Hanna Schmidt
Mrs. Shank
Teacher Academy
6 October 2020
Chapter 3
3.2 Career Paths
1.12 Identify the scope of career opportunities and the requirements for education,
training, certification, licensure, and experience.
After high school, I would like to pursue a career in education. With that in mind, I have
created a Prezi that outlines my potential career path plan (evidence 3.2.1). As I began to
assemble this plan, I realized there were many factors to consider. To address each factor I will
identify the progress I have made in high school, career opportunities I may come across, and the
required education, training, certification, licensure and experience I will need.
Right now, I am a junior at Olentangy High school, and I have already taken steps in
efforts to move my career path plan along. The steps I have completed consist of the ACT,
college tours and personality tests. I have taken the ACT once and am signed up to take it an
additional three times this school year. I have been fortunate enough to visit colleges both in and
out of Ohio. I have toured around the campuses of Capital University, Ohio State University and
Highpoint University. Through these college visits, as well as personality tests I have taken on
the side, I have learned I would like to attend a small college with small class size. This type of
college is best suited for me because I like the idea of structure and consistency. For example,
knowing the people and places that surround me. Also, I thrive off of human interaction which
means I find importance in obtaining relationships with both my teachers and other students. All
of these traits are suggested/can be found in my self-assessment reflection (evidence 3.2.2).
The specific career choice I plan to pursue in education is a high school level English
teacher. I have come to this conclusion based on my love for reading and writing, and knowing
my personality type is suggested to teach (evidence 3.2.3). My goal is to major in English paired
with a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Secondary Education. With research, I have learned that
English teachers are often very versatile and qualified to teach various classes within a school. In
specific, it is common for an English teacher to supervise a school’s drama program or advise
portions of the journalism program such as the newspaper or yearbook (evidence 3.2.4). The
journalism career opportunity, in particular, excites me because I have been a part of my school’s
journalism program for three years and plan to continue it throughout the rest of high school.
Although I am most interested in becoming an English teacher, some other career opportunities I
may come across consist of an administration role, special education or being a guidance
counselor.
In order to be considered when applying for a teaching job, there are standards and
requirements that must be met. First, I would need to have student teaching experience and a
degree in education (evidence 3.2.5). By successfully following my career path plan, these two
requirements will be met. Next, I would need a state issued teacher licensure. In Ohio, this can
be achieved with a Bachelor’s degree, a teacher preparation program, passing the State Board of
Education exams and 12 semester hours of coursework reading (evidence 3.2.6). In addition to
the physical requirements, a teacher needs to meet the characteristic standards as well. Teachers
are posed with issues everyday and how they handle them reveals a lot about their character.
Important character traits of a teacher include leadership, motivation, reliability, patience, and
having initiative (evidence 3.2.7). Alongside those characteristics, I am also an organized,
hardworking and approachable person. Having these characteristics will help further qualify me
to fill a teaching position.
Through Teacher Academy I will learn the basics of education, and attending my
placements will help me get hands-on experience to assure that this is the career path I want to
take.
