Need a Job? Teach Science!
Unemployed? Bored with your job? Thinking about a career change? The United States needs 200,000 more science and math teachers in the next 10 years, according to a story in the Christian Science Monitor.
It's no easy task to recruit people with proclivities for science into schools – and to keep them long enough to nurture a talent for teaching. But over the next decade, schools will need 200,000 or more new teachers in science and math, according to estimates by such groups as the Business-Higher Education Forum in Washington. Already, many districts face shortages: In at least 10 states, fewer than 6 out of 10 middle-school science teachers were certified when the Council of Chief School Officers compiled a report last year.
"We desperately need more qualified ... science and math teachers, because of retirement,... overcrowded classrooms ... and people teaching out of [their] field," says Angelo Collins, executive director of the Knowles Science Teaching Foundation (KSTF) in Moorestown, N.J., which offers fellowships for teachers in these fields.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1229/p02s01-usgn.html
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December 29, 2008
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Comments
re: Money
December 29, 2008 by NeuroJoe, 46 weeks 6 days ago
Comment id: 33561
To the previous poster:
Full time high school teachers typically make quite a bit more than adjuncts at the community college level. I have a sister-in-law that teaches high school English making at least $10k more than I make as a full time tenure track faculty member at a Massachusetts state college. That may speak more to the below par monetary compensation I receive for the amount of time and effort I've invested into my education, but the point still holds true.
Joe Burdo
Assistant Professor of Neurobiology
Bridgewater State College
(My bizarre and/or nonsensical rantings may not reflect the beliefs of who signs my paychecks!)
Money
December 29, 2008 by Anonymous, 46 weeks 6 days ago
Comment id: 33554
I have multiple masters degrees in engineering from a very reputable university. I am retiring from the US Navy very soon, so I am changing careers. I enjoy teaching (I have been an adjunct professor in local community colleges for several years) I cannot afford to teach full time in a high school. Simple as that. I would have to take nearly a fifty percent pay cut, against my active duty pay, nearly 75% against what I can make in private industry. Jobs are to make money, not "find meaning", I find meaning at home with my family.
Not What We Need
December 29, 2008 by Anonymous, 46 weeks 6 days ago
Comment id: 33553
What we don't need is a group of disgruntled, bored people that take on important jobs as last resorts. I've had those teachers, and it's not fun. We need to be putting more disgruntled, bored people into human cosmetic trials, not our schools.
The problem with this
December 29, 2008 by Anonymous, 46 weeks 6 days ago
Comment id: 33551
The problem with this is that although you may know something about math and science, the public school system does not consider you qualified to teach unless you have "official" teaching credentials. Being competent at math and science makes getting these credentials harder.
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