Career changers, if you could do it again...

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svennorske
Posts: 4
Joined: Tue Feb 20, 2018 10:18 am

Career changers, if you could do it again...

Post by svennorske »

What are some best practices, paths, and choices looking back you can suggest?
What were some of the challenges faced, and how did you overcome them?
Was it a good choice?

My wife and I are career changers from business fields, so essentially starting at ground zero. After getting our feet wet with some international ESL experience and domestic Reserve, my wife and I are leaning towards IT/IE. Given our lack of undergrad Ed or STEM coursework, K-6 and K-12 seem most sensible. Eventually we would like to work in Tier 1 schools, so the 'correct' route appears to be a 2 year, post-bacc ILP pram from a local, accredited Uni, followed by 2 years of DT transitioning to IT. There doesn't seem to be options for local ILP post-bacc without the M.Ed. Costs are ~$30-60K for these programs - they have gone up tremendously since my undergrad. The time frame, costs and not able to have an income during are hard pills to swallow if I'm being honest. I'm fully aware of the Teach Now/Teacher Ready programs, and the common sense side of me says go this route to start working as soon as possible to gain experience, as we are not getting any younger. I just don't want to regret it 5 years later if it becomes THE barrier to entry to decent schools. Any advice from people that have gone through this decision process and spoken with IS recruiters/schools?
PsyGuy
Posts: 10789
Joined: Wed Oct 12, 2011 9:51 am
Location: Northern Europe

Response

Post by PsyGuy »

What are you going to teach?

The rule is that a credential is a credential is a credential. Unless your doing you EPP/ITT program from an Ivy like Harvard, Oxbridge, the Sorbonne, McGill, etc.. It really doesnt matter where you get your professional educator training.

The main issue for you is if your doing something like social studies with business and/or economics you need to get an appointment to do your field work, especially with Teach Now as their field work experience is 12 weeks. Teach Now is 5 days but you still have observations you need to do with both programs. Then after that you have to get appointments in DE to get the two years experience to meet the bar to entry in IE. Business/Economics and social studies arent high needs areas in DE. You could be waiting years if ever getting a position that would accommodate both of you.

You dont need to do a skills or academic program to get a credential. There are assessment pathways to a license. Utah (UT) offers a level 1 APT credential that requires you to take a single PRAXIS exam and an application. The credential is renewable and valid for 3 years. Massachusetts (MA) offers a provisional credential that requires a 2 exams and an application. The provisional credential is valid for 5 years of employment, but if you never work in MA it will effectively be a lifetime credential.
The benefit of these pathways is low cost (a few hundred USD), their short period of time (you can complete the process with credential in hand within a month or two) and their utility (they let you explore if, with a credential, what your marketability is without sinking a lot of coin into finding out).

At that point I would advise against the two years DE experience....

*ASIDE* the forum consensus (which is huge), is to recommend two years post credentialing experience. ISs are not good places for a DT/IT to make their bones, they often lack in mentoring and resources for DTs/ITs new to education, they are generally less forgiving and tolerant of mistakes, especially with an EPP/ITT route that consisted of taking some exams. It would literally be trying to teach you how to swim by throwing you in the deep end of the ocean and waiting to see if you make it to dry land.**

Why, skip the DE experience? You arent likely to find jobs in DE not in business/economics. You can just as easily muggle your way through it at some lower/bottom third tier IS in the ME, LCSA, Asia. You have some ET experience in ESOL, so at least you know which end of the classroom to stand on, and you will probably make lots of mistakes, but ISs in those regions generally cant do much better especially in the lower third tier. You should also be prepared to teach some lower secondary social studies, as few ISs would give an IT a externally moderated SLL course with your background.

As far as entry into upper tier ISs, there are three components to an ITs utility: what they can teach (credentials, degrees, etc) what they have taught (experience, scores, etc.) and special skills. Of those three Experience is king. By the time you are applying to upper tier ISs all that will matter is how good on an IT you are. Either you will suck or you wont, thats what matters.

There is of course the unspoken elephant in the room, should you really go into IE/DE? If this is just something for the both of you to fund your travels or your expat experience do you need to reinvent yourselves? You have business backgrounds you could move shop OS and stay in business, learn some language skills and you could pretty much be "in". Even without them there are lots of opportunities for expats on site. You have ET experience, you pick a location, start teaching ESOL and as you make contacts and network you slide into a business role. I could see the two of you owning or at least managing an ES a lot sooner than you would working your way though IE, and thats the hard way assuming nothing in business opens up. Being an IT is not being a traveler, its being a teacher. If you cant live and breath angsty children who arent yours, all day, every day, 100%, this isnt going to be a great way to see the world for you. You will spend every waking moment of your first two years trying to figure out the teaching stuff (as you will essentially be learning by trial and error), and then your next two years refining it to the point that after about half a decade you start seeing efficiencies that make the job easier, and allow you to enjoy those long holidays and getting to travel. You could do all of that in ET without the 5 year learning curve.
expatscot
Posts: 307
Joined: Thu Jan 14, 2016 4:26 am

Re: Career changers, if you could do it again...

