Teaching Career Development

Years ago if you wanted to be a private school teacher, you went to college, got a degree in your subject, took a few education courses and began teaching. It's not that easy these days. Most private schools want you to be a trained teacher as well as to have a degree in your subject. But most private schools also want you to be trained to teach the way they want you to teach. After all the teaching is what a private school is all about. The better the teaching, the better the students learn.

The bottom line is that parents send their children to private school for the most part to receive the very best education their money can buy. As a result, employing well-qualified, credentialed faculty is a top priority. This short video clip is one of several clips explaining how to become a private school teacher.

Duties of a private school teacher

Miss Porter's School's description of the duties of a teacher are fairly typical.

"Classroom responsibilities involve four or five courses per academic year and faculty members are expected to contribute to the extra-curricular life of the school and share some dormitory and residential school responsibilities. Qualifications for all teaching positions, therefore, include a demonstrated interest in coaching or coordinating extra-curricular activities and a willingness to fulfill evening and weekend duties.Bachelor's degree required for all faculty positions; Master's preferred."

What does a teacher earn? "Not nearly enough" is the almost universal answer. Scan a site like Salary.com and check out competing jobs. You will see that the problem with teaching is that we demand highly qualified, well-credentialed individuals with experience to take jobs for which we literally pay them less than a dog catcher.

The cynics will say that teachers are well-compensated for what they do. After all, they get all those holidays. And they only work for ten months anyway. The reality is that teachers invest inordinate amounts of time preparing lesson plans, learning new techniques, keeping certifications current and so on. And then there is the cost of that bachelor's degree, the masters and doctorate. Let's face it, the ROI is job satisfaction, not financial reward.

This video discuss the effect teacher compensation has on teacher quality.

Private school teachers are more fortunate than most public school teachers. Why? Because they get to teach their subject to small classes. Real learning takes place in most private school classrooms as a result of low student to teacher ratios. Discipline is rarely a problem. What does this have to do with teacher compensation? Combine job satisfaction with a reasonable compensation package and you will have a happy teacher.

Private school teachers enjoy many perks which are not generally found in the public sector. These include free or reduced tuition for faculty children,