Teaching Degrees - Supplying The Demand

People choose a career in teaching for many different reasons, and if you are thinking of getting into teaching, you will have reasons of your Own. You might be a pushover for kids; you might think that a mind is a terrible thing to waste; you might love the academic life; or you just might not have a burning desire to do anything in particular and teaching seems like the easiest way to go.

Utah's teachers play an instrumental role in providing nurturing environments for children to grow and develop. With this much responsibility in a teacher's hands, Utah has prescribed the following requirements for its teacher's certification: Teachers must meet prerequisite coursework for their chosen teaching areas, hold a Bachelor's degree, complete a teacher's certification program, and successfully pass a written test.

1. Just in case your unbridled enthusiasm is more a product of you imagination than your real-world experience, start taking every opportunity you can to work with children. Hire on at a summer camp; be the neighborhood babysitter; be a public pool lifeguard; help with the local Brownie or Campfire Girl troop. Try to spend time with kids of different ages, so you'll find the group for which you have the best affinity.

After getting their bachelor's degrees by completing four years of undergraduate courses, a year of education courses, and doing student teaching, those pursuing teaching careers need to take certification exams in the states where they wish to teach. Some states, however, now offer "alternative route" teaching certification, which may allow those who did not take any post-graduate teaching courses in teaching to qualify for certification based on having their having bachelor's degrees and appropriate life experience.

The Educational Fast Track -Many US institutions of higher learning, in order to accommodate the tremendous need for teachers, have begun allowing those with bachelor's degrees in other areas to get fast-tracked on the way to state teaching certification. These programs also help those who want to leave careers in other fields for teaching to qualify for teaching degrees by providing them with direct teaching experience.

With the explosion in the number of Internet users, online teaching degrees are now more common than ever. Many prominent universities now offer accredited teaching degree programs online, and it is possible to get either a Master's Degree in teaching or in education, with emphasis on a variety of specialties, including Distance Learning--online education.

Undergraduate degrees available online, for those who already have teaching degrees and would like to become proficient in more areas, include degrees in English, psychology, political science, computer sciences, math, and more.