Teaching Physics and Maths

rahmalec

I am thinking about pursuing a career in teaching and would like some advice, opinions, etc, on whether you think teaching at the 2nd level would be a good profession to get into based on my subjects (physics and math), and the stuff I'm saying below.


To sum up my situation.

I graduated two years ago with a BSc in Physics, got top grades and am now doing an MSc by research but have figured out, the hard way, that this is not the path I want to take. I'm still passionate about physics and maths in general but not in research and not in one specific area.

For my teaching experience, I'm also a musician and teach private students regularly. I don't have a whole lot of class teaching experience but I have taught several classes of various age groups music. I also teach physics labs to undergrads regularly (which is my favourite part of my course at the moment, including correcting the reports!).

I'm well aware of the situation regarding employment in general, but I've heard the chances of finding jobs are somewhat higher for my subjects. Maybe people here could inform me. The list of degrees recognised by the teaching council shows that I can teach maths with my degree, although I'd have to check to be sure, as I might need a few extra modules.

Also I know perfectly well that teaching is not just teaching, but also planning for lessons, correcting, dealing with different personalities, etc ...


Some things about myself which would be important regarding teaching.

Pros:
- I'm patient.
- I don't tend to favour people because of ability, in fact I take pride in seeing people not so good improve a little.
- I know my subjects well.
- I think I'm pretty fair with people
- Don't have a short temper
- I like, and am good (I think) at explaining things
- If something doesn't work, I'd be willing to analyse and improve my methods

Cons:
- I'm not very assertive so I might be a bit of a walk-over (although I'm much better now than I used to be)
- Am a little afraid of the discipline side of things considering what kind of things we used to do when I was in school!


Hope you can give me some advice, and if there's more info you need ...

Thanks.

Fizzical

Sounds like a good plan to me .

It is a good combination of subjects, teachers with a degree in physics are not too common and you seem to have the right reasons for going for it.

Yes, discipline can be interesting but you already know that you like teaching people (which is half the battle) so you can learn...

Good luck!

Lord TSC

- I'm not very assertive so I might be a bit of a walk-over (although I'm much better now than I used to be)
- Am a little afraid of the discipline side of things considering what kind of things we used to do when I was in school!

I can say that those were two things which were also major cons when I did my PGDE last year. Since I was the "good" kid in school who hated to get punished, I hated having to punish people at first. Really, it's just one of those things that you will have to get over and the only way through that is via experience. I'll admit I had a very tough time with some classes even months after I started with them because I had been a push over in the early weeks and I never regained my standing.

It's a confidence issue though and the only way to get more confidence is to get more experience. I found the differences between the classes I took in September and the new ones I took on in January were startling simply cause I had more confidence and experience in how to deal with the above problems. Try not to worry about it and realise its just going to be a matter of building a confidence base up...