Career Changing.

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CAREER INTELLIGENCE

In a blog she is keeping on teachermagazine.org, career-changer Hanney Denney, 3 former child-care provider, recently explained how she got into teaching:

When the newspaper announced a "Career Changers" night at the county's board of education, I decided to go. I listened to board administrators, who basically said that in order to teach, one had to have a degree in education. Since mine is in anthropology, I was getting ready to leave-when someone else mentioned that the county had a new program to recruit special education teachers. The need was great, and the funding was in place to provide intensive training and master's degree-level college classes, so my "wrong degree" was less of a problem.

This program â€" called the Resident Teacher Certification program â€" recognizes that many people have the skills and desire to become teachers, but lack the credentials required by most systems. Under the program, which I joined in June 2004, new teachers take three classes over the summer while working in the extended school-year program as instructional aides. My cohort included 16 people, some of whom had some experience with education, like me. It also included a financial advisor/pizza delivery person, a publisher's rep, a restaurant server, a retired computer programmer, and a social worker. After our intense summer, we all began teaching in Fall 2004. … All but three of our cohort have continued beyond the first year.

For more career Intelligence visit www.agentk-12.org