When I accepted my job for this year, I took it knowing a couple of things.... 1) The job was a one-year long term sub position for a maternity leave with little chance of me actually getting to keep the job for more than the one year contract and 2) my husband is applying to medical schools so I probably wouldn't be in Illinois anyway. As it turns out, the old teacher is DEFINITELY coming back and my husband is DEFINITELY not going to med school in Illinois so it doesn't even matter anyway. I am really going to miss this first job of mine though. The school is wonderful, the students and staff are amazing, and I look forward going to work every day. This was a wonderful experience and an amazing opportunity. I am so grateful to have had this be my first job. I'm still not quite sure where I'm going to be working next year because my husband has been accepted to a school in Pennsylvania, wait listed from a school in Florida, and waiting to here back from a school in Michigan. That means I am looking for jobs in lots of different places.
I am already certified to teach K-12 Spanish and 6-12 Math in Michigan and now Illinois. Although in order to teach middle school in Illinois, I think I may have to take another class or two. However, with the possibility of moving to Florida or Pennsylvania, I need to start the certification process for those states as well since I may not know where I'm moving for awhile. I took 3 tests in Michigan to be certified, as well as 3 different (yet eerily similar...) tests in Illinois. Pennsylvania requires different tests still! Which, of course, are not cheap. I think I need to sign up for 7 total, although 3 are really all rolled into 1. Plus, I need to have certification before I can be hired, so I've been told. This wasn't the case in Illinois as I just finalized my certification in this state about a month ago. In Pennsylvania, they are switching to an online system from paper so that transition is eating up a lot of their time. This means that they are pretty backed up and it seems to take 2-3 months for the certification process. With no email address and a 90-minute hold for phone calls to a call center, it's been difficult to get my questions answered. Florida has a pretty straight-forward process... submit a bunch of documents, pay a fee, and voila! I'll be certified in Florida. (From what I can tell... I still need to do more research to be certain.)
Even though I've just started this process, I've already learned a lot. My advice for those applying for certification in a new state? Start as EARLY as possible, be prepared to take more tests, and try to get an email address or a direct phone number whenever possible. While I couldn't have started the process much sooner than I did, I am a few weeks behind and could have already had a couple of the tests done and over with. This process is stressful but will be worth it in the end when I get my second job! Maybe my goal will be to see in how many different states I can earn my certification? Oooo, I could even add another country and teach English abroad in the future! This could be fun :)
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