise to help students place well on AP exams. Alt cert teachers are usually somewhere below regular first year teachers in terms of knowledge and classroom skills because their they haven't been through the same breadth of training.
My degree is in economics. I have 24 semester credits in Biology and 16 in Chemistry, plus 24 graduate credits in finance and accounting.
I would not go in expecting to teach exclusively high level motivated students in your first 3-5 years, most schools are going to ask you to pay your dues. Best case scenario expect 1 AP with several Freshman or remedial courses in your first year.
Edit: also publicly projecting the attitude that you only want to teach advanced students isn't going to go over well with most education professionals.
Well, I would obviously never say something like that, but what I'm getting at here is if I am certified in Chemistry and Physics and teach those subjects, wouldn't I be more likely to have motivated students than in Biology and Earth Science, which everyone has to take?
Can you explain what a remedial science class might be?
Well, I would obviously never say something like that, but what I'm getting at here is if I am certified in Chemistry and Physics and teach those subjects, wouldn't I be more likely to have motivated students than in Biology and Earth Science, which everyone has to take?
Can you explain what a remedial science class might be?
It's going to depend a lot on the school. Large schools might have a remedial (in our district we call it "essentials" course usually co-taught with a SPED teacher), grade level, honors, and AP course for a given subject.
I am not a science teacher so I can't directly comment. What I will say is that you should come into education with the expectation that you will teach smart kids, hard working kids, lazy kids, disabled kids, and every other type of kid you can imagine regardless of subject. Also expect to teach courses outside of your preference or specialization, it is rare to only get one prep in a year, much less a career.
Edit: every state is different but here in Colorado you get certified to teach Science in general not Chemistry in particular.
How far outside of one's specialization have you seen?
Different states have different laws on how certification works... In our district Social Studies teachers who have history degrees often get forced to learn Economics over the summer, not terrible, but also not fun.
The worst is when the school or department wants you out. When we wanted to get rid of a guy in our department who was a bad teacher we gave him a schedule of all Study Skills classes for 9th graders and credit recovery courses. I've also seen people get stuck with random PE preps.
Yeah, everyone I've ever met who majored in History viewed Economics as the bubonic plague. I'd be happy to teach that, too.
I haven't seen a composite Science certification yet in Virginia. I'll check into that.
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