Re: Teaching in America

[John Clement <clement@HAL-PC.ORG>]

If you want to come to Texas, there is a shortage of science and math
teachers here.  Since they are now requiring a major in the subject being
taught, the number of licensed teachers is plummeting.  Most teachers will
eventually get their licenses by alternative certification as a result.  The
districts will certify the teachers and even supply some of the courses.  Of
course you will have to take a course on Texas history.  I understand even
some university teachers at state colleges had to do this.  As far as I know
Texas is the only state to require a state history course of all teachers
for certification.  Texas is trying to hire teachers away from other states.
To do this many districts offer higher starting salaries, but with little
room for growth.

In addition Texas requires all certified teachers pass the TASP or state
college entrance exam.  You can be a PhD in physics from one of the top
schools in the world and they still require this.  The certification
requirements are a moving target, but at the moment all teachers have to
pass an exam that covers the theory and practice of teaching at all levels.
Even though you teach HS physics you must know how to teach kindergarten.
If you come to Houston I can recommend a good teacher who can coach you for
these exams.  The current license must be renewed, and you may have to take
courses at regular intervals.  I fortunately managed to get one of the old
lifetime licenses.  When I was taking some of the courses, I ended up
teaching the other students.  It was completely asinine to have a physicist
take a course which covered how to use simple hardware (duplicators) and
calculate simple statistics (mean, STD).  You will have to put up with
courses where you know much more than some of the professors.

The truism about physics teachers in Texas is that they were called coach.
While this may seem extreme, the state had a set of laser disks that could
be used to teach physics without much intervention by the teacher.  I think
this tended to be true mainly in rural districts.  Oh yes, the Southern
states all have extremely low pay.  This is due to the extremely anti union
laws and the fact that traditionally teaching was considered to be women's
work.  The number of males in teaching is still low in the South.

The one advantage of being a physics teacher is that you will have mainly
seniors who have already passed the state high stakes exams.  As a result
you may be exempt from the test review that is often required by many
principals.  This review has eaten up over 80% of the classtime in many
schools.  While senioritis reduces learning to a very low level in the
second semester, many schools let the seniors take their final exams as much
as 2 weeks early.  You get rid of the students sooner than other teachers.

Despite all this it is possible to actually help physics students learn to
think.  Most physics teachers have a lot more freedom than other teachers,
because physics is an elective generally taken by seniors.  It really
depends on the school.  I was in the situation of advocating reform, and as
a result the administration came down on me because of student complaints.
The reality was that I was doing EXACTLY the same things as the other
teachers, but I took a different attitude.  My grade distribution was the
same as the other teachers, but they still complained I failed too many
students (I hardly failed any). We parted on unfriendly terms.  At the
moment I have the freedom to use research based material, and I am having a
great deal of success.  The barriers to good teaching are formidable, but it
is possible.

John M. Clement
Houston, TX

> Hello I'm a physics grad and am wandering how I go about moving to America
> (from sunny England) and teaching.  Are there any professional bodies I
> should get in touch with.  Is a physics degree OK to start teaching?   Any
> help or suggesting would be greatfully appreciated.
>                            Yours Sincerely
>                                 Alex