Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Licensed teachers?

Folks who I'd consider qualified to teach calculus aren't quite so easy to come by.

I didn't realize the slope of a line and area under a curve got so much respect!

I'm thinking more along the lines of high school teachers who can precisely define continuity and uniform continuity, convergence and uniform convergence, produce and precisely explain examples illustrating the differences between the "plain" and uniform versions of these concepts, and do so off the cuff.

That's just for starters.

Calculus can change the way a person thinks, and that's why it receives so much respect (IMO).

Locally, there are four large universities within an hour of the house and at least one offers dual credit to high school students taking core classes such as math, English and such.

It's probably easier to find teachers and tutors here than a lot of places.

My wife was certified and she taught in Christian schools for 25 years. One of her duties for a long time was to test incoming students from home schools to determine where to place them in classes. After years of that, she knew one thing for sure...there were really good home schools and really bad ones. Most of the kids were placed ahead of their age group but some had to be held back. She had one classic - a 4th grade girl whose mother couldn't add 2+2. Mom couldn't do math so she just skipped it entirely. The girl was supposedly in the 4th grade and didn't even know her numbers. They had to get her a tutor for a year to bring her up to speed.

Probably the same percentage of educators that tried to teach me calculus. Which was 2 out of 4. For you homeschoolers that would be 50%.

Calculus taught me that a long derivation of screwing with someone was more satisfying and likely more effective than guessing.

Yep, ...and some really, really bad ones.....

I've met a functionally illiterate 14 year-old home school kid, it weren't pretty. The single mom was a fundamentalist Christian, and not very bright, between the mom and the aunt the kid was hardly ever permitted out of the home. For better or worse I expect that girl has run away by now, that was her intent.

Birdwatcher

...OTOH, I too have seen some really-well educated and well-adjusted ones. Often home school parents will mainstream their kid into high school at the ninth grade.

A good strategy IMHO.

The kiss of death for a homeschool kid is a parent that wants their kid "above level". They blow through subject material so quickly that they gain no understanding of the material, and the parents have blinders on about how little the kid actually knows compared to peers in a public/private school.

IMO, the best of both worlds is kids in public/private school with very active parents at home participating in the education.

In New York, where I first got State certified to teach high school social studies, we were required to have a Master's Degree and take two certification tests, one being general teaching and the other social studies specific (I didn't study a lick for either test, and scored near the top on both). Florida is more lax in their requirements, not mandating a Master's Degree.

I will relate a bit of what I have run into with the licensed "professional" educators. After the university I was teaching at phased out my position as an adjunct instructor of History I began looking at transitioning into teaching high school.

I spoke with one lady (early 30's) who is in charge of hiring teachers for a local school district. She went on and on about how one must be "highly qualified" in the content area. "Highly qualified" according to her guidelines means at least 18 hours in the content area plus all the 47 credit hours of education classes for things like maintaining a grade book and developing lesson plans, etc.

There was also the "positive student teaching experience." She was concerned that I didn't have enough experience in such things.

I only have an AA degree in education, a BA degree in History (48 credit hours in American History and 30 hours in European and Asian History) with minors in political science and religion, an MA in History (37 graduate credit hours) plus 16 post graduate hours in History at the doctoral level.

I also completed all of this course work with grades in the top 1% of my classes.

I also have 4 years of teaching experience at the university level where I did everything from designing the course, selecting and ordering the texts, preparing and delivering the lectures, assessing the student performance, handling all the required paper work for FERPA and NCAA compliance, and helping the students who were having difficulty in the classes.


In addition I also worked 2 years as a Graduate Teaching Assistant.

But I didn't have that silly little teaching license so there is no way I could possibly teach History at the high school level in her district.

In AR you need a 4 year degree ( it differs in emphasis areas by college). When I graduated 10 years ago there was a written exam (Praxis-2) in your certification area. Someone with a license could theoretically take the Praxis exam in any area and teach any subject. I took only the History section. No one wants me teaching their kid math or science. Sometime during the first two years there was (and still is though some tweaks have been made since then) a practical in class exam (Praxis-3). Arkansas has a separate avenue called Non Traditional Licensure. If someone holds a bachelors degree in a subject area with no education classes, he/she can take the praxis -2 exam in their subject and begin teaching at any time upon passage of the exam. There is then a one or two year series of Saturday classes (once or twice a month) covering the education classes that were missed. My alma mater, University of Central arkansas began in 1907 as a teacher training school, and does , what is in my opinion, the best job of turning out teachers. Instead of NTL, UCA offers what is called a Mastees of Arts in Teaching. Someone holding a bachelors in a subject area can then get their masters instead of the non traditional licensure program.

Some colleges go about their teacher programs in a very inefficient manner. At UCA I was able to get a degree in Secondary Social Studies education with a minor for a coaching license ( did require a praxis in PE no biggie).

Have a friend that wanted the same thing from arkansas Tech. Was forced to get a degree in PE and Health education with a minor in coaching and a second minor in social studies. Obviously a minor in social studies to gain enough hours to teach it is far more hours than a minor to coach.

From everything I have heard UA in Fayetnam pretty much requires their teaching candidates to earn their masters before they will certify them for their license. Not that a masters is a bad thing but just to start in the classroom, but in my opinion just inefficient and a grab for more tuition.

As for home school I don't think a degree is required. It is not uncommon for a parent of a student that is about to be suspended or expelled to "just homeschool em." Interesting to say the least. I will say however that the vast majority of homeschool students I meet are very well on their way to college and ahead of many of their peers. I had the privilege to teach two of five siblings that were homeschooled until 7th grade and then were sent to public for 8th grade and chose whether they wanted to stay public or back to homeschool for 9-12. The two I had in my AP WH class did very well. The youngest of the family is currently playing Div 2 WBB.

I'm thinking my youngest's math teacher may be able to fulfill those qualifications. But it's over my head to determine such.

I love basic math, but I have a real admiration for you folks that can do the higher math, you're either gifted with cognitive abilities I don't possess or never developed fully.


regardless I'm thankful for folks like you in those disciplines.

I see what you did there
and it made me ROR


and yes we homeschooled our daughter for awhile

Yes and if you want the good jobs and mo' money you will have your Masters as my sister does. Although, it came from Clemson!

The success of a homeschool situation reset squarely on the parent in charge. A profession's wife can have great success. Load the kids in the Volvo and head out on a field trip to the museum, etc. But a woman who home schools her kids because she is too lazy to get the kids up and ready for the bus will have another outcome entirely. I have seen both types.

We had a kid move in while in 7th grade who did not show up in 8th, but the kids at school said she was still there. We checked and the story came out. She had gone to visit family during summer break and came home pregnant by a cousin. Mom was too embarrassed to send her to school. The staff collected the money necessary for her to home school.

Another family used some kind of home school curriculum that would have prepared their kids well for a 19th century farming career. The kids liked to brag about how superior their education was. When I found out their ACT scores, it was hard not to laugh. Both my kids had really outscored the home schoolers, even when my son was just coasting in high school.

And therein lies the problem. The notion that some classes that experienced teachers will tell new teachers to immediately forget automatically qualify someone to teach!

Yes in ID.

You need a Bachelors degree along with being certified as having gone through teaching program and passed the Praxis for the area they want to teach in. The certificate portion (and most important part) is where prospective teachers put in their student teaching time in a real classroom.

But recently, ID is facing a teacher shortage due to paying lower than neighboring states. In some cases ID schools are hiring people to teach who need to take classes concurrently with teaching. This is mostly at the secondary level. I've talked with people who were hired and have no experience with teaching. Not a good deal.