Re: Teaching Masters

[Robert Cohen <Robert.Cohen@PO-BOX.ESU.EDU>]

On Wednesday, October 13, 2004 3:46 PM, John Denker wrote:
> Being a bit of an eccentric myself, I would urge him to look
> into case (a) with a _research_ assistantship, if that can be
> arranged.  That would put him in the all-too-unusual
> situation of having a teaching certificate and real research
> experience. That would prepare him to do things that most
> other people can't.
>    (This may be tricky to arrange, because many places that offer
>    assistantships like to give teaching assistantships to the
>    first-year grad students, and give research assistantships
>    to the more-experienced students.  Also beware that some
>    hoity-toity physics departments would consider anyone avowedly
>    working toward a terminal masters to be a pariah.)

This may not be as unusual or as difficult as you might think.
After all, my path was similar to this and I don't think of
myself as unusually gifted.  The only difference was that
I was completing MS at a different university than my MEd (but
I still completed both at roughly the same time).

In addition, just because the student expresses an interest in the
terminal masters does not mean the institution won't give a research
assistantship (RA).  In my case, my MS institution gave me the
RA despite my insistence that I was leaving with a terminal MS.
They offered the RA betting that I would change my mind.  As it
turned out, they were right.  Meanwhile, many of the other students
in my class (who were seeking PhD's) left after the masters.

Initially, I didn't even want the RA and turned them down.  I only
accepted on the condition that they would let me teach on the
side occasionally.

____________________________________________________
Robert Cohen; 570-422-3428; www.esu.edu/~bbq
East Stroudsburg University; E. Stroudsburg, PA 18301