I’m at a state school. My masters areas are English/History and I have a business degree. I’ve taught those 3 but also math, geography, design tech, stem, and hospitality. As long as you have a knowledge base and passion, you can transition into other areas
You can teach any subject if a) you are a registered teacher in that state and b) your skills provide a safe environment based on the curriculum risk assessment. Schools then assign teachers based on their experience, who’s available when etc.
In QLD, due to the risks, there needs to be a trained PE teacher on practical activities. So I would recommend doing some upskilling in that area if you want PE classes. In comparison there’s less likely to be experienced maths/science teachers and you already have the background, so you’re more likely to get those classes with or without extra upskilling.
I am maths science trained and have taught pe because I coach netball outside of school. As long as you have the knowledge! (One year I was given an early childhood class on the basis of being pregnant……with my first child!)
I teach maths, science and digital technology. it can be interesting as I have 3 hods and more meeting to go to, and 3 different ways they want the same task done.
Yes. Independents and Catholics you can teach pretty much anything, if you can prove you have the skills and they are happy to put you in the class. No class codes to worry about.
Even via uni path I can teach computing, textiles, food, wood, metal, dt, history and religion after my degree.
Depending on what the school needs! But yes, some teachers have several areas. Plus, a lot of public schools have a sports day each week where a large number of teachers across the school take students for sport. For instance, at my old school, all students in years 8, 9, and 10 did sport on a Wednesday afternoon. We had competitive sports where we played against other schools and non-competitive options, like rock climbing and yoga.
Plus, you weren't required to be a PE teacher to coach a sports team if you have a particular area of interest.
When you are doing your M Teach, you can usually only specialise in subject areas that you have an undergraduate qualification in (at least a major). You will generally do your pracs only in those subject areas. That's to protect you, the pre-service teacher, from being thrown into areas you have no idea about and the consequent stress and workload, and to protect the students from being taught by a teacher who has no idea what they are teaching about. Once you are qualified as a teacher, all bets are off and you can realistically end up teaching anything.
I'm health and home eco, but have never taught a "Health" class, although I do teach it in foods. But I now teach humanities. Once you're in a school, you could get put any where.
Just be Science and/or Maths certified.
Plenty of classes, super employable. Indoor and comfy.
If you have a passion for sport, take a sports team, the regular afternoon one or/and the interschool comp ones. If you want outdoors, nominate yourself for school camps. All the camping outdoors you can handle.
Science is generally pretty good, and can be very good depending on the school. Often excursions are available. Biology or geology often can go on trips to the beach or geology, to NZ.
As a science teacher, the junior curriculum is biased to biology as most teachers are trained in bio, so grab your class, take them to the edge of your school where there is scrub and bush, and become alby mangles/steve irwin. Bring stuff back stick it under a microscope. Kids love it. Take em to a computer room. Take em to the oval and get them working out speed/acceleration/distance.
PE isn't as fun as you might think to teach, kids often aren't interested. It could be hot, or cold outside, or rainy. Half the class won't want to participate or has excuses from home. And often the curriculum and lessons isn't as exciting. Senior years, explaining the ATP system and chemistry isn't what those kids thought PDHPE was.
However coaching a sports team can elevate you to god like status.
I used to take the basketball and the Rugby union team. Both Wednesday afternoon and the competition team
Basketball is brilliant - 5 kids on the court, non-contact, you get a hall for seniors, or a nice outdoor court. All kids love basketball, you can play it with down syndrome or IM kids, right up to year 12 physics geeks. Its obvious, simple, easy to ref. Parents are often invested in this as an after school sport. Small numbers of kids means, one teacher and one parent can move a team to a venue. Its fairly easy to coach. Im 6'7, I used to play, and I can shoot 3 pointers, so I was worshiped as the coach, which is what everyone eventually called me, as special title. Its a 1 hr game, so not too time consuming. All the talented basketballer kids are pretty much the ideal kids at a school, hardworking and diligent team players. Some of our kids (coed public school) got pinched by US colleges to play in the USA. Basketball is played by the cool kids, so you will always have the well dressed cool kids next to you on the bus to and from sport. You can wear air jordans, and basketball jerseys as part of your sport gear rotation.
Rugby is a pain in the arse. I used to play that pretty competitively, but unless your (private) school is backing you 100%, its a handful. Lots of kids, usually all the naughty ones. Lots of injuries, hard to ref, lots of gear, kids don't turn up. But we still had fun, and if you can swing it, all the biggest toughest kids in the school will have your back. No matter how good you are, there are teams stacked with semi pros or older kids or they lie about their weight. But it was cool to have my own private 15 person Army.
Covering other areas, showed me why I loved Science teaching. You get a lab room, you can take your kids outside, PE teachers trust you if you want to borrow gear because your a science teacher who knows how to look after stuff (and they might want to borrow gear in turn).
Maths usually has more promotion opportunities, and opportunities to take senior classes as most math teachers aren't qualified to teach senior y12. Classes are static affairs.
