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Author Topic: Postdoc to High School Science Teacher  (Read 20004 times)
sanidine
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Posts: 63


« Reply #15 on: August 05, 2011, 10:49:26 AM »

Check out organizations like this that support credentialing of highly qualified STEM teachers: http://www.kstf.org/
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offthemarket
Still a
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Posts: 1,688


« Reply #16 on: August 05, 2011, 01:25:49 PM »

Schools will be interested - if you can teach!  Public schools, of course, will require a credential.  This will require some additional coursework in teaching, some of which is helpful.  If you want to jump right into a high school, some states will a kind of emergency credential you could get - but with a PhD, I bet private schools would be all over you and they mostly don't give a hoot about how well you can teach, as long as there aren't complaints.
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ochreluna13
dreaming...
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« Reply #17 on: September 23, 2011, 07:58:26 PM »

Another former high school science teacher here.  You will need a teaching license for any public school, but there are typically "emergency" licenses until you start taking classes, etc.  Also, the other teachers will not care that you have a PhD, you will still have to compete if you are expecting to have the "easy" classes, like Honors science courses or AP classes...  So, you will likely get a class of kids with somewhat questionable behavior.  I personally preferred these kids, so asked for the lowest-level class each semester.  But, the whole system is so draining...  If you are the sort of person that likes to try new things, take kids outside of the classroom (you know, to the woods to see the things we were talking about), or try to encourage the other teachers or students to give a flying flip about anything, really, then a public school might be too draining for you!  I respect any teacher, particularly high school teacher, who can continue to excel and have a passion for students and learning year after year!  Bravo to them...  consider the choice with great care!

Now, all that being said, I did have a great experience teaching online kids who had been kicked out of their high schools through a local program.  I did that between graduation and my postdoc, and I really enjoyed it.  It was a 1:4 teacher:student ratio, and that helped a lot.  Online is nice too, as some days I went to "work" in my PJs.  :)  Still was just as tricky to write lessons and keep kids engaged (if not more so b/c they were probably in their PJs watching TV).
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