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I am a middle school teacher. The kids are challenging at
times, but overall I love this age the best. Have you subbed
at all, or visited schools? What is driving your decision to
teach? I really encourage you to do some subbing (even just a
few days) and see what you are signing up for before you spend
the time and money on certification. Talk to some teachers
about their students and their days.

Good luck!

On 9/08/16, Casey wrote:
> Would I have an easier time finding a job
> as a middle school teacher? I've never
> known a middle school teacher personally
> so I don't know how hard that age range
> is to teach or what time they get off
> everyday.
>
> On 8/16/16, Paris wrote:
>> None of the ACP programs are any better
> than the
>> others as far as finding a job. A
> principal will look at
>> your resume and quickly find that you
> weren't trained
>> at a college or university. Some
> principals have a bias
>> against teachers who were not trained
> through a
>> university.
>>
>> I would strongly recommend Texas
> Teachers because
>> they have a clinical teaching option,
> which is very
>> much like student teaching. Elementary
> teachers are a
>> dime a dozen, unless you know someone
> who is an
>> administrator who can hire you, you
> will otherwise be
>> waiting a very long time to get an
> internship in
>> elementary. There are lots of
> elementary teachers
>> coming out of universities who are
> fully certified. Why
>> hire an intern at full salary who has a
> few weeks of
>> seminars and hasn't seen the inside of
> a classroom
>> since they were a student?
>>
>> If you must do the internship route due
> to financial
>> reasons, even if you want to ultimately
> teach
>> elementary, you would be better
> certifying in special
>> education or ESL just to do the
> internship and get
>> certified.
>>
>> The Texas Teacher route is pretty
> simple. You apply,
>> and once you are accepted and pay the
> initial fee, you
>> get a letter from them that allows you
> to start looking
>> for an internship (job). It's not too
> late for some high
>> needs areas that are almost all special
> education or
>> ESL vacancies.
>>
>> Once you get the letter you are
> approved to take the
>> content area certification exam. Most
> of these can be
>> taken year round, and are administered
> online. The
>> exams are 5 hours long. You need to
> take the exams
>> for certification and to demonstrate
> highly qualified
>> status.
>>
>> At the time of admission into the
> program you have to
>> choose whether to do your seminars
> online or do
>> them in person. The online seminars you
> can do on
>> your own time and at your own pace, but
> there are
>> points in the presentations that you
> have to respond
>> to questions. If you do the in person
> seminars you
>> only need to attend and sit in the room
> to complete
>> the program.
>>
>> Once you have an internship, you will
> apply for a 1
>> year probationary certificate and will
> start working.
>> Texas Teachers will assign you an
> internship
>> supervisor who will observe your
> teaching once
>> during each semester. Your school will
> also assign you
>> a faculty member to be your mentor. At
> the end of the
>> year you must score satisfactory on
> your T-TESS
>> (formally PDAS) and your principal
> makes a final
>> recommendation to approve you for
> certification
>>
>> Near the end of your internship in
> April or May you will
>> be approved to take the PPR exam. This
> is the exam
>> certification programs are evaluated
> on. Texas
>> Teachers takes it very seriously. If
> you fail you have to
>> do some test preparation workshops with
> Texas
>> Teachers. You may only take the PPR a
> total of three
>> times, after that you can no longer
> receive approval to
>> register for and take the exam, and
> without passing
>> the exam you can not be certified.
>>
>> If everything goes well you will be
> able to apply for the
>> Standard certificate.
>>
>> The other option is clinical teaching.
> This is a 12 week
>> program in a school where you work with
> another
>> teacher directly in their classroom.
> You are basically
>> an assistant teacher. In the beginning
> you mostly do
>> observations for a few weeks in
> different classrooms,
>> and more and more take over
> responsibilities in the
>> classroom, by the end of the 12 weeks
> you're
>> essentially running the class by
> yourself for a week,
>> though the supervising teacher is still
> in the room.
>>
>> Aside from the reduced time commitment
> of only 12
>> weeks, you must pay for the entire
> program upfront. If
>> you obtain an internship Texas Teachers
> will do a
>> payroll reduction during the
> internship.
>> You also have less of a workload. You
> aren't creating
>> daily lessons, grading assignments, or
> a lot of the
>> everyday things teachers do to teach
> every day.
>> Lastly, you have a little more time to
> take the
>> certification exams. You don't need a
> probationary
>> certificate to do clinical teaching so
> you can wait on
>> the content exam. You won't be
> certified until you take
>> both the PPR and content exam, but you
> can schedule
>> them at the end of the clinical
> teaching over the
>> winter/summer break if you want to.
>>
>> It's not too late for clinical teaching
> and it's the only
>> way I see you getting elementary
> education certified
>> anytime soon.
>>
>> It wasn't difficult for me to find a
> job when I did mine,
>> but my area was health science
> technology. I know a
>> LOT of teachers in elementary who
> applied for the
>> program and waited and waited before
> getting
>> certified in something else just so
> they could get an
>> internship.
>>
>> If you want a better program, I would
> recommend a
>> Post-Bachelor's program. These are 1
> year (Summer,
>> Fall, Spring, Summer) programs offered
> by education
>> departments in colleges and
> universities. They are
>> basically a minor in education (15-18
> hours) plus
>> student teaching. Of course you pay
> tuition but you
>> qualify for financial aid (student
> loans and a little bit of
>> grant money), there are some
> scholarships for math
>> and science at certain colleges and
> universities.
>> These programs take longer and cost at
> least twice as
>> much. It's very difficult and many
> colleges officially
>> prohibit you from working during
> student teaching.
>>
>> Whatever you learn in Texas Teachers is
> going to
>> depend almost entirely on your mentor
> teacher and
>> the support you get at your school. The
> seminars
>> aren't worth very much, and you don't
> really practice
>> anything. You won't learn much in a
> university either.
>> You spend a lot of time making lesson
> plans you aren't
>> really going to use and studying
> theories that are
>> decades old that you will also never
> use.
>>
>>
>> On 8/11/16, Casey wrote:
>>> Hello everyone, I am considering
> beginning
>>> a career as a teacher and want to know
> the
>>> steps I have to take to receive an
>>> alternative teaching certification.
> What
>>> program is the best? (Easiest or or
> gives
>>> me a better chance at getting a job)
> Ive
>>> looked at the texasteacher program.has
>>> anyone done the paid internship route?
> If
>>> so how was each part of the process?
> Was
>>> it difficult to find a job afterwards?
> Are
>>> there any better programs to look at?
> Also
>>> is it to late for me to start since
> school
>>> is starting in a week or two? I'm
> looking
>>> to be certified in elementary in the
>>> plano/garland area. Thanks for any
> help!

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