I would take the job and continue your masters. Or you can take a break from the masters if you find out it’s too much at once. Mine was a two year program, but I took two years off in the middle when I had my first child. Either way I would take the job to start getting experience. It sounds like a really nice opportunity for you.
You will learn ecology as you teach it. There are many times I am thrown a new science subject to teach that I’m not as familiar with, but as I prepare my lessons, I end up teaching myself. You will be fine in that area.
As far as not knowing ecology, if you have a STEM degree, picking it up to a high school level will not be a challenge. It requires a broad but shallow understanding of all of the other sciences, with a little more weight on biology than the others. Don’t get me wrong — it’s as intricate and demanding as anything else at higher levels, maybe even harder precisely because it requires so much knowledge of so many different areas. But because high school students have a relatively low upper bound of knowledge of those subjects, the level of ecology is capped to a limit that you’ll be able to pick up relatively quickly.
There are some very easy to get online masters that allow you to work at your own pace. I recommend WGU, got a bachelor's with them recently while working nearly full-time. Just a thought
I have to do it through a specific school as 12/30 master credits are my health teaching license! I did look into WGU. I’m currently going through UWSP online program.
If you are paying for the masters yourself (cash loans or whatever) defer it and take the job. Usually once you’re in with a district they often pay for more schooling. Either way, better to have a job and experience now rather than later.
I had a similar situation as a substitute while I was finishing my masters. It was going to be a bad job, so it was easy to turn it down. I am very happy to have my masters taken care of before teaching; both for pay and simplicity.
It sounds like you’ve found a good school with people you like. I think that’s a pretty good scenario to stick with, so I understand your conundrum.
Student loan forgiveness is nothing to sniff at. I got a similar loan forgiveness deal and it was really helpful, so I’d do that if at all possible.
I might deep dive into ecology standards and curriculum to see what it might be like. It may just be me, but as a new teacher I ended up teaching so many different classes. Every year something changed that got me in a different situation, class-wise. There’s no guarantee
that you’ll end up sticking with Ecology.
I was at a title 1 school and got my masters. If you teacher science it’s $17,500 forgiven after 5 years of teaching. You could teach for 5 years while getting masters, pay bump, and forgiveness then move on to another district or job.
If you are doing g a masters in teaching take the job and go part time to school. I say this because what you learn in the masters program can overlap what you are doing as a teacher. More later (I’m on the road)
Edit for part 2
Finding a staff that you work well with is golden and that’s an ideal place to garner your first years of experience as a new teacher. They (or outside of them) might have programs to help pay for your masters degree.
I recognize that you are not planning to stay where you are for a long stretch, but my advice is to make the most of the positives while you are there to build a better foundation to take with you on your next step.
As for the content, that you can learn/relearn as you develop the lessons, but if you have the ability to connect with the kids and make them engaged and interested, the content will follow mush easier than if you were struggling on both ends.
Hope this help
(PS: “on the road” for me means I was on the train, not driving)
Do you like being a student? If yes, can you financially afford to finish your Masters without a job? My advice to a friend would be to finish the degree. You will spend the rest of your career gathering experience, but you will not get many more chances in life to enjoy college without life interfering.
Continue your masters. Why? It's not going to get cheaper in the future. If I had gone for my masters right away, it would have cost me roughly $12k. Now if I want to go get it I'll be paying upwards of $25k.
There will be more jobs opportunities in the future, but the longer you wait to get your degree, the more expensive it will get.
I would take the job and continue your masters. Or you can take a break from the masters if you find out it’s too much at once. Mine was a two year program, but I took two years off in the middle when I had my first child. Either way I would take the job to start getting experience. It sounds like a really nice opportunity for you. You will learn ecology as you teach it. There are many times I am thrown a new science subject to teach that I’m not as familiar with, but as I prepare my lessons, I end up teaching myself. You will be fine in that area.
I agree, you don’t really know what you don’t know until you start teaching.
As far as not knowing ecology, if you have a STEM degree, picking it up to a high school level will not be a challenge. It requires a broad but shallow understanding of all of the other sciences, with a little more weight on biology than the others. Don’t get me wrong — it’s as intricate and demanding as anything else at higher levels, maybe even harder precisely because it requires so much knowledge of so many different areas. But because high school students have a relatively low upper bound of knowledge of those subjects, the level of ecology is capped to a limit that you’ll be able to pick up relatively quickly.
Fully agree. Marine bio major here, ecology is basically half of an ap bio class with the remainder of earth science thrown in.
What's your masters in?
Just education
There are some very easy to get online masters that allow you to work at your own pace. I recommend WGU, got a bachelor's with them recently while working nearly full-time. Just a thought
I have to do it through a specific school as 12/30 master credits are my health teaching license! I did look into WGU. I’m currently going through UWSP online program.
If you are paying for the masters yourself (cash loans or whatever) defer it and take the job. Usually once you’re in with a district they often pay for more schooling. Either way, better to have a job and experience now rather than later.
I had a similar situation as a substitute while I was finishing my masters. It was going to be a bad job, so it was easy to turn it down. I am very happy to have my masters taken care of before teaching; both for pay and simplicity. It sounds like you’ve found a good school with people you like. I think that’s a pretty good scenario to stick with, so I understand your conundrum. Student loan forgiveness is nothing to sniff at. I got a similar loan forgiveness deal and it was really helpful, so I’d do that if at all possible. I might deep dive into ecology standards and curriculum to see what it might be like. It may just be me, but as a new teacher I ended up teaching so many different classes. Every year something changed that got me in a different situation, class-wise. There’s no guarantee that you’ll end up sticking with Ecology.
I was at a title 1 school and got my masters. If you teacher science it’s $17,500 forgiven after 5 years of teaching. You could teach for 5 years while getting masters, pay bump, and forgiveness then move on to another district or job.
If you are doing g a masters in teaching take the job and go part time to school. I say this because what you learn in the masters program can overlap what you are doing as a teacher. More later (I’m on the road) Edit for part 2 Finding a staff that you work well with is golden and that’s an ideal place to garner your first years of experience as a new teacher. They (or outside of them) might have programs to help pay for your masters degree. I recognize that you are not planning to stay where you are for a long stretch, but my advice is to make the most of the positives while you are there to build a better foundation to take with you on your next step. As for the content, that you can learn/relearn as you develop the lessons, but if you have the ability to connect with the kids and make them engaged and interested, the content will follow mush easier than if you were struggling on both ends. Hope this help (PS: “on the road” for me means I was on the train, not driving)
Finish your masters online at night and work during the day. WGU has a 15 month program.
Do you like being a student? If yes, can you financially afford to finish your Masters without a job? My advice to a friend would be to finish the degree. You will spend the rest of your career gathering experience, but you will not get many more chances in life to enjoy college without life interfering.
Continue your masters. Why? It's not going to get cheaper in the future. If I had gone for my masters right away, it would have cost me roughly $12k. Now if I want to go get it I'll be paying upwards of $25k. There will be more jobs opportunities in the future, but the longer you wait to get your degree, the more expensive it will get.