What is a good area to get your masters in when you are already a teacher?

It depends on your passion. I would hate to do all that work for something I wasn’t passionate about.

My wife is going for her masters in Special Education. There is a big demand for Special Ed teachers.

If you like management rather than teaching, you can get a Master’s in school administration, and if you like guidance or college counsellng, then you get that Master’s.

If you love teaching, neither of these jobs will make you happy.

I havent began teaching on my own yet but I have student taught. As of now I think I only like teaching but I am not sure what counseling and administration entales. Do you know? I was interested in Special Ed or to the other extreme the Gifted and Talented. I wish there was a list or website I can look at that has a list of the available master programs for teachers.

As others have said, it really depends on what you like to do. If you want to aim at being a school principal, then school administration. Think about what the principal and assistant principal do at the schools you have been involved with to get an idea of what they do. It ranges from personnel management, through budgeting, through a thorough knowledge of education law, to dealing with parents.

If you want to be in huge demand in the classroom, then special education. If you like dealing with bright kids then gifted and talented. If you are interested in steering kids in the right direction, or working with troubled kids, then counseling.

You can also get a Master’s in psychology if you want to work at making life better for special ed kids without necessarily staying in the classroom. You would be involved in ARD meetings, testing kids to determine if they need services and what services might they need, and possibly even setting policy for a school or a district in regard to kids with special needs.

And finally, if you want to move into middle school or high school teaching, then degrees in science or math can be very useful. I know in Texas we are desperately short of folks in those fields.

My wife is getting her masters in mathematics. She is a high school teacher but wants to teach higher level math to college age students. I think you need to figure out what you want to do with your career and then based on that get your master’s in something that would help you in that area.

@missjena You should check this out.

Also just check out collegeboard.com in general. There’s TONS of stuff on different careers there.

@AstroChuck Has your wife taught SpEd and wants to up her skills or is she going for her Master’s going into the field? We see a much greater number of SpEd teachers burn out than any other discipline. Almost everyone undermines them. I was introduced to the system in 1972 when it first became law that handicapped children were given the right to an education. At my daughter’s first IEP at the age of three there were 16 people sitting around a table working out an annual plan and goals. Today when one of my students has an IEP it is usually me, the SpEd counselor and the kid. Other teachers complain about having these kids in class but don’t bother to show up. Even parents don’t show up because they have a job or don’t have a car. Once a year and you can’t show up for a meeting?

Also they keep piling on silly regulations to prevent fast and effective servuces. Quite often by the time the teacher realizes that a child needs services it can be 2 months, then the testing process can be 4 months and by the time services are provided the year is over.

I decided to become a teacher when my daughter was graduating and all her school support people assumed I would go into SpEd but I knew the stress would kill my desire to teach.

@galileogirl- My wife teaches developmentally disabled and absolutely loves it. Another bonus is small class size (only 8 students in class last year) and two aides.

Are you interested in teaching students for whom English is a second language?