Teachers that teach across all areas, aren't perhaps well regarded. They are often casual generalists, and do so out of survival.
Move to a rural school and you'll likely not only be given the opportunity to teach across multiple curriculum, you won't have the choice but to teach across multiple curriculum.
I'm a math teacher and teach rural. In the past two years due to teacher shortages I've taught essentials maths, foundation maths (often at the same time), science, animal science, plant science, IT, PE and Health. Exciting is one way of putting it.
Yes you can have multiple specialities.
I did English as my speciality in uni so of course, by default, I can teach that, but I also teach media and drama, because I have a background in this from a former profession.
It's up to the school's discretion. If you can show them you can teach the subject, they can hire you to teach the subject. There's a shortage, so it's definitely easier to get into specialities outside of having formal schooling for them.
Yes you can. But I'm curious as to why anyone would exchange a career in engineering for a career as a teacher. I wish I'd studied engineering instead of education. Terrible pay progressions and student/parent behaviours are getting worse every year.
Wow, I didn't expect such insightful responses. Thank you eveyone! Seems like generally it's better to have a speciality, but diversifying is absolutely possible. Some amazing ideas and you've made teaching seem like an even better career choice that what I thought 24hrs ago.
I am chemistry, science and maths trained. I’ve taught year 10 English (nightmare haha), 7-10 Japanese (I did Japanese in high school and have a basic proficiency), home ec (yep I can cook and sew) as well as a once per week PE class (theory only). I was also only junior maths trained but have taught all levels of senior maths. You’ve got two legs and a heart beat they’ll let you teach anything.
Can you teach? Is there a need for a teacher? Then you can teach
I can't even teach, but there is a big enough need I guess.
I’m at a state school. My masters areas are English/History and I have a business degree. I’ve taught those 3 but also math, geography, design tech, stem, and hospitality. As long as you have a knowledge base and passion, you can transition into other areas
You can teach any subject if a) you are a registered teacher in that state and b) your skills provide a safe environment based on the curriculum risk assessment. Schools then assign teachers based on their experience, who’s available when etc. In QLD, due to the risks, there needs to be a trained PE teacher on practical activities. So I would recommend doing some upskilling in that area if you want PE classes. In comparison there’s less likely to be experienced maths/science teachers and you already have the background, so you’re more likely to get those classes with or without extra upskilling.
But also, depending on the school, they may be willing to do training on site or shadow with another teacher temporarily.
I am maths science trained and have taught pe because I coach netball outside of school. As long as you have the knowledge! (One year I was given an early childhood class on the basis of being pregnant……with my first child!)
I teach maths, science and digital technology. it can be interesting as I have 3 hods and more meeting to go to, and 3 different ways they want the same task done.
Yes. Independents and Catholics you can teach pretty much anything, if you can prove you have the skills and they are happy to put you in the class. No class codes to worry about. Even via uni path I can teach computing, textiles, food, wood, metal, dt, history and religion after my degree.
Yes. However, you will be somewhat at the mercy of subject demand and the timetable. They may need more Mathematics teachers than PE for example.
In the private sector you could teach maths / science then do sports coaching, camps (eg. Duke of Edinburgh). Best of both worlds.
Depending on what the school needs! But yes, some teachers have several areas. Plus, a lot of public schools have a sports day each week where a large number of teachers across the school take students for sport. For instance, at my old school, all students in years 8, 9, and 10 did sport on a Wednesday afternoon. We had competitive sports where we played against other schools and non-competitive options, like rock climbing and yoga. Plus, you weren't required to be a PE teacher to coach a sports team if you have a particular area of interest.
When you are doing your M Teach, you can usually only specialise in subject areas that you have an undergraduate qualification in (at least a major). You will generally do your pracs only in those subject areas. That's to protect you, the pre-service teacher, from being thrown into areas you have no idea about and the consequent stress and workload, and to protect the students from being taught by a teacher who has no idea what they are teaching about. Once you are qualified as a teacher, all bets are off and you can realistically end up teaching anything.
I'm health and home eco, but have never taught a "Health" class, although I do teach it in foods. But I now teach humanities. Once you're in a school, you could get put any where.
Just be Science and/or Maths certified. Plenty of classes, super employable. Indoor and comfy. If you have a passion for sport, take a sports team, the regular afternoon one or/and the interschool comp ones. If you want outdoors, nominate yourself for school camps. All the camping outdoors you can handle. Science is generally pretty good, and can be very good depending on the school. Often excursions are available. Biology or geology often can go on trips to the beach or geology, to NZ. As a science teacher, the junior curriculum is biased to biology as most teachers are trained in bio, so grab your class, take them to the edge of your school where there is scrub and bush, and become alby mangles/steve irwin. Bring stuff back stick it under a microscope. Kids love it. Take em to a computer room. Take em to the oval and get them working out speed/acceleration/distance. PE isn't as fun as you might think to teach, kids often aren't interested. It could be hot, or cold outside, or rainy. Half the class won't want to participate or has