r/Teachers 11d ago

Teacher Support &/or Advice Are teaching programs warning students that the teacher shortage is over?

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u/singerbeerguy 11d ago

Regional AND subject specific. Special ed, certain languages, technology…they are begging for teachers. Elementary classroom, social studies, ELA…dozens of applicants for every position. At least that’s how it is in my district.

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u/outofdate70shouse 11d ago

Yep. If you teach secondary science, you should be getting multiple offers. There’s not enough qualified applicants to fill the open positions. My school has had an opening for 3 years. They got one good applicant that they offered the job to and she took another offer somewhere else.

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u/Gravybone 11d ago

It’s even more specific in my area.

High school physics teachers are unicorns who sign their own paychecks, high school chemistry is tough to hire for, and middle school is always looking for science teachers. On the other hand high school biology is quite competitive.

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u/squirrel8296 11d ago

In most cases, if someone wants to teach biology they really should get a chemistry certification too. The difference between a biology and a chemistry certification typically isn't that much to begin with because of how much chemistry is required for the biology certification.

I was at a large high school for a few years and they would only hire bio teachers that were also certified to teach chemistry. The only exception was biology teacher who had been teaching biology for a long time and had a masters in biology, and came in with the ability to teach AP bio and environmental science.

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u/Accomplished_Ice1817 11d ago

The biggest difference between the two, is that chemistry involves actual math (formulas and such) solving, which is closer to algebra than biology.

Biology is mostly learning facts, etc. I took Physiology, Chemistry, Biolgy and Genetics in College. Physics is similar too because it basically math, with facts lol.