Re: Considering Teaching High School Math/Physics in Delawar

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Hey Nick,

Most people who are thinking of being teachers always say they
don't care about the money and they are not material. Let me put
it to you this way...

Do you care about being able to take a vacation to Ireland this
year and Paris the next and to see the pyramids the year after and
maybe Peru the next year to see Macchu Picchu and stay at some
rainforest preserves where you can see butterflies and birds. How
about a month in Belize or some unheard of little island where you
can lay on the beach and have massages and have all your food
needs catered to you. What about going to Canada to stay in the
ice palace that is made from solid ice every winter and that melts
in the spring? Have you seen the Great Wall of China? Have you
visited the Auschwitz museum?

OK, so money doesn't matter. But your time on this earth is very
short. And having traveled a lot, let me tell you, it is priceless
to see those things but they COST money. I did a lot of it the
hard way because I didn't have money by staying in hostels and only
eating one meal a day and taking the bus in the rain, snow and
cold and sometimes begging free nights sleep at cool young
people's places that I met (I am female so not scary for people).
But that is REALLY not the best way to travel. Wouldn't it be nice
to stay in nice places and have a couple really good meals a day
instead of just buying a loaf of bread and some sandwich meat to
last you the whole day?

You might think that the 2 months off you get as a teacher will
make traveling easier...but honestly, more 3 weeks traveling on a
vacation gets to be too long anyway and most decent professional
jobs will give you at least 2 weeks automatically and you can
negotiate for more before you take the job.

Teaching is so stressful that it will eat away a lot of your
personal life. You will have to spend a lot of time and money to
become certified. If you every move to a different state, you will
have to go through a lot of it all over again.

In my estimation, it wouldn't be worth it if I were in your
position. But that is a decision only you can make.

A couple of ideas for you if you are dead set on becoming a
teacher. At least become dually certified in more than
math/science. In most states you can become certified in other
subjects just by passing tests. So I am certified for elementary
ed, English, history, and math. Guess what the order of difficulty
of the tests were? No surprise, the math was exponentially harder
than the others. The elementary tests were pathetically easy. The
history and English were both not too hard with the history
requiring more knowledge than the English. So you see how easy it
would be for you to be dually certified.

Why do this? First, it makes you more marketable. And second--BUT
MORE IMPORTANT-- if you teach math and then find that it is a hell
subject to teach in the school or district you are in then after
you get tenure (2-3 years) you can switch to history and your life
will be a cake walk compared to teaching math. Math, physics, and
chemistry are the absolute worst subjects to have to teach so set
yourself up for the option to teach something easier

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