I want to be a social studies teacher and I’m considering a doing a minor in Spanish. Is that a good idea? Any other minors that would make me more marketable for a job?
Additional teaching endorsements that are worth pursuing:
English as a second language
Special Education
Science/Math
Reading
Social studies is a tough subject in which to find a job. This especially holds true in the south, where they save many of these positions for coaches. Getting certified in Spanish or special education would be helpful. Also, if you can, go to college in the state where you would like to teach. It makes certification issues much less of a problem. Good luck!
Probably the best job markets in the country are for:
Physics
Chem
Secondary Math.
Beyond that, it’s largely a function of geography.
One thing you might consider that will make you a much more attractive Social Studies candidate: Spend some time in college working with a local high school as either a Speech and Debate or Model UN coach. It’s a BIG time commitment, which is why it’s so hard to get people to coach both activiites. Try the websites of high schools near your college, or draft a cover letter asking whether they need help.
Try to be as marketable as possible, double majoring or getting your master’s in special ed is a good idea.
Spanish is good if you are teaching in area with large Hispanic population (lots of places now). Also look toward getting certified to teach AP or IB if you are looking at teaching HS. Debate and Model UN a good idea. At Ds HS some government teachers were coaches but not honor/AP/IB US and European history teachers.
At least around here, I’m fairly certain from what I know of recent hires at the HS level that the preferred candidate would have a major in the subject matter, not in education alone, with teaching certification.
It may be unusual, but at our HS the coaches are not given a teaching position because they are coaches. I can think of one who taught in the district and coached at the HS, but he was a highly regarded elementary/MS teacher-leader in addition to being a great coach. A master educator. We don’t have the kind of situation where the football coach is given a throwaway “social studies” job. The ability to coach a sport might well be a plus in many situations though.
I’m sure that the additional certifications mentioned above would be helpful.
In addition, it seems that most school districts prefer to bring in new grads at the lowest salary level, alas, which means that they are more likely to hire a beginning teacher with a BA than one with a master’s, because the latter would have to be paid more according to the union contract. Earning a master’s later is always good.
My niece is a teacher, who though she went to college in NY, teaches in her home state nearby. She triple majored in French, Spanish and education. She has taught both French and Spanish at the middle school levels, and went on to get two Masters-one in reading and one in math. She now teaches math and Spanish at the HS level, as well as “Running Start” math at the community college. This works because she lives in a smallish city with only 1 HS but is also home to a branch of the community college system in her state. She’s always been in high demand. She also coaches cheer, flag (?) and volleyball.
I second the suggestion to look at coaching debate/speech. Tournaments run 12+ hours here and almost every weekend in the fall. The time suck is not for the faint-hearted.
My daughter is a certified teacher of social studies 7-12. In most places, you must have a degree in a content area (i.e., history) along with certain numbers of required classes across the social studies disciplines (world history, US history, economics, government, etc.), THEN take the education classes in order to become certified. Then you still probably won’t get a job because social studies jobs are very, very, very hard to come by. A Spanish minor will do nothing for you and you will probably have trouble graduating in time because education classes are the equivalent of a minor and you need to leave an entire semester open for student teaching. TESOL or special education certifications are the best paths to a job. Special ed at the upper level can often allow the young teacher enough job offers to be able to have choices, rather than go begging.
In our district, coaching positions are extra-duty, extra-pay p/t positions and 80% are fulfilled by non-teachers. Your average social studies teacher here has no time to work a second p/t job.
Spanish is an excellent choice of minor. I have friends who teach in the Southwest and California, and their knowledge of Spanish was a definite plus (even if you aren’t hired for the specific skill, it makes life easier in many ways). Best of luck in a rewarding, exhausting, and important career path.
Probably of the least helpful minor, even when thinking minors have much relevance. This would be similar to pretend mastering Spanish after spending a semester abroad in Spain or Central America.
Schools have been known to import Spanish speakers who have benefitted from a full college education in Spanish as opposed to a English speaker who took a couple of classes in Spanish. In addition, there are millions of functional bilingual graduates to pick from and push through certification.
This is meant to avoid this type of train wreck: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWmQVxs-lP8
Or at least it should – which unfortunately does not happen as those type of brutal accents resonate through classrooms.
The light at the end of a dark, dark tunnel. It’s about time to realize that UG degrees in education should lead to a career in the K-4 and that degrees in “subject matters” should be the prerequisites for anything above that level. Pedagogy specialists have their place in education, but within limits. Our country believes the opposite is true.
@xiggi, when I was in HS–and I graduated in 1971–my HS teachers had subject-specific degrees. Admittedly this was in a good CT school district, not the back of beyond.
I agree with spending time as a Model UN coach/debate coach - also special education. Both will make you more marketable.
Don’t go to a fancy school for Education major.
Our local school was hiring a new teacher. A Harvard graduate was among the applicants; she was not invited to the interview. Teachers were not sure, why a person would like to apply for a $40,000 salary after paying $200,000 to get a degree. Harvard graduate looked like a princess, from a galaxy far away.
In MA, the education degree is no longer acceptable. All teachers, even elementary, have to major in a subject matter in order to be licensed. Those who have education degrees (older staff) have to prove they are “highly qualified”.
“Your average social studies teacher here has no time to work a second p/t job.”
Not so in our school. Many of our teachers coach sports, even in more than one season. I also know one teacher who held down two different part time jobs outside of the school during the school year, working all weekend I think,and some evenings.
This is just stupidity.
My HS English teachers had degrees from Radcliffe and Williams. Public school.
In my school. every one of the 160 or so teachers coaches or moderates after school. (I’m in a Catholic school.) While we’re paid extra to do so, there’s absolutely the expectation that we’ll do it. Otherwise, we couldn’t offer the plethora of clubs, activities and sports that our kids enjoy. Yes, we all find time to do it, even the teachers still attending grad school.
As to the Harvard grad, I don’t imagine that the Harvard degree was a turnoff, merely that it wasn’t enough to compensate for failings in other areas. There are so many applicants for every single job opening-- we’re talking hundreds and hundreds. I would imagine there were other applicants with more and more varied experience, teachers who had experience with the Yearbook or newspaper, teachers who had incredible letters of recommendation from their student teaching cooperating teachers, teachers who were dual certified and could fill other gaps, teachers who wrote compelling cover letters highlighting their strengths.
I’m sure it wasn’t about discounting the Harvard grad, merely about choosing other candidates who brought much more to the table.
In education at least, it’s about a whole lot more than the college you got into at age 18.
Harvard has really good financial aid. It could easily have been cheaper than state schools.
If that was truly the reasoning for not taking the Harvard grad, that is truly ignorant. Maybe she wanted to be a teacher; maybe she likes learning. My kids both went to good schools (not Harvard, but an Ivy and a top LAC), and neither makes 40K. Income is just not an important factor for them–doing good work that they enjoy is. go figure. 