A few days ago
poacher

jobs for psychology degree and elementary teaching credential?

I have my BA in Psychology and got my elementary teaching credential. i live in Southern California. I applied for teaching jobs but could not get one. Teaching jobs in Elementary right now are hard to find.

Does anyone know what I can do with my education that I have, or any advice for me in my situation? Thanks.

Top 4 Answers
A few days ago
SMicheleHolmes

Favorite Answer

Yes, consider middle school jobs as well. You may be able to add that certification pretty easily. In the state I live in, once you have certification in one area, you simply have to take the certification test, pass it, then pay to add another area to your certification. No extra classes except for learning what you need to pass the test, which you probably already know. I don’t know about the laws in California, but it’s worth a phone call, right?

Another option – social work type of jobs. I also have a bachelor’s in psychology, and that qualified me to work as a caseworker for Children’s Protective Services. I could have also qualified to work in Child Care Licensing. You could also look into HUD, FEMA, WIC, and your state agency that does things like Food Stamps, TANF, and Medicaid.

Good luck.

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A few days ago
Matthew L
In the wake of No Child Left Behind, it is increasingly difficult for unemployed prospective teachers to gain employ without a degree in the area of math, language arts (English,) science, or social studies (history).

You might want to scour your college transcript to see if you have 5 college courses in any one of those areas. If not, you surely are pretty close–everyone has to take at least 2 English classes, a few maths, a science or two, and both parts of Western Civ, right?

I would suggest that, if you are a course or two shy of the 5 courses in one area, you take ANY college course in one of those areas to bring the number up to 5. (I believe that is true even to the point that if you took English 1 & English 2 at XYZ University, you could still go to your local community college as a non-matriculated student and take English 1&2 for NCLB purposes, but I’d check on that before paying the bill if I were you!) At that point, you are “Highly Qualified” as per NCLB specifications (at least in NJ, but I’m 99.999% sure this is true nationally), and you can claim truthfuly on your resume that you are “highly qualified in ____.”

Also, you might want to pursue middle school teaching credentials, depending on when you completed your teacher education. If it was within the last 5 years, then nevermind; NCLB changes will make this unwieldy. But if it was a while back, then you might be licensed for k-8, but credentialed for, say, k-5. If your licensing allows for middle school, then you can probably take whatever state compentency tests (in NJ it’s the PRAXIS), and away you go.

Good luck! 🙂

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5 years ago
shanita
i would study teaching. i know you want to teach elementry but remember in high school you can teach psychology and go for a masters in the evenings as well as summers. teaching allows you to have evenings off so you can go to class and two and a half months of free summer. your masters will be completed in no time.
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A few days ago
siamcatp
Have you tried applying for a school counselor position?

I don’t know about California, but here in Texas they’re alway needing teachers and counselors.

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