Help me return to teaching after a stint in the corporate world

June 25, 2004 6:04 AM

I would like to return to teaching after a five-year stint in the corporate world. Help? [Please open your browsers to more inside]

This thread asks a similar question, but my situation is a bit different. I have an M.A. in English and three year’s prior experience teaching as an adjunct at a community college. I loved the job, but had to give it up due to the inconsistent pay and lack of health insurance (I now have a family to support). I have done web design for large faceless companies for the past five years and would like to get out and return to teaching. What are my options? (Health insurance and a dependable salary are prerequisites).

posted by Otis to work & money (5 comments total)

If you're interested in making the switch from college to high school or middle school, but if you are you could try the alternate route (this is for Ohio which your profile lists as your location). This how I got the teaching gig I'll be starting in September, and I'm getting full health (with prescription drugs), dental, life insurance, and a pension. To do it you'll need to take the Praxis II in the area that you want to teach, and it looks like in Ohio you may need to take two education classes. It can be a pain in the neck, but your M.A., your previous teaching experience, and your work in the corporate world will probably make you enticing to school districts and it's pretty secure after you get tenure. Your master's will get you more money too.
posted by alphanerd at 7:31 AM on June 25, 2004

(uhm... if you promise not to point out my bad editing I promise not to draw attention to your misappropriated apostrophe.)
posted by alphanerd at 7:50 AM on June 25, 2004

"English? Who needs that? I'm never going to England."

(Thanks for the link alphanerd. I will check out that program. Sounds promising.)
posted by Otis at 8:48 AM on June 25, 2004

If you are interested in teaching, and health insurance and a stable salary are pre-requisites, then higher education is almost certainly not the way to go right now, given the condition of the American job market. So I'd second alphanerd's recommendation.
posted by Prospero at 9:47 AM on June 25, 2004

I would like to return to teaching after a five-year stint in the corporate world.

Some adjustment may be necessary. I suggest that you remove the following words from your vocabulary immediately: utilize, incent, paradigm, synergy. Also remember that the word "fruit" can be modified by adjectives other than "low-hanging," such as "delicious." Your students will thank you.
posted by kindall at 10:12 AM on June 25, 2004