Worked on my certification throughout my first year - really time-consuming but I'm glad I got it over with. They used to offer a Master's course at Belmont, but that got downgraded over the years to a 3-hour apprentice license session every two weeks.

Currently in my third year teaching 8th grade math and I love it. My students' test scores are way, way higher than anyone else at my school, which might be due to the foundation I got from the Teaching Fellows. Not sure what these other teachers are doing, but teaching kids how to do shit like the Pythagorean Theorem isn't exactly difficult. Only downside is that my scores got me named Math Department Chair and now I have more responsibility. I was used to coming in at 8:30 and leaving right at 4:00 pretty much everyday. Oh well. Good for the resume, I suppose.

If you have any legitimate interests/hobbies outside of work and family, teaching is the absolute best profession. I get two weeks off in the fall and spring, close to three weeks in the winter, and two full months off in the summer. I treat those days like DJ boot camp - rip vinyl into Serato from 8-noon, then practice from 1-5 or whenever my wife comes home. None of this spare time has resulted in a new mixtape (kinda wild), but I've gotten infinitely better at my craft with all this time off from work. Pure bliss every day.

Oh and you've gotta love building relationships with these kids. 99% of our students are on free/reduced lunch and way too many of them go home to seriously fucked-up households. Gotta make sure they enjoy and take advantage of every second in this building.

Alright that was some stream-of-consciousness shit but feel free to inbox me anytime. Working 170 days a year for $42,000 is absolutely worth it to me. Regardless of what they offer in your state, teaching kids is pretty much priceless.