TheApple

Hi everyone,

I'm 25, and have been out of college for just over 2 years now.  I graduated with an environmental science degree, thinking I wanted to do environmental research but quickly realizing I didn't.

I'm thinking now that I may want to be a teacher.  I love to teach.  I'm entering into my 4th winter as a children's ski instructor (different from classroom teaching I know, but it is teaching something) and have spent my summers mostly working at summer camps or outdoor education programs.  I've thought about being a teacher since I was very young.

But I'm not interested in being a regular classroom teacher.  To be honest, the thought of being responsible for the education of 30 or so little ones scares the crap outta me.  What I'm much more interested in is working with the kids that can't function in regular classes due to behavioral issues, whether in a seperate classroom or a seperate school.  I have a bit of experience with this after doing a year of Americorps.  One of our projects was working in a school as tutors and teacher's aids, and I spent a ton of time with a 3rd grade boy that was making his teacher miserable.  She couldn't do much with him because he was constantly going out of his way to bother everyone, tearing up his materials, or just otherwise being a pain.  He refused to do much of anything.  But after some time working with him 1 on 1 I saw a much different kid.  I saw an incredible little boy that was way behind but didn't want his classmates to know it so he played the part of the bully instead.  I got to see him get so genuinely excited and happy as he started to "get" things, and I loved being a part of that.  I would love to find a career where I can work with these types of kids.  There is a therapeutic day school in my area that has stories of many similar kids, and the more I read about these kinds of schools and classrooms I know it's what I want to do.  But I don't know where to go from here to make that happen.

Should I be going for a regular teaching license?  That seems like it would be a lot of focus on something I don't want to be doing (regular classroom teaching), but I'm not sure what else to look for.  I've been looking at a masters degree in special ed, but in my experience it seems special ed is more focused towards kids with disabilities, not behavior issues.  I know that these things sometimes run together, but is there a specific type of program that I should be looking in to?  I've been doing a lot of searching around online, but since i'm not sure of the correct terminology it's been hard to find anything concrete.  I'm also wondering if maybe i'm looking for something too specific and maybe I need to start on a broader scale before I can get to what I want to be doing, but I'm hoping that's not the case.  I'm open to all suggestions here so you experienced folk please advise!

The other possible option i'm considering is to try to get an entry level job at the therapeutic school near me.  It is attached to a children's home so they have a lot of different positions available, though the only ones available now want at least a bachelors in a "human services related field".  So I'm also considering going back to school for a second bachelors degree so I could approach it that way.  I've looked in to it and if I go back to the same school it would only take a year as a part time student if I used the summer too.  They would be classes I'm really interested in and excited about, so I like this idea, though I hate to spend that much extra money and be back with 18 year olds again. 

Finally, I'm also considering trying to get a job as a para so that I can get some work experience in education and get the feel for working in a classroom.  Would this be a good entry into education?  What kind of work does a para actually do?  (Some job descriptions list specifics but some just say "general". 

Thank you so much for reading all of this, and again I greatly appreciate any and all suggestions.  I'm really excited about this idea but also feeling totally lost on the steps to take.

Thanks,

Lil_Turtle

Thanks for your reply.  I guess I'm wondering more about specific types of teaching credentials.

As I've been looking around online, I've found some schools listing a variety of seperate special ed certifications, and some that just say special ed general.  Of course I can't find any specific programs in my state that focus on what I'm looking to do.  That, or perhaps I'm looking it up under the wrong terms.  I'd be happy to go somewhere out of state for school, but since all the license stuff is state by state that wouldn't really do me much good, right?  It just seems silly to be going through the entire regular teacher certification or even the full special ed certification when most of it doesn't relate to what I want to do.  I don't want to be a regular classroom teacher and I'm also not comfortable working with kids with severe disabilities.  Is it too specific to want to work just with kids with behavioral needs?  I know there are schools that work with just these kids, but can't seem to find the right path to take to get to that point.  

Can anyone give me some other ideas as to where I should be looking?

Thanks!

PS I'm planning on getting a masters degree at some point so i'm fine with putting in the time and effort, I just want to make sure I'm looking for and finding the right program for me.