Careers for Teachers outside of Classroom

after talking around with friends and cocktails last nite, she's pretty much decided to either go FIDM, MBA, or MLS....but she's def planning to back for an advanced degree in 2009 and get out of the classroom.

an MBA would probably be the most versatile degree, but the MLS option has her intrigued. we actually have a friend who got her MLS few years ago so we're gonna pick her brain on her experience with it

Just a few random ideas:

Get an advanced degree and move up into administration. Of course, then there's the added frustration of supervising the babysitters.
Alternatively, get into education policy and try to change the system (also a potential recipe for years of frustration).
Get an advanced degree and teach at a JC. A friend tells me that in the right situation, she found that teaching students who are returning to school very rewarding, since are extremely motivated.
Join a company that develops and/or markets educational materials and curricula.

Librarians are in fact becoming information providers and the field is becoming quite technical.

One option that might be worth considering is educational testing. There are all sorts of companies out there (Pearson, CTB, ETS, ACT, Princeton Review, etc.) who try to get 'face validity' by hiring former teachers for both their sales staff and for their content developers (the folks who write/edit the passages and questions). Since there are not a lot of formal educational programs for people who want to get into the content side of testing (as opposed to the statistical analysis stuff) it tends to be heavily weighted toward people who gain their expertise pretty much through on-the-job training. Definitely a niche field but full of all sorts of interesting and quirky folks.

^^ that might be another avenue to look at. I know she's currently undergoing training for testing administration and such at the tutor center she works at.

I think she should go for her MBA. FIDM is a good school and their graduates seem to place well, but it is still the road to an entry level "paying your dues" sort of job. Graduates (with only associates' degrees in hand) might not get a significant promotion until they get an advanced degree. Plus, FIDM's very expensive. Hopefully, she could short-circuit this by getting good experience while pursuing her MBA. That way, she can come out making some decent coin.

If she is sick with the public system... why not try to get into a private school? My friend is a teacher at a private school, and he loves it. The ciriculum is alot different and they are allowed to have unique classes and subjects.

My sister on the other hand works in the public system, well catholic system, but its pretty much the same up here in canada. But when she got bored or felt like she was babysitting she just kept moving up in the grade she teaches. She started out with grade 3 I think, now she is up to grade 8. She wants to move up to high school, but thats kind of hard when your two teachables are religion and gym haha.

I can't believe this thread took 20 posts before someone said private school.

There are a lot of reasons that some parents make sacrifices to send their children to private schools. Good teachers are one of them. Getting out of the government daycare is another.

Hi,

I have a family member of mine that has been teaching for over 8 years and she definetly knows what you are talking about, in fact I think a great majority of us know how badly our school system is fairing with all that is going on in our government. I grew up when art and music where still a staple part of what was being taught in all our schools and saw all of that taken away not too long after I left elementary school. It's a shame that most of the generations will have to grow up without having that ability to express themselves in safe and creative ways through art or music. I'm a huge advocate for changing how our school system has been running, giving them funds to help our children succeed and giving our teachers incentives to work too their potential.
I know teachers are facing a lot and some may consider leaving their profession but I would say don't tell your wife to lose hope.

If she want's to go to FIDM and pursue a teaching career as well, there are options. Your personal job search may have been rather unsuccessful but I heard FIDM has a great Career Center that helps you even after you graduate from their program. In fact, the advisor that you are given when you begin the program, makes all the efforts to help you build connections within the visual/ product development for example. There is potential in any of the degrees at FIDM to become successul! There are teachers who are currently teaching at FIDM that she could contact who pursued a visual or product development career. The instructors are more than welcome to give her pointers on how they pursued teaching even with a FIDM degree.

In terms of tuition, if she needs a little extra help in that area, I would suggest contacting an advisor at FIDM to discuss that further or to get more information on the programs and career opportunities. The website to contact them is www.fidm.com. If she has the passion to study either of those two fields, they are more than willing to help her reach her goals.

Good Luck!

