To all people with teaching degrees

[rockermom]

Well, yes. It may have changed since I got my credential in the early 90's. but we learned how to arrange the furniture in our classroom to make the best learning environment, I took bulletin board classes (not the whole thing but we did have sessions on it) classes on how to use office equipment like the ditto machine. My continuing ed requirements were met by taking make and take workshops put on by The University of Phoenix. We spent the entire time (usually all Friday night and all day Saturday) making themed bulletin board and learning centers. They provided the materials and we chose from their selection.

 

This all was in CA. I don't know what other states require. The school district I taught in grew rapidly and they recruited from colleges in Washington, Minnesota and OK. People from those states got more classes, but still covered what I did in addition to other things.

 

BTW, I did take some meaty classes, but I felt some of this stuff was just thrown in so I could meet requirements somehow.

 

I remember my teachers using the example sheets that came with the bb materials to arrange theirs... or they used a large book (perhaps the catalog, I don't know) with photos of bbs to make theirs. I guess it's the same concept as following the TMs, though.

 

I find that very interesting. I never considered education as a major, so I never looked into what was required.

[Tree House Academy]

My MIL has a teaching degree. She said that most of what she learned was how to handle 30+ kids all at once. She gave me some books from her schooling when I started homeschooling and most of them were how to control a class, how to handle an unruly child, etc. Totally useless in homeschool.

[elw_miller]

I truly never want to teach elementary school. I don't feel qualified, I've been sucking in a lot of anti-school rhetoric, and I am not sure I believe in the public school philosophy anymore. It's hard, because it's scary to think I am not prepared to have a career in anything else, and now I don't think I can do what I did for so many years, after Nature Girl stops homeschooling. I know my skills can

translate a bit to tutoring and such, but I don't think I'll ever teach in a b and m school again and feel completely comfortable.

 

Would you feel more comfortable teaching in a brick and mortar school if you had more control/freedom over how/what you taught?

 

I cannot speak for the elementary schools in my former school district, but I can say that at the middle school I could essentially create my own curriculum within a set of guidelines (I was given a long list of suggested poems, plays, short stories, the novels they had on hand for an entire class; what concepts the students needed to understand--how to write research paper, identify various kinds of literary elements--things I would've had the kids do anyway). It did not matter what order I went in. I didn't have a Teacher's Manual, per se; I had textbooks, but we used them like an anthology instead of as the course. I could collaborate with another teacher and do interdisciplinary teaching (I worked with the history teacher on a Civil War unit--that was fun!). I could even go off the list of suggested readings (I did this occasionally with the poems and short stories).

 

This freedom was both a blessing and a curse. It's wonderful to get to create your own curriculum pretty much from scratch and to get to follow the classes' interests (to a degree). But, it was very overwhelming as a first-year teacher! :)

 

If you decide to teach again, I hope you have the opportunity to do so in a school like my old one.

[LostSurprise]

I received my secondary degree in the mid-'90s.

 

There are things I thought were helpful. We had some great Ed Psych guests who were very interesting on stages of development and how that relates to what you can expect from children. Bloom's Taxonomy. Learning objectives. Learning styles.

 

As a whole though I don't feel its added to my ability to homeschool. It did make me much more confident, and I feel that I'm more aware of ways to make subjects in-depth, more ways I could do things, more ways to drive myself crazy with making this perfect.

 

I do notice 'workbook' homeschoolers more than my peers. I worry about people that just order curriculums and see that as the end of education, but I don't find that to be a homeschooling problem. I've met enough teachers with the book-notes-homework-test philosophy so I know its a human struggle, not just a homeschooler struggle.

[kmacnchs]

I learned nothing in college that has prepared me to teach my children. I did learn a lot actually teaching though that I think has prepared me...meaning I made a lot of mistakes with other people's children that now I don't have to make with my own :D sounds mean, but it's true!

 

My degree is in Spanish Education (K-12) but I taught ESOL, Spanish (elm.) and 5th grade English and History. I have about half of the classes to have a masters in English. I learned A LOT about linguistics and grammar and I think that made me a better teacher in the English area but nothing in my bachelor's degree years.:tongue_smilie:

[MeAndTheBoys]

NOTHING. Granted, I was certified secondary ed, so I think I only had about 20 hours of education--ed psych, the famous "bulletin board" class (that was one hour credit--how to run a slide projector, overhead, and make bulletin boards), speech for the classroom teacher, some grading classes.

