Hello.
I am currently an English Education major actually in my last week or so of student teaching. I can say the experience has definitely been rocky I walked in unprepared and not knowing what to expect and now I'm currently grinding to pass this placement and on the verge of submitting my edTPA. While, the people in my department want to see me succeed I can't fight the feeling that I have fallen out of favor in the department/major. In my teaching experience I have thrived in terms of building relationships with students, I write well-thought out lessons, I know the content well, I work well in small groups and one-on-one with students but have really struggled with classroom management often times too lax, I have struggled with preparation and organization. I've had a lot of personal issues that have affected my drive and performance, my heart is in teaching and education but my mind just hasn't been. Over this placement I have strong doubts about myself and my supervisor has picked up on it as well as whether this is the route I'm going to take. I thought I always wanted to be a teacher, after all there aren't too many male teachers of color. However, I just don't enjoy the day-to-day work and politics that come with this career and I can see myself burning out. I'm 22 years old and I'm extremely stressed out about my future. I wasted my TAP and PELL eligibility as my student teaching semester brought me over 4 years. I know pretty much from now on it's going to be straight loans.
I've been thinking of going to grad school I'm going to have to do it anyway within 5 years even if I want to be a teacher. But I'm considering going to become a literacy specialist or speech pathologist. I recall growing up with an IEP and being pulled out of classes for speech. I feel like I would thrive in a more intimate environment with students. I see it as another way to make a positive impact. I also like the fact that I am not limited to schools but can also work in clinical settings as well, it seems like a more versatile career. It seems to be a lot more flexible and less stressful than teaching. I hear there is also a shortage of jobs in speech pathology. I also see that speech pathologists earn more money than teachers.
The grad program at my school would probably accept me. I may have some coursework done as well I took Methods, Special Ed, and Foundations of Language with some Speech Pathology students. My school does require 25 credits in undergraduate speech pathology courses, and some classes that I have not taken such as statistics and a physical science. So all in all it seems like it would take some time to just get into the program.
My question for you guys is what do you think or my situation would this be a good alternate route for me? What should I expect in the speech pathology program and career? What is the purpose of the Math classes? Are there any alternate routes suggested?
As soon as the semester ends I'm going to have a meeting with my department head to discuss this and I also want to head over to the speech pathology program to speak to someone and see what they tell me. But I'd like to hear from you guys as well.