Obtaining a teaching license

Hello, William,
I’ve sent you an e-mail but I also wanted to post a reply here.

Great to hear from you.

The first thing I suggest is that you look at this page – it’s a great summary of wanting to be a teacher:

How to Become a Teacher

It’s likely to be easier to be hired to teach high school students then earlier grades (more people are more interested in working with younger children because they believe they are easier to manage).

I’m sure you can appreciate that there are similarities and differences with teaching high school versus college – but – good pedagogy is universal.

An important approach is to do an information interview with a male teacher in the city or region you want to work. Ask around, men are out there teaching.

Another resource is The New Teacher Project go to: http://www.tntp.org to see their work around career changers and alternative certifcation.

I’m not certain about California but the links in our Resource pages should be useful as would reviewing the Dept. of Education in California.

From my experience – I also teach teachers at a university – the difference is that there is many more requirements to teach in high school than in the university. In the university – once you secure your PhD or EdD then you are struggling with securing tenure. In high school you have to have, as you obviously know, a license AND then you also have to struggle to secure tenure.

It’s a great career change – it has it’s challenges – but – truly – children need men.

I’ve seen hundreds of men make the career change and know you can do it to if you are persistent.

Keep in touch and let me know you process – we like to let others know how others make the transition.

Regards,

Bryan