Thanks for the post jm ^^^...yes supposedly FIDM has a very high job placement after completion ratio so that makes sense they have inside roads to jobs that wouldnt otherwise be listed

as far as private school, i'm sure it depends on where you are, but my wife taught Private for one year in between public districts and that is something she'd never want to go back to. The school was in a very good area (the Beverly hills of Pasadena aka San Marino) but the pay sucks, there are no health benefits, the school had some shady inner dynamics on how it treated teachers....now, I'm sure all these issues were symptomatic with this particular school but in general, out here, private schools offer less pay and benefits than public schools.

as of now, she's set on either MLS program or FIDM...either of which I think will be a good change for her

I work in development (a glorified word for fundraising). A number of development professionals I've encountered throughout my career had their start in teaching.

Hi,

I have a family member of mine that has been teaching for over 8 years and she definetly knows what you are talking about, in fact I think a great majority of us know how badly our school system is fairing with all that is going on in our government. I grew up when art and music where still a staple part of what was being taught in all our schools and saw all of that taken away not too long after I left elementary school. It's a shame that most of the generations will have to grow up without having that ability to express themselves in safe and creative ways through art or music. I'm a huge advocate for changing how our school system has been running, giving them funds to help our children succeed and giving our teachers incentives to work too their potential.
I know teachers are facing a lot and some may consider leaving their profession but I would say don't tell your wife to lose hope.

If she want's to go to FIDM and pursue a teaching career as well, there are options. Your personal job search may have been rather unsuccessful but I heard FIDM has a great Career Center that helps you even after you graduate from their program. In fact, the advisor that you are given when you begin the program, makes all the efforts to help you build connections within the visual/ product development for example. There is potential in any of the degrees at FIDM to become successul! There are teachers who are currently teaching at FIDM that she could contact who pursued a visual or product development career. The instructors are more than welcome to give her pointers on how they pursued teaching even with a FIDM degree.

In terms of tuition, if she needs a little extra help in that area, I would suggest contacting an advisor at FIDM to discuss that further or to get more information on the programs and career opportunities. The website to contact them is www.fidm.com. If she has the passion to study either of those two fields, they are more than willing to help her reach her goals.

Good Luck!

Hope I was able to help on the info side about FIDM and she will find the website very informative. Good luck to you both!

I would say your original idea was a good one, that being the MBA.

I presume you are in LA, you have several top commuter evening MBA programs in UCLA and USC, she could continue to work during school, or she could just go full time and be done in 18 months.

Originally Posted by Tarmac

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I would say your original idea was a good one, that being the MBA.

I presume you are in LA, you have several top commuter evening MBA programs in UCLA and USC, she could continue to work during school, or she could just go full time and be done in 18 months.


It'd have to be USC between those 2...she's from a diehard SC family (and generations of teachers to boot) and I think she'd be disowned if she went to UCLA, much less getting out of teaching which her mom did, her grandmother did, etc etc

Originally Posted by whodini

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If it worked for MJK...

Seriously though, it sucks to hear that about the wife. One of my best buds spent the better part of three years sub teaching down in San Diego waiting for a spot to open up down there or anywhere near LA. Finally after dealing with all that **** he ended up around Watts and his words to describe his profession were eerily similar to yours: glorified babysitting. It's one thing to kid around about it but he became really depressed with the reality of working as hard as he had to end up at a place that he absolutely hated and in a profession that didn't look as bright as he had dreamed.

Now he's looking into LAFD/LAPD...

That just sucks to have to change your plans around like that.

It sucks to have to change your plans but in the long run if you find something you really enjoy it is worth while... A lot of people don't find their true passion off the bat.

As for his other career options: Police work is a job you must really enjoy, trust me patrolling the streets for 12+ hours (obviously some hours are spent in the station pushing paperwork) gets old really quick unless you have the passion for it. A lot of people that get into police work is completely for the wrong reasons. As I'm sure he is doing his research on the jobs I would recommend going for a couple ride alongs in 77th division so that he can see the reality of the profession.
LAFD: very competitive due to their limited staffing, if he gets in; after the first couple years most people love it. But it usually is a very long road to get on the hiring list. Studying fire technology and being a paramedic is an advantage.

GetSmart I wish your wife luck, I hope she finds what she truly enjoys.. I know you mentioned that she wants to get out of education, but I have a couple friends that are couselors and absolutely love it.