How I Became a Teacher with Zero Experience

Here is a story all about how my life got flipped turned upside down!

No but for real, this is the story of how I became a teacher when I do not have a Bachelors of Education, or any other form of teaching experience. ENJOY.

It started back in July of 2017. I was at my friend Kendall's bachelorette party at the beach talking to her friend Cali about Cali's plans to become an elementary school teacher. I asked her if she had a background in education and she said no, that you didn't need one. I was shook. I had looked into a 5th year masters of teaching while I was still at Auburn, but decided against it for some reason, so I knew that was a possibility, but still thought you needed SOME kind of experience or education degree to do it. She told me to look in to the Department of Education for GA because FL, where she lives, is a bit different. I mulled it over in my head and then kinda forgot about it when I got home after the trip.

Fast forward to September of 2017. I decided I had had enough of the company I was working for, and then started brainstorming other career paths I could explore. The teaching thing came back into my brain in full force, so I started looking in to it. Turns out, I had the main thing you need. A bachelors degree. There were a bunch of other steps, but none I needed to take immediately, so I started looking at job postings. Strangely enough, there was one posting called a STEM Resident. Basically it just said it would prefer you to have experience blah blah, but what stood out to me was that they wanted someone with a Bachelors degree or higher in a STEM field. My Bachelors is a B.S. of Animal Science, sooooo I applied.

3 days later I got a phone call asking me to come in for an interview and explaining a little more about the position. I would be shadowing a teacher, and then eventually taking over their class by the end of the year. It was a full time paid position, unlike student teaching, but in most other aspects was a student teaching position on steroids. It would put me on the path to certification. And I would gain valuable experience and additional training because there would only be 8 of us STEM Residents in the whole county. It sounded too good to be true. I interviewed and they called me to offer me the job by the time I got home that afternoon. It happened FAST.

So, I put in my 2 weeks at work, and prepared for the unknown.

A little bit about what I did as a STEM Resident/What that even is:
The STEM Residents are hired in pairs of Math/Science people, and there's one of each in 4 different schools across the county. We had monthly meetings to learn about lesson planning, to observe great teachers in different schools, learn about classroom management, etc. etc. We were the guinea pigs of this program, because it had never been done before. They basically shaped the program based on what we said we needed/wanted more of. They already have the job openings posted for next years round of STEM Residents, as it is a one year position. Oh, also, the schools we were assigned to were not allowed to hire their own STEM Resident nor was any school that had STEM Residents allowed to hire any other STEM Resident, so that's why we all had to get new jobs at other schools. The point was to take STEM industry professionals with real world experience and knowledge, put them in teaching positions in similar fields, train them to teach, then spread them out around the County to teach the STEM and PBL (project based learning) teaching methods. Most of the STEM Residents that were hired with me have Ph.D's. I am the least (formally) educated person in the cohort. My other half and the Math STEM Resident to my Science, is Anand. He shadowed a Geometry teacher at our school. It's funny because his mentor is moving schools to teach at the same school I am teaching at this coming year! I'm excited about that cause she's awesome. Anyways!-

I was hired in September, so I missed the first month of school (and pay) but that was okay. From September to December, I mostly observed my mentor teacher, Scott, teaching Chemistry and helped him grade assignments and stuff. We talked about me taking over his class starting in January. I was super nervous but it was okay because I would just be teaching the lessons he had already planned. Scott is old school and didn't *actually* plan anything. He just did what worked allllll the years prior. I never knew what I'd be teaching until the morning of the day I would teach it. I was also taking attendance, attending all department meetings and parent teacher conferences, holding small group tutoring sessions and test reviews, and eventually teaching most lessons every day anyways before that point though.

Things changed a lot in February- I've already talked about this- but Scott had to take over another teachers class, which left me on my own. So I had really only been "teaching" for a month and a half when I had to take over every single aspect of his classroom, start planning lessons on my own, and creating tests and material and stuff. It was super overwhelming. Luckily the Chemistry team took me in around March and gave me all their material so I just had to figure it out and then reformat it for my own kids. I was responsible for all grading, all parent teacher conferences, all correspondence with parents, creating engaging lessons, remediating when I didn't teach something well enough, literally every single aspect of teaching this Chemistry class. I still had to attend my STEM Resident meetings too, but since I wasn't the teacher of record, I couldn't request a sub. Luckily there was flexibility in the team I was on, so they were able to cover my class. I am the only STEM Resident this happened to, and honestly I am SO glad for it. I feel like I was dumped in the deep end and it was either sink or swim. So I swam. I feel like I gained SO much experience in those last 4ish months, and I actually feel pretty ready for this next year because of it.

Some other things I had to do:
I had to get a background check, pass an Ethics test, take a content specific test (I chose Biology to begin with and passed with a super high score *brag*), when I got hired at my new school I had to take another content specific test because I would also be teaching Physics, so I chose to take the Science test which covers Chemistry, Biology, Physics, Earth and Space Science and also passed that with another super high score *brag*. I did that so I'd be certified to teach any science ever, btw. THEN I had to decide how I wanted to go about getting certified. Did I want to get my masters degree of education or did I want to enroll in the county's teacher certification program? I chose the latter. Its a program that is recognized as an alternative teacher certification program. It lasts 1-3 years depending on if you pass everything, (my goal is 1 year, duh.) and is essentially a masters program on steroids. It only costs $1,500 total, and is taken out of my paycheck in monthly increments. I chose to do it this way, because I don't want a masters of education. I'd rather get a masters of science in something I am interested in instead. And I'd only get a masters because of the pay increase for a teacher.

Also, FYI, this fall I will be teaching at the brand new STEM high school in the county. I'll be teaching Biology, Physics, and a Seminar class. I am PUMPED/HONORED because it was my #1 choice school. I taught Chemistry at my old school. Yaaayy Science!

So. I guess that is everything? PLEASE let me know if you have any questions about any of this, as I'd love to clarify or give more info!

Love,
Jess