Good Luck.

http://www.teachcalifornia.org

chatboard

http://www.sdcity.edu/transfer/faqs/3) Teacher Education.pdf

Elementary level involves a single teacher covering multiple subjects. Secondary (Jr. and Sr. high) requires a major teaching subject area. Most of the time this equates to a college discipline major…but not always. In some parts of CA, Geography is NOT considered a recognized subject area….but almost anyone majoring in Economics, Sociology, Psychology, History, etc. can teach Geography. Ironically, a Geography major isn’t qualified to teach Geography in middle schools in some parts of CA.

In addition to the basic levels, there are some specialties that can boost your pay….special education, bi-lingual ability.

Be aware that not all teacher education / training curricula in CA are the same. Each school proposes their curricula to the State Dept of Ed….and once approved, they can begin the program and credential teachers. So if you start at one school and transfer to another, it may take longer. Normally, the programs are 5 yrs including the practice teaching. During your practice teaching you are assigned to a school and classroom…develop lesson plans, and teach the course, grade the work, hold parent conferences, etc. (see the section of this answer about CA Ed standards) Your practice teaching is evaluated and graded as it is part of your course work to complete the degree/credential.)

CBEST (a test) is required before you can be fully credentialed. I believe you have some flexibility as to when you take the CBEST. There are three parts (if I recall correctly math, basic English, and a written essay). If you don’t pass one of the three parts, you can repeat only the one you didn’t pass. Learn more about this at http://www.cbest.nesinc.com/

There are State standards that determine the curriculum you need to teach for Elem and Secondary levels…so again, you need to know what level you want to teach. Learn more about these at http://www.cde.ca.gov/be/st/ss/

Schools…consider looking at several different university’s as each curriculum of study can be different. Find one that makes less work for you….or one that fits well with the course work you can do at a CA Comm College. Comm Coll will cost less per unit…and since much of the General Ed courses in the first two years are generic to most basic college education curricula you can save a big bundle of bucks.

Career Planning: Also find out if there are requirements for in-service training or additional course work to keep your credential current. This may give you insights to how to organize your additional course work to your advantage relative to increasing your pay and diversity of classes you can teach.

Find out the subject areas in demand (e.g. many districts are short of ESL, English, math, science, technology teachers; bilingual teaching may bring opportunities for premium pay scales). Get savvy and consider present and future demands. In some districts, vocational areas are in high demand.

Get salary information from the Human resources depts of the different school districts…no one every got into teaching to get rich…but pay scales vary from district to district, city to city, state to state. No need to start out paying all kinds of tuition to get your degree and credential and then start off in the hole by picking a low paying district.

Get benefits and retirement info as well….you’re in this for the long haul, right? So think long term and make good decisions for yourself. Learn more about this from the CA State Teachers website http://www.calstrs.com/ Start early…the earlier the better. Many of my friends only really looked at all this “complicated stuff” about 2 years before retiring…big mistake…so many decisions that should have been made years ago were totally unknown to them…too busy teaching to look after their retirement.

TAXES: learn about taxes and tax law pertaining to the teaching profession….see sites such as http://www.ttstaxguide.com/ as well as the IRS publications.

Consider grooming yourself for college level teaching or for moving into counseling or administrative positions…and check out the salary/benefit packages for those. When you start off teaching, you might be single and carefree…later, getting married expands the responsibilities and financial needs…and these other avenues of income or advancement may or may not exist…depends on how you prepared yourself in education, training, and experience.

My teaching career was very rewarding…and careful planning allowed me to retire early and move into other exciting and personally rewarding activities.

Good luck on your future….best wishes. Hope this helped you.