I am in my late 50s, a college graduate, a Vietnam vet, and I may very well be getting laid off from my job this year. How does one go about getting certified as an “emergency teacher”? Does one have to go back to school to a get an Education degree?
I don't know what an "emergency teacher" is. But YES, the 1st step is a Degree in Education (B.A.Ed or better B.S.Ed) but even then you don't just start teaching. Next you have to pass a few Qualification Tests to be "Certified". Annnd while you were in that College of Education you would pick a specialty (not a 'Major'), like reading or math. So there's test for that too besides Certification (though not required to be a teacher). Oops almost forgot - you have to decide what level you want to teach when you 1st enroll. Elementary School K-8, or High School 9-12. Your certification would be based on this.
So, are we there yet? No.
Now you have your Ed degree and are Certified, BUT, have no experience - oh while you're in College one semester is spent Student Teaching but that's something else entirely - soooooo you'll have to start at the bottom and be a 'Teacher's Aide' to get actual classroom experience and that is normally a part time job when you begin.
How old are you again :-)
'Series' everyone blames the lousy teachers, but the above is what IL teachers have to go through. I know our daughter is now a 'Teacher's Aide' and has a B.S.Ed. And getting Certified was NOT easy. Maybe other states are easy, or lax, don't know.
As to 'the union', our daughter saw that person twice, when she started and was given an enrollment card and a month later when she turned it in (IL NEA). And the union is not the problem, its the School Boards that cave in to nonsense. Ours didn't and our schools are top rated.
I think you’ve hit on a key point. The Teacher’s Unions across the country have succeeded in creating a monopoly. They’ve used the “Certification” thing as a barrier to entry.
There are a ton of well educated conservatives, who would love to have a second career later in life as a teacher but can’t because the system is set up to prevent that from happening.
The single biggest thing we could do is petition Obama and Congress to create some sort of national teacher standards course that would take no more than a semester to complete. All teachers would have to pass it in order to qualify to be a public K-12 teacher. Once you did pass it, you could be eligible anywhere in the US.
Depends on where you are. In Georgia, since you already have a college degree, you might be eligible to teach, at least on a temporary certificate, now. See here and here for more information, if you're really interested.
You probably okay unless you're also white and male. If you're a white male, well...I feel for you, man.
How does one go about getting certified as an “emergency teacher”? Does one have to go back to school to a get an Education degree?
This is handled state-by-state. At the time I did this, in Pennsylvania, an emergency substitute-teacher certification was available to those with a baccalaureate degree and a short training course. I'm not sure what is required in various places, and what the status is for substitute needs in any location.
If you want to go for teaching certification, you might be able to go for a masters degree in education instead of a 4-year degree in it, but again, it varies state-to-state (also, some take prior work experience as credit, while some don't).
The problem that I found, in going back for a masters in education, was that many of the education classes were very valuable (and I wish more teachers paid attention to them!), but many were propaganda or worthless.