Learning to Teach
Written by Kelly Fodel
MAE 2009 Volume: 4 Issue: 6 (November/December)
Educators Say Military Experiences Provide a Good
Starting Point for Teaching and Instructional Careers.
Military veterans have a variety of opportunities available to them as they pursue careers as educators. Some prefer the traditional route of teaching school-aged children in a K-12 setting. Others choose to parlay their military skills into jobs as vocational instructors or educators in the fields of information technology or medical sciences.
“I believe that there is a tremendous number of options available to veterans interested in pursuing a career in education,” said Tom Flemming, director of the ITT Technical Institute in Columbus, Ohio. “There are so many schools, teaching a wide array of subjects, [that] it is simply a matter of the veteran identifying the best opportunity and best match.”
Flemming, a retired command sergeant major, said that in his experience, the best subjects to study with the goal of becoming an educator are those related directly to students’ military specialties, which might, for example, be electronics or criminal justice. That background that they have gives the eventual teachers a background and credibility that improves their ability to teach and smoothes the transition from being in the military to teaching in a classroom.
Flemming noted that a number of veterans now teach at ITT, whose programs of study include electronics, Web development, computer programming and networking, computer drafting and design, criminal justice, and business and health sciences. Though some vocational schools will accept a teaching candidate’s experience in a particular field in place of a formal education, many require at least an associate or bachelor’s degree in education. At the very least, a certificate in vocational training would be helpful to the servicemember who wishes to become an instructor.
At ITT, for example, a candidate needs, at a minimum, a bachelor’s degree, for lower-division core classes, or a master’s degree, for general education classes and upper-division core classes. The degree should be in the field taught or a related field; in any case, a candidate must have at least 18 semester hours of credit in the field he or she will be teaching. Additional certifications and work experience are taken into account in the selection process but are not required for an instructor position. Other than the educational requirements, Flemming said the most desirable asset a new instructor can possess is demonstrated prior success in teaching others, either in a formal classroom or a training setting.
Flemming said once someone decides to be an educator, that person should take advantage of college degree opportunities at each installation and even pursue teaching opportunities within the military.
“The experience I gained from 4 1/2 years of teaching in the military were invaluable,” Flemming said. “I was fortunate to also serve as a training developer, which gave me the opportunity to work from the beginning [program of instruction development] to the end [graduation].”
TEACHING CERTIFICATES
There are a variety of educational programs at colleges and universities for those desiring a career in vocational or technical education. For example, the University of West Florida offers a certificate in career and technical education (CTE). This is a 12- to 15-hour program that can not only help prepare students to teach in the career and technical education arena but also provide an avenue for students to meet state certification requirements in Florida. It can be obtained fully online for either undergraduate or graduate credit and provides both theoretical and practical knowledge in the methods of teaching, assessment, modifications for special needs populations, principles and history of CTE, and course design.
For those students seeking a degree program, UWF, among other education-related options, offers a bachelor’s degree in teacher education that prepares individuals to teach at the middle or high school levels or at career and technical centers. Certification is district-approved in the areas of business education, industrial and technical education, health occupations and marketing education. This is a traditional program of study, as opposed to an online or distance learning program, that requires face-to-face interaction with UWF’s faculty.
John Carey, UWF’s online campus military coordinator, said that in his experience veterans tend to want to teach at the middle or secondary levels of education in the areas of mathematics, science or technology.
“Having served and functioned in a highly structured environment, veterans are well educated in the arts and sciences—science, technology, electronics, engineering and math—and tend to be good managers,” Carey said. “[They tend to be] team players with the administration; have high expectations of their students and themselves; [and] believe in their own effectiveness.”
More information on schools with flexible programs for pursuing education careers is available at the Defense Activity for Non-Traditional Education Support (DANTES) Website at www.dantescatalogs.com. Servicemembers wishing to become school teachers should also check out DANTES’ Troops to Teachers (TTT) program, which was established in 1994 and operates a network of offices providing counseling and other assistance to military personnel pursuing careers as public school teachers in specially designated school districts.
Along with help in winning certification and finding jobs, the program also provides stipends of up to $5,000 for covering certification costs and bonuses of $10,000 for veterans that elect to teach at least three years at designated schools with high percentages of students from low-income families. ✯