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Career Advice on How to Become a Secondary School Teacher.

Secondary School Teaching Careers, General Information.

The quickest way to start a secondary school teaching career is to have the desire to “make a difference.” Once this desire has firmly wormed its way into your mind, your torture may begin. The career of secondary school teacher, for a great many teachers, is a perfect storm of poor pay, student disrespect and a bureaucracy that has grown by leaps and bounds in the past decade. 
 
Working a teaching career as a secondary school teacher can be a hard and thankless career. So before you start your teaching career planning process, make sure you are tough. In fact, those who have this career on their job search list might want to interview a couple of dozen secondary school teachers, at a variety of schools, before earning that education degree. Nowadays, a career in teaching is not like the innocent Rockwell paintings of years gone by.
 

Secondary School Teacher, Career Facts:

Secondary school teachers have to jump through hoops, and then those hoops have hoops. A college degree in education as well as a specialty, such as chemistry or English, is usually required. That is right, you can have a degree in chemistry and end up teaching high school. You might want to think that through, just saying…

 

Secondary Teaching Careers, Opportunities and Job Outlook-Below Average:

The small army of 1.1 million walking dead that currently inhabits the teaching career ranks of secondary teachers is expected to increase by five percent by 2016. Those looking for secondary school teaching jobs in the educational field will find better growth rates in elementary education, kindergarten, and preschool in particular.
 
Job Outlook is OK   
 

Secondary Teaching Careers, A Day in The Life:

Expect to be overworked and completely under-appreciated. While the media produces a very romantic and rosy picture of careers in teaching, especially at the secondary school level, the truth of the reality is far different. Secondary school teachers are expected to deal with much larger class sizes than a generation ago. Parents often blame teachers for student lack of performance and students often have near zero respect for teaching careers. In short, it is a dream job! But hopefully, you will reach one student who ends up making a difference in the world, thanks to the dedication you place on your teaching career.
 

Careers in Education, Secondary School Teacher, Average Salary:

For a whopping average pay of about $45,000, and a mean spirited and ridiculous starting pay of about $32,000, the average secondary school teacher can expect to be worked like a dog in their respective teaching career. You will very well have very long hours, and lots of student disrespect. All this will be peppered with the occasional threat of physical violence from six foot seven, three-hundred pound high-school seniors. 
 
Oh yes, there is one very positive point that we have so far neglected to mention. The dream job of a secondary school teacher does give the summers off, so that teachers can relax, work their other job and go to therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder.
 
After all, you will always know that the Fall is right around the corner. Fall will mean that a whole new group of students that you have not yet had the pleasure of meeting will be walking through the door, irritated and ready to complain about learning, and placing stress on you and your teaching career.

$32k - $45k

 

Secondary Teaching Careers, Job Training and Qualifications:

A four-year university degree in education and state certification is required for this teaching career.
 
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