research question

[estepheia]

Hi guys, yes, it's me! Not an imposter, no!
I got bit by a plot bunny. I eyed it warily, and I'm not sure if I'll give it a shot, given my apalling habit of neverending my stories, but I ended up asking myself the following question:
What are the academic requirements for becoming a high school teacher in the US? How long does it take to get the qualifications, say as a sports teacher? Or swim coach?
Help would be greatly appreciated. :-)

Comments

[herself_nyc]

You would need a 4-year bachelor's degree to become a high school teacher in the US.

[flaming-muse.livejournal.com]

To be a public high school teacher in the US you have to have a college degree (usually in Education with a requirement for a certain number of classes in your particular field). Then there's the state's particular requirements for certification beyond that. I don't know about a gym teacher's specific training, although many/most coaches except for at schools with huge sports teams (like top tier high school football teams) either don't work in that position full-time or also teach some other subject. A coach might have some decent experience having played the particular sport in the past. In my experience unless budgets have been cut and PE isn't mandatory in that particular district, a gym teacher would generally teach physical education full-time, or PE and Health or some combination.

[petzipellepingo.livejournal.com]

You're talking public school right? Not private school?
If so, public school teachers must be licensed, which typically requires a bachelor’s degree and completion of an approved teacher education program.

The same requirements would be in place for a sports teacher, assuming that said teacher was employed by the school district as a full time instructor. If the person is just an after school or part time coach then things might be a little more lax. Ditto for a swim coach.

[estepheia.livejournal.com]

Thanks. That was a quick reply!
4 years, huh?
*ponders*

[estepheia.livejournal.com]

Wow, that was fast. Thank you. This helps a lot!
Now all you have to do is keep your fingers crossed, because tomorrow is my day off, and if the muse (the other one, not you) is willing, I will try to squeeze the bunny into a ficlet... :-)

[estepheia.livejournal.com]

Public, yup. A school like Sunnydale High.
Thanks for the quick reply. Very helpful!!!
Tomorrow is my day off, so maybe, just maybe I'll get a few words down on paper.... :-)

[flaming-muse.livejournal.com]

Good luck!

*shakes her pom-poms for your muse*

[spiralleds.livejournal.com]

Just to add on to what flaming_muse was saying about coaches being full time teachers who coach as an extra. The subject the coach is teaching could be anything, depending on their background. Often they are PE teachers, but not always. When I was in high school, the theatre teacher, who also directed shows, coached football.

Good luck.

[julia-here.livejournal.com]

As usual, the answer to any US question always has to be prefaced by "it varies from state to state."

In my state, you can get a provisional certification with a BA, including six months of student teaching, but a permanent teaching certificate requires a set numbers of classroom professional improvement hours every year leading to an MEd within five additional years (I think). Professional improvement means either education in a subject area, or education in pedagogical practice and educational psychology, or a mixture of the two, and the laws have changed since I looked into that so take it with a grain of salt.

"Sports Teachers" is a term without a close US equivalent. There are Physical Education teachers, whose academic training can be in recreation or physical education, depending on the degree granting institution, and then there are coaches. Coaches may or may not have specific educational credentials in PE or Rec but more often are teachers with experience in playing a specific sport at the high school and college (rarely professional) level. The legal requirement for coaching in most schools is a current Firs Aid certificate and a clear criminal record. PE classes, intramural and league sports are often supervized by a single district-level administrator, and there are often district or sports league requirements for additional training for coaches.

All of this is complicated by the fact that people can be hired as substitute teachers and have no academic training in the classes they're required to teach, and that certified teachers in some areas are so hard to find that anyone with a BA or life experience may end up teaching on a provisional contract.

So, yeah, confusing. The simple answer is that most people start teaching with at least four years of experience, and continue taking classes for at least the first five years of their career. And that over-all the situation is confusing enough that you can get away with practically anything, in real life or fiction.

Julia, or, like my cousin JD, you can have two masters degrees and still be working as a substitute because there's no budget for music teachers

[estepheia.livejournal.com]

Thank you for your detailed reply. In Germany it's almost as complicated - and it also varies from state to state.

*sigh*

It was probably a stupid idea anyway, but I was thinking of installing Xander in a High school as a coach or teacher, as unlikely as it may sound, in a small town in California that is ridiculously similar to Sunnydale. A tough sell, but now I realize that I also lack the vocabulary needed to describe the job situation convincingly....

Oh well, I better write it first, and then find a beta to iron out the kinks. :-)
Thank you very much!!!

[estepheia.livejournal.com]

Heee. Pom-poms? For me? :-)
Thank you.

[estepheia.livejournal.com]

Thank you! :-)

[timeofchange.livejournal.com]

Due to my excessive work schedule I usually skim my flist, thereby missing a lot of stuff. In this case, my eye jumped to the questions and my first thought was, "Hey, Estephia's moving here! Whoot!" Uh, yeah. As to your actual question, I've got nothing. Nice to see you pop up on my flist, though.