Photo: Harrison Keely (CC BY 4.0)
Job description
A typical day mixes classroom instruction with prep work: setting clear objectives for each lesson, adapting materials and teaching methods for students with different needs, and grading class work and homework after hours. Teachers also maintain required student records and regularly confer with parents, counselors, and administrators to work through behavioral or academic concerns, which makes the job as much about coordinating with a school team as it is about the subject itself. The work is fast-paced and highly structured, and dealing with frustrated students, parents, or colleagues comes with the territory.
Pros
- Only a bachelor's degree required to enter a profession paying up to $107,600 at the top of the range
- Substantial input into lesson design and teaching methods, tailoring approach to student needs
- Stable, high-demand field with 66,200 positions nationwide despite a slight projected decline
Cons
- Above-average hours, expect more than a standard 40-hour work week once grading and planning are counted
- Employment is projected to shrink slightly over the next decade (-1.6%)
- Regularly deals with frustrated or upset parents, students, or administrators
A typical day
First period starts at 7:45, and the teacher is at the door greeting students by name — the thirty-second relationships that make the fifty-minute lessons work. The morning runs three sections of the same course, each needing different pacing because third period reads faster and hides confusion better. The planning period disappears into grading essays and emails to two parents — one celebration, one concern. Lunch duty, then the afternoon's honors section debates the reading with an energy that's the job's paycheck-beyond-the-paycheck. After the last bell: coaching, club advising, or tutoring, then home with a bag of grading. Curriculum planning happens Sunday. The hours are real; so is watching a struggling student's essay improve all year.
Tasks at the job
- Establish clear objectives for all lessons, units, and projects, and communicate those objectives to students.
- Adapt teaching methods and instructional materials to meet students' varying needs and interests.
- Maintain accurate and complete student records as required by laws, district policies, and administrative regulations.
- Plan and conduct activities for a balanced program of instruction, demonstration, and work time that provides students with opportunities to observe, question, and investigate.
- Confer with parents or guardians, other teachers, counselors, and administrators to resolve students' behavioral and academic problems.
- Assign and grade class work and homework.
Workplace & working conditions
Work happens indoors in a climate-controlled setting.
There's a regular, moderate amount of time pressure, and you're expected to exercise significant independent judgment day to day. The work is highly structured, following set procedures. You'll regularly deal with frustrated or upset people as part of the job.
Education necessary or common
Bachelor's degree
Common college majors
Licenses & certifications
- State teaching license
- Praxis or state subject exams
- National Board Certification (later career)
Career path
Related fields
Courses to take
- AP courses in your target subject — depth first, pedagogy later
- AP Psychology — adolescent development is the terrain
- AP English Language — teaching is communication
- Speech — commanding a room of thirty teenagers
- A second subject area — dual-certified teachers get hired faster
Clubs, activities & competitions
- Educators Rising — the national future-teacher organization
- Tutoring or peer teaching — the craft's first reps
- Coaching or mentoring youth programs
- Club leadership in your subject: math team, science club, literary magazine
First steps you can take now
- Tutor weekly in the subject you'd teach and study what makes explanations land
- Join Educators Rising or ask a favorite teacher to mentor your interest
- Look up your state's licensure path and which nearby colleges have strong education programs
- Guest-teach one lesson: many teachers will hand you a review day if you prepare
