I am very close to obtaining an elementary school teaching degree (46 of 49 credits completed), and as of this year I am a full time teacher at a private school (which doesn't have to care whether I officially have a license). My masters program is considered among the best in the state.
Unfortunately, I don't have many good things to say about my masters program. The majority of my classes have been interesting but useless in a real classroom. Teaching is just one of those things that you largely learn by doing.
Teaching does take a lot of skill and practice—I am surrounded at work by more experienced colleagues, and watching them always leaves me impressed—but I don't think it's something you can learn from a textbook.
Similarly, the licensure exams are just awful, at least in New York. I will leave you with a real practice test question from the official preparation materials. This is for the content knowledge test on "Science and Technology".
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A construction company is evaluating proposals for the creation of a new playground. They are using the following scale to assess the relevant criteria:
+--------------+------------------------+
| Scale number | Scale score assessment |
+--------------+------------------------+
| 1 | Far below standards |
| 2 | Below Standard |
| 3 | Meeting standard |
| 4 | Exceeding standard |
+--------------+------------------------+
Use the chart below to answer the question that follows:
+----------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
| Criteria | Company 1 | Company 2 | Company 3 | Company 4 |
+----------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
| Safety | 3 | 4 | 3 | 1 |
| Quality | 3 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| Creativity | 4 | 3 | 3 | 4 |
| Sustainability | 3 | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| Utility | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 |
+----------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
According to the evaluation detailed in the chart, which company should be awarded the project?
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Ready for the answer? Take a moment to think about it before looking...
The answer key says it's company four, because they have "the highest overall score. We are not told any information about categories being weighted and therefore we cannot pay special attention to the low safety score."