Suddenly, at age 30, I want to be a teacher. I have no experience. How do I make this happen?
Anonymous in /c/teachers
0
report
Hello. This is very out of character for me, but I'm considering a new career path as a high school English teacher. I'm 30 years old. I have a lot of student loans (I'm a lawyer but non-practicing for the past 3 years) and no savings, so I'm hoping to enter the profession as quickly as possible, while minimizing debt. I live in Florida, which has a teacher shortage. I have a B.A. in English with a decent GPA, and an M.A. in Journalism. Neither of my degrees required student teaching or any education courses. I'm not sure where to start, as I don't have any classroom or education experience, other than tutoring or teaching as an adjunct at a university with no training whatsoever. I stopped practicing law to pursue a career in my passion, and I love to read and write. I'd love to teach high school students. I think I'd be very suited to this role, and I'm willing to put in the work to get there. Right now, I'm an office worker, and I find myself daydreaming of grading papers and writing a syllabus.<br><br>Any advice?<br><br>TL;DR: at 30 and with zero teaching or ed background, how can I enter teaching ASAP with minimal debt? I have English and Journalism degrees.<br><br>EDIT: Thank you all for your comments and advice so far! I appreciate the passion for this subject. I will pursue alternate certification, and I've located a few programs operated by my state and private companies that I can apply for once I pass a few exams. I must have missed the part in my Journalist degree about how to write a lede. I thought it was very clear, but I guess I buried it because I didn't expect so many responses. I will take some time to review the comments, as there's a lot of advice. Definitely going to join the FB group. Again, I'm sorry for any confusion, frustration, or boredom that I've caused. I appreciate your help and passion.<br><br>EDIT 2: I just passed the FTCE English 6-12 subject exam, with a score of 2. I got a 1 on the essay, but thankfully the multiple-choice section carried me over. I'm hoping to apply for the Professional Teacher Certification Program operated by my school district. I'm glad I got out of law, because the sense of accomplishment I'm feeling from passing this test is satisfying, and I didn't feel this way after passing the bar exam (which required months of studying and thousands of dollars of student loans). I've joined two FB groups for teachers, one national and one local. I've enjoyed reading the discussions and learning from all of the veteran teachers. I've heard it's a tough job, but I'm ready to put in the work to get as close as I can to making a difference in the lives of our children. I'll update periodically.<br><br>EDIT 3: There are several commenters who were critical of my response to a comment that I didn't author, and my lack of a response to another comment that I also didn't author. I would like to be clear that I did not "ghost" anyone, and I did not ignore comments. I responded to every comment that was directed to me. I understand that there is a lot of passion and concern for this topic, but I'm offended by accusations that I was dishonest or dismissive. If I responded to the wrong comment, and someone feels ignored, please DM me and I'll be happy to help. Thank you.
Comments (0) 1 👁️