Post by expatscot »

psyguy makes a very good point in his final paragraph. I'm now 5 years in to my teaching career, and it's only now that I'm really looking at things and seeing what makes sense, and being able to do things instinctively rather than thinking hard to get there (I had an observation last week where I was praised for doing something I hadn't realized I was doing - it was just the way I did it!)

Another way in for you might be through ESL. I know a few teachers who started doing ESL teaching, then progressed either through something like PGCEi (the international version of the UK PGCE) in to teaching their subjects. Most good schools need some sort of support with ESL and will have an ESL department - this may not always be the case for Tier 2 & 3 schools though.
shadowjack
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Joined: Sat Oct 06, 2012 9:49 am

Re: Career changers, if you could do it again...

Post by shadowjack »

svennorske, in 5 years if you are a decent teacher you will have solid references from parents and admin. You will be able to put together a solid CV for prospective employers. You will have experience to market yourself.

Certification is simply the entry requirement to the profession if you want to work at 'real' international schools (although there are some who will hire non-certified teachers). If you don't want to waste time and coin, teachnow or teacher ready are the way to go...but...where will you do your practicum? How will you springboard that to a longer-term teacher job? You need to have a plan in place!

Good luck!
aleconner
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Joined: Mon Apr 25, 2016 7:14 pm

Re: MA provisional credential

Post by aleconner »

PsyGuy wrote:
> Massachusetts (MA) offers a provisional credential that requires a 2 exams
> and an application. The provisional credential is valid for 5 years of
> employment, but if you never work in MA it will effectively be a lifetime
> credential.

PsyGuy, I recently read the Massachusetts Department of Education's credentialing information page (http://www.doe.mass.edu/licensure/acade ... types.html). It states that beginning July 1, 2019, an educator who holds one or more provisional licenses may be employed under said license(s) for no more than five years in total. Do you expect this to change this credential's lifetime effectiveness for the purpose of IE? I wonder whether MA provisional credentials from this point forward will have a period of validity marked on them.
PsyGuy
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Joined: Wed Oct 12, 2011 9:51 am
Location: Northern Europe

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Post by PsyGuy »

@aleconner

No, wont effect IE at all. The rule change as to address MA DTs that would start teaching in MA DE, physics on a 5 year provisional credential, than get a provisional chemistry credential and teach for 5 more years on that, etc. Its not going to effect the typical IT case at all, because of the way MA defines 'employment', which is specifically working in MA in DE at a public/maintained DS as a DT, since your not working in MA youre never using any of that initial 5 year validity time, and thus currently the MA provisional credential will remain effectively a lifetime credential.
Thames Pirate
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Joined: Fri Jul 05, 2013 8:06 am

Re: Career changers, if you could do it again...

Post by Thames Pirate »

I am going to agree with PsyGuy on something--don't waste time in domestic education. Get a credential and get on with it.

You can find decent jobs, even ones with good mentors, anywhere. Or you can find learn-on-the-go crap jobs anywhere. As people with professional experience, you are probably quite capable of being adaptable, knowing how to find the mentors/resources you need, and knowing what you want and what is garbage with a pink ribbon. So go abroad. No reason to wait.
aleconner
Posts: 8
Joined: Mon Apr 25, 2016 7:14 pm

Re: Career changers, if you could do it again...

Post by aleconner »

Thank you Psyguy and Thames Pirate. I'll get started on obtaining the MA credential.
interteach
Posts: 210
Joined: Wed Nov 29, 2006 2:25 pm

Re: Career changers, if you could do it again...

Post by interteach »

One possibility that has already been mentioned to some extent here is to stay on the domestic end, and work in a district where you can both get a provisional license and work towards certification at the same time.

Districts with substantial teacher shortages will sometimes allow this although there may be benchmarks along the way (so many hours towards certification/master's, passing PRAXIS). If you do this, you are both building your resume and getting certified at the same time.

Many of the districts that may offer such an option may have challenging student populations, but if you can find some high quality veteran teachers as mentors or certification supervisors you will probably learn a lot that will help when you switch to international teaching. You might also find the switch to be easier. Good teachers at challenging schools can be valuable role models.

It may not work out logistically or in terms of what you want and will probably involve a pay cut, but it's an option to consider.
PsyGuy
Posts: 10789
Joined: Wed Oct 12, 2011 9:51 am
Location: Northern Europe

Discussion

Post by PsyGuy »

I dont disagree with @interteach, its part of the whole forum consensus that two years of DE experience is the preferred pathway. All of the details aside with all the benefits and challenges, which are open to discussion, its very likely a logistical non-starter. Business and economics typically fall under the social studies department and in DE there just isnt much of a demand for them and youd need an identical vacancy for each of you. Parsing the metrics, unless you know someone locally who can hire the two of you for identical positions and they will sponsor an EPP/ITT program, resulting in a credential any other adaptation of such a plan is no better than working your way through the bottom of IE using the available assessment pathways to a credential. The utility of IE, is that necessitating relocation, your likely to find higher marketability for positions in IE than you are in DE.
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