If you’re a teacher, you’ve got some options open to you, and it’s a good idea to consider what you might want to do in the future. You can stay exactly where you are, which isn’t a bad thing if this is what’s best for you. After all, there’s a teaching shortage, and the more classroom teachers the world has, all the better for the children who need a good education.
However, if you want to try something different and advance your career, it’s worth looking into the different ways you might be able to do it and what’s available in terms of continuing education for teachers. Read on for some things you can consider if you want to move forward but you’re not sure which direction to go in or even what’s available to you.
Specialization
You might be surprised at just how many different specialisms a teacher could move onto. Rather than teaching children a general education, you can choose to specialize in something that will set you apart and show you to be an expert at what you do.
Some of the areas you might want to specialize in include:
- Literacy
- Science
- Technology
- The arts
- Engineering
- Mathematics
- Emotional development
Whatever you want to do, you’ll need to ensure that not only do you have the experience to do it, but also the qualifications. This is why investigating the different options and going back to school when you need to is always a good idea.
Of course, the great thing about this is that there are online courses you can apply for, meaning that you don’t have to sacrifice time out of your career to study; you can do both at the same time and get ahead as a result.
Departmental Leadership
Perhaps you’re already a specialist or are in terms of the fact that you teach a specific subject rather than being a general teacher (as would be the case in an elementary school, for example). What are your options then?
Of course, you can always choose a new speciality and go back to school as mentioned above so that you can take your career in a different direction.
However, if you’re happy being a specialist in the area that you’re already an expert in, your next step could be to become a departmental leader.
When you lead a school department, you can still teach students (which not all teaching advancement options will offer), but you’ll also be responsible for designing the curriculum and ensuring that every other teacher in your department is working with the students’ best interests at heart.
You can also offer mentoring and coaching to newer teachers, and you can pass on the knowledge you’ve gained in that way. If you like the idea of managing others and still being a hands-on teacher in the classroom, departmental head is a great position to aim for.
School Administration
It could be that you feel that you don’t want to work in a classroom anymore, but you also want to continue working in education. If this sounds accurate, you can transition out of the classroom by turning to school administration instead. Positions in this area include principal or vice principal, deans, directors of admissions, and so on.
These are highly responsible jobs, and even though you wouldn’t be teaching in the same way, you would still have ultimate control over the education offered in your school. For many, this is the ultimate goal when they start their teaching career.
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