Teaching as a second career

By Catalogs Editorial Staff

If you're thinking about teaching as a second career, consider these points

If you’re thinking about teaching as a second career, consider these points

Sometimes, the best time to become a teacher isn’t when you’ve just graduated from college. It’s after you’ve had a career as a business person or a scientist or an artist or…..

Why the best teachers did something else first

Choosing teaching as a second career means you’ll have a lifetime of experience to share. Often, younger teachers have only had a few classes in their area of specialty. As an experienced professional, on the other hand, you’ve not only studied the subject, you’ve lived it.

The benefit of doing over theory

Almost every teacher has heard it at sometime or another: “Why do we have to learn this?” Unfortunately, younger teachers sometimes don’t have the answer.

As a professional choosing teaching as a second career, you do. You know exactly how the classroom information translates into workplace skill. Sharing that experience enriches every student’s education.

Filling in the blanks

Even the best textbook can’t convey everything about a subject and its applications. But as someone with experience in the real world, you’re in the unique position to teach your students all the little things a book or standard lesson plan just can’t convey.

Why teaching is a good second career choice for you, too

An escape from the rat race

No one who has ever spent time in the front of the classroom would describe it as easy. And yet a second career which focuses on sharing the wisdom and experience of a lifetime instead of reaching the next rung on the corporate level can be a welcome change.

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A chance to have more time for the rest of your life

Teachers work hard, it’s true. But unlike the average corporate employee, they don’t have to limit their travel or family time to weekends and a couple of weeks of vacation time a year. Weeks of summer vacation, plus time off in winter and spring and a dozen other holidays are a welcome change from trying to find a week — or even a few days — when it’s okay to leave your desk and find the rest of your life.

A chance to make a difference

As a teacher who enters the classroom with years of practical experience, you have a unique chance to make a difference.

You can become a role model for your students. Your stories of life in the real world of business can provide that all-too-often missing link between assignments in a book and a future most kids can’t really grasp.

How to make the leap into teaching as a second career

In most cases, you will need to complete state-mandated education courses before you begin teaching. But if your skills are in areas of on-going teacher shortages, such as science and math, you may be able to start teaching while you are taking classes. Some school districts will even pay for some classes if there is a critical need for teachers in your area of specialty.

In other cases, you may be able to take classes online, in the evenings or on weekends, so you can stay in your current profession while preparing for your second career as a teacher.

You will also have to pass a background check, to ensure that you are qualified to work with children.

Find out what’s required in your area, if you plan to stay local. Or if a you are open to relocating, find out where the need is the greatest, and research their requirements. Then jump in and start the wheels in motion.

Your new career as a teacher is closer than you think!