Secondary School Teachers: Job Description, Education, Skills and Duties, Earnings and Outlook
Submitted by: paula
Job Overview Secondary school teachers are educators who teach students who are in the grade seven to the grade twelve. These teachers have specialization in a specific subject or area of teaching. They may specialize in Mathematics, English, Science, Religion or Cathechism, as well as in Physical Education. During the day, they may be teaching around five or more groups of students or classes. The session always include a leacture or a direct discussion, some classroom activities and interactive learning methods, as well as evaluation in the form of examinations, giving of homework or seatworks. As education is every right of a child, and is one of the most important aspects of life of a growing child, the United States greatly prioritizes and invests on this group of manpower. Approximately, there are roughly around 1.1 million secondary school teachers employed in the whole of the United States.
Education, Knowledge and Trainings Required
The minimum requirement to be fulfilled to become a secondary school teacher is a bachelor's degree plus a completion of a teacher training program in a form of a number of professional work experience in a supervised teaching. There are approximately 500 accredited teacher education programs existent within the United States. These programs are made to be competed as a form of meeting the certification requirements in becoming a teacher in a specific state. There are some states that require a masteral degree as well as a passing of a licensure examination, more especially when planning to teach in a public school. There are variations in the set of requirements though from state to state, as well as in employment in different private schools.
Skills and Abilities
As they say, one cannot teach something he/she does not know. By this, it is expected of the teacher to gain a certain level of expertise in the field of teaching of choice. Meaning to say, if one wishes to teach Mathematics, specifically Trigonometry, it should be of no question that the teacher should know in an advanced level as compared to the students, of course, the different angles or the ins and outs of Trigonometry.
More than the knowledge in the area of teaching, a skill in the craft of teaching should be present. There are teachers wo are intelligent or smart yet have no passion to really partake what they know and teach students. Patience, genuine concern to the students, as well as the passion to educate the subordinates, and the compassion to the students who want to learn are other traits that are expected of them, being in this profession.
Duties
The duties of secondary school teachers may be divided into two. One is their duty or responsibility inside the classroom, and the other is their responsibility or duty in their respective offices, outside the classrooms. Inside the classroom, they are tasked to maintain a safe and a good learning environment for the students while conducting lectures and doing several interactive activities that promote learning. They also administer examinations and other forms of evaluations to them. Outside the classroom, they may be seen reading, researching, doing teaching plans, checking papers, as well as computing for the grades and doing final evaluations for the students. They also meet with the other academic educators, to collate performance data to be submitted to the adviser, and to the batch head.
Earnings and Job Outlook
The earnings or the salary range of a secondary school teacher starts from around 31,180 U.S. dollars to around 45,000 U.S. dollars per annum. Others who are already seniors in the department, and have proven their expertise and credibility in teaching may earn a salary as high as more than 71,000 U.S. dollars per year. The job outlook is also good, such that the employment in this kind of industry is expected to grow as fast as the average.
Paula Hiz is a researcher and a human resource specialist who helps newly graduates, job applicants and post graduate professionals be aware of their job opportunities and available trainings for skills and practice upgrading.
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