University interns – the school sponsors a class. The students usually are placed in classrooms while they are doing their credentialing coursework. Program is usually 2-3 years long – classes at night. To qualify you usually need to pass subject matter verification test. University partners with districts in extreme need (usually inner city) My school currently has 5 UCLA interns working. you pay all fees, but you are usually working.

District Interns – Like the above, but the district itself has partnered with a school, holds classes on district grounds at night. 2-3 years also. district pays all costs, usually harder to qualify – district does this to fill need areas. we have 2 at our school, one math, one science.

Here is a link to a common program listing (the UCLA one that we get our teachers from)

http://www.centerx.gseis.ucla.edu/TEP/ForStudents/resources/title2.php

Here is a link to my districts explanation of their intern program:

http://www.teachinla.com/cert/types_district_intern.html

Best bet is to contact two places: the district you wish to work at, and the university you might be interested in attending. compare.

good luck!

On a personal note, I hold a bachelors in psychology with a minor in business administration. I went through an alternative program in Texas. I am now certified to teach any core subject (math, science, social studies, reading, and language arts) to 4th through 8th graders. I am also English as a Second Language certified, which landed me a job running the ESL program at my school. I mainly work with students who are new to the country, do lots of paperwork and documentation, provide assistance and training to the other teachers, keep up with our state’s ESL laws, etc. Because of your experience doing ESL in other countries, this might be something you could look into.

Just a couple of other things to consider: the No Child Left Behind laws will require that you have a minimum number of college credit hours in the area you become certified in, so that will be something that any alternative certification program will be looking at (what can you become certified in???), so you may have to tweak what you would like to teach. However, and I’m not sure what the laws are in other states, but in Texas, once you become certified in one area, you can easily become certified in other areas without going back to college or going through an alternative certification program again. You simply have to pass the certification test and pay to have it added to your certificate. So say you qualify to get certified in high school English but not in social studies. You could go through alternative certification and become certified in English, then later on take the social studes and French certification tests.

Oh, one other thing: you mentioned not having a lot of money. The alternative certification program I went through cost $5000. I had to pay $500 of that up front, and they took the rest out of my checks when I landed a job and taught for a year.