If you want to work with children, you should look into the various education jobs available with school districts. School districts throughout the country have a wide variety of positions that you can apply for when you have the appropriate qualifications. The majority of these jobs require that you are qualified as a teacher, which means that you must hold at least a bachelor's degree and a teaching certificate for the state. For just about all of the teaching positions, you will also need to have training through a teacher preparation program. These are the minimum qualifications to teach in the regular school system.
Once you gain experience as a teacher and advance to a professional teaching certificate with a Master's degree or higher, you can apply for one of the administrative education jobs. These types of jobs include working as a principal or assistant principal in a school. You do need to have extensive teaching experience as well as an administrative teaching certificate as mandated by the state. In addition to having the knowledge of the operation of the school and the instructional needs of the curriculum, you should have good people skills as well as the ability to prepare and manage a budget.
At the district level, there are other types of education jobs you can qualify for. Most districts have speech pathologists. Speech pathologists travel from school to school to provide assistance to students, teachers and parents when the children are having problems speaking or being able to say words properly. As a speech pathologist, you will need to have a Bachelor’s degree with a concentration in Linguistics and a Master's degree in Speech Pathology. You do not need to have teacher certification to obtain this type of position.
Another type of the education jobs you can obtain with a school district is that of a school psychologist. Again, this position does not require that you have teacher certification, but you do need appropriate university training. You must hold a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology or a related field and a Master's degree in Psychology or Educational Psychology. Many of the school psychologists are former teachers who do have state certification. Through the process of taking the extra courses needed for a professional teaching certificates, these teachers choose to follow a path towards a Master of Education degree in Guidance. They often start off as guidance counselors in the regular school system.
Teachers and principals often advance to education jobs at the district level as program coordinators. To obtain such a position, they must have extensive teaching experience in a specific subject, for which they will coordinate the district programs. They also need to have the appropriate specialist teaching certificate for the state. This position, like others at a school district office means that you will be involved in meetings and committees with other districts in the state and be responsible for arranging professional development for the teachers. You may also be involved in teacher preparation programs at the university level and be responsible for supervising the work of entry-level teachers and student interns.
