JakeBrodskyPE said:
Think of the degree as a popular psychological discussion of teaching methods. Personally, I think most of it is either common sense, or psycho-babble nonsense.
I think JakeBrodskyPE pretty much got it right. I can speak from personal experience as I recently resigned from teaching high school math and physics. First, I've known several former engineers who went into teaching, both in middle school and in high school. Transitioning from engineering to teaching is actually fairly common from my experience in working at several different schools. The former engineers that I knew had a tremendous amount of personal experience to share with the students, which was quite relevant and enriching. However, I've personally witnessed a couple of these former engineers lose it in the classroom by screaming and swearing at the students for blatantly disobeying directives. One of the guys I knew had to drop back to part time teaching because his doctor told him he was under too much stress and was at risk of a heart attack.
Teaching is incredibly time consuming and very stressful, especially for beginning teachers. Few professionals outside of education have little to no clue about the demand that is placed on teachers, especially full time teachers. Allow me to divulge a bit. First, the average teacher is required to teach roughly an 8 hr day (with one prep period for grading, emails, etc). By the way, to "teach" implies not only delivering a lesson plan with the intent of reaching every student in the room (regardless of learning disabilities, diagnosed or not), but also dealing with the disrespect and classroom management issues. After an average day of teaching, the teacher goes home, grades papers, prepares lesson plans for the next day, answers emails or returns phone calls to parents, etc. Its much worse if you coach. Considering everything I was responsible for as a full time teacher, I worked 60hrs a week, easy. Every weekend during the school year was devoted to tasks associated with my job as a teacher. I had very little time for friends or family. By the way, there's no such thing as overtime pay in education. To that end, the pay that teachers receive in most districts/schools is nothing short of a joke, especially at a private school. Public schools pay better, but they also require the teachers to jump through more hoops.
There are plenty of people who love their teaching job. However, those types of people seem to love the drama that goes along with teaching. Your potential success as an educator at the high school level is completely determined by your personality type. If you're going into teaching with the idealized mental image of a class full of polite adolescent kids giving you their complete and undivided attention, you couldn't be further from reality. This is especially true for new teachers. The adolescent mind does not care how well respected you were as an engineer. Any given classroom has at least a couple of students who are always looking for the opportunity to get a laugh and/or to get the majority of the class off topic and into a different direction. As a teacher, it'll be up to you to redirect them, which is the most exhausting part of teaching.
If you're still reading this, and you still want to go into education, you can become certified fairly easily. You'll need several documents before you're legally allowed to step foot inside a classroom. First, you'll need to get a teaching certification for your state (assuming your in the U.S.). Most states have something called an emergency certification for applicants who fit most of the criteria (aren't convicted felons), which will allow you to teach full time with full pay though its only good for a year, maybe two. In order to teach long term, you'll need to get a fully endorsed credential from your state. Do a google search for "teaching credential (your state)." You'll find your state's dept of education webpage promptly. You can then see what you need to become fully certified. If you have a masters degree in engineering, your set. Most states will issue teaching credentials without question for people who have masters degrees. You'll just need to apply (and pay). Secondly, you need a "fingerprint clearance," or background check. This is to verify you're a good bet to be around minors. Third, you need to become an official child abuse reporter. This is done through your school. As an official child abuse reporter you become lawfully obligated to report ANY suspicious observations as they MIGHT relate to child abuse. Failure to do so in an actual child abuse case can cost you your job. Lastly, you'll need to pay, and become a member, of your districts union if applicable. There might be other criteria as well relative to certain districts.
I could go on, but I think I've reached my quota a couple pages ago.
