is teaching for you?

You may be considering a new career but you aren’t sure if teaching is the career for you. You would like to evaluate your skills and explore the options that are suited to your experience and personality. You also would like to look more closely at what the classroom is like and what teachers really do. HOW DO YOU BEGIN?

The first place to begin could be a closer look at your own unique personality and the skills and interests that you would bring to a new career. Personality and interest tests can be taken online or at career centers at most colleges and universities. These career centers also offer job counseling services. Each branch of the military offers similar services. A few tests you may want to try are the following:

The Holland Self Directed Search - www.self-directed-search.com

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator - www.discoveryourpersonality.com/MBTI.html

The Strong Career Test - www.discoveryourpersonality.com/Strong.html

The Career Key - www.careerkey.org

The following online resources let you look more closely at career options that are available to you.

Job Profiles
www.jobprofiles.org
Experienced workers share advice on different professions.

O*Net Consortium Exploration Tools
www.onetcenter.org
A set of self directed career exploration/assessment tool to plan a career or make a career transition.

The Riley Guide
www.rileyguide.com
A directory of employment and career information sources and services.

Mapping Your Future
www.mapping-your-future.org
How to choose a career and reach that goal.

Have you decided that teaching could be for you but you need to investigate further? Learn more about what teachers do by:

1. Interviewing a teacher—develop an interview protocol and questionnaire to take with you
2. Visiting several classrooms—be sure to obtain permission from school administrators, develop an observation sheet to use on your visits
3. Volunteering in a local school- contact a school to find out where you could be useful while gaining practical experience with students
4. Visiting education Web sites like the following:

   Pathways to a Teaching Career
   www.psy.cmu.edu/childrensschool/pathways/Alternative/ALT.html
   This website from Carnegie MellonUniversity Career Center offers links to the Department of Education for each state and options for alternative certification.

RNT National Teacher Recruitment Clearinghouse
www.recruitingteachers.org
RNT provides information to people considering teaching about how to become a teacher, resources, and teacher education programs. It offers personal accounts of what teachers and students say about what teachers do.

If you have decided that a teaching career could definitely be in you future, you may want to consider one more issue. Why do people teach? See if you can identify with other teachers.

WHY DO PEOPLE TEACH?

1. They have a desire to work with young people and to make a difference in their lives.
2. They want to share knowledge of an area of interest they are enthusiastic about.
3. They believe education is beneficial to society and that teaching is meaningful work.
4. They are ready to begin a second career and teaching is a good place to use the skills they have learned in the military, parenting or in a successful business career.
5. They want to pay back that teacher or school that made a difference in their own life.

You can learn more about teaching and education by clicking on the links under EDUCATION TODAY.