 

I dont' think I took a single class on "how to teach". There was some on lesson plan prep--which has helped me not to be afraid of planning, but I don't make "lesson plans" yet. I think any homeschooler could take a seminar or workshop on that if they felt they needed it.

 

My ed classes didn't even help me when I was a classroom teacher; they certainly aren't helping me homeschool. Being a parent and loving my child is what has made this work so well, and my own love of learning has helped me to teach my children to want to learn.

 

But I'll admit that it gives me some credibility when the naysayers start talking--they find out I was a teacher and say, "Well, at least you're qualified". I ought to argue that point, but it's usually a place where we can let the topic drop and I let it go--unless they start telling me about their cousin who used to be a human resource manager and is homeschooling her kids now and is OBVIOUSLY not qualified, etc. etc. Then I might stand up for the non-teachers.

 

Anyway, point being, I felt like my ed classes were a joke even for being a certified teacher, and they are not helping me to homeschool in the slightest--

 

betsy

 

I've been asked how parents can homeschool without a teaching degree.

 

My question to those of you who went to college and got teaching degrees, what did you learn in college that you use as a homeschooling parent?

 

Please be honest. Is there some sort of class out there that makes the question "How can you teach w/o a degree?" a valid question?

 

Or did you learn basic psychology, sociology, get brushed up on your own math and reading comprehension skills, and learn about child development? I've always thought teachers mostly learned the above and also how to deal with problem children in their classroom. Or maybe you also learn about different learning styles and how to teach to them.

 

Basically I want a solid answer to give to others of why I don't need a teaching degree. Is a teaching degree useless in the homeschool setting because individual teaching is a different animal from group teaching?

 

And personally, I have complete confidence that I DON'T need a degree. I just want an educated answer to give others. I also am not afraid to accept that there might be something that teachers are taught that I have not been taught, but I'm curious about what it might be.

[Tiff in TX]

I have a BS in special education from Baylor '04 and am certified to teach Special ed and K-8. I did not go into teaching after graduation because of the mass amounts of paper work required by special ed teachers.

 

There are some really great teaching techniques for teaching kids with special needs that I learned through college. I had some great professors and I did learn a lot. That being said, for math, science, reading and LA, I had about 6 hours each of college credit. That really isn't too much. A teaching degree still requires all the basic, non teacher intensive courses. I always felt that teaching canidates would learn more from being in an actual classroom setting for 2 years than they would from 4 years of formal education.

 

Feel proud to teach your kids. If someone asks you what qualifies you to teach your kid, in return ask what qualifies them to determine what is best for your kid? It's a snarky answer, but it might just work.;)

[KrissiK]

I have a B.S. in Food and Nutritional Sciences from Fresno State University, I have a Multiple Subject (elementary) and Single Subject (Life Science) Credential from Fresno Pacific University and a M.A. in Teaching and Curriculum from Fresno Pacific University. I would say the most rigorous part of my education was my undergrad - which had nothing to do with teaching. My 5th year getting my credential was... I don't want to say a waste of time, but I learned how to teach in the classroom by doing it. I got my credential at the height of the Whole Language Movement and my university was on the cutting edge of that. And now I'm teaching my kids to read with A Beka phonics. How ironic is that. I think there's something to a teaching credential, for sure, but I believe that a dedicated parent who is using good curriculum can give their child a first rate education, whether they have a teaching credential or not.

[Happy2BaMom]

I'm actually just finishing my teaching degree (M. Ed. Elementary Ed). I started before we thought of hsing, stopped halfway through because we started planning to hs, and then my husband convinced me to finish (.."you're halfway through, you don't know what the future will hold...") Now I only have two classes + student teaching.

 

Things have changed a lot in Ed. education I think. I have really learned the "big picture" as far as what the overall goals are, aligning teaching & curriculum to meet those goals, etc. I do feel it has been worthwhile. And I like being able to look at curriculum & "get" what the underlying philosophy is & how the author(s) are trying to go about getting there. So I have a leg up compared to many hsers that I know.

 

HOWEVER, I will say that I could have learned all this without getting my degree, but I don't know if I would have had the discipline (that's me, personally). But you can be very informed about homeschool education without an Ed. degree.