When you decide that teaching is your vocation in life, you have the opportunity to become involved in different types of education jobs. Before you start your university career towards a degree in Education, you do have to decide the type of job you want to have. You will have to take a degree program leading towards a teaching career in primary, elementary, junior high or high school. Each of these brings different courses that you have to take. Once you finish your degree, you have to pass the state mandated teacher certification exam for that specific program.
Within the field of education jobs, you can take several certification exams to help widen your options. While primary and elementary teachers are mainly generalist teachers, you can take the exam that will certify you as a Reading teacher. This will enable you to take a job as a Reading Specialist within a school allowing you to work at reading intervention for children who are experiencing difficulties. You might like to work with children with problems so you can get certified as a Special Education teacher.
Education jobs in junior high and high school are more specialized in nature. You can take the certification exam that will certify you as a teacher of a specific subject. There is nothing to say that you can’t be certified in several areas, such as in the field of Science. While most teachers have a Science degree with a particular focus, such as Biology or Chemistry, you do have to take course in the other sciences throughout the course of your degree. Therefore you can obtain a certificate as a Biology teacher, a Chemistry teacher and a Physics teacher as well as a certificate in general Science. This opens up more possibilities so that you can apply for a wider range of education jobs when they become available.
Having the right certificate for the job allows you to attain and hold a job. School boards are more likely to hire teachers for the education jobs they have available who are able to fill a broad range of positions. With several certifications, you can also advance in the education field. As you gain more experience, you may aspire to the position of principal or a superintendent position. If this is so, you do have to pass the administrative certification exams for the state in which you live and work. There is also an exam for higher-ranking positions, such as specialists at the school board level, Associate Superintendent and Superintendent. For these positions, experience in the education field is a necessity in addition to the certification.
When you apply for education jobs, you do have to specify your teacher certification qualifications. Being qualified in one state and applying for work in another does not mean you will be excluded from the job. In some cases, such as in small rural areas where there are not many applicants for the job, school boards do state that they will consider out of state certifications. However, they will give you a period of time in which you must qualify for that state’s teacher certification for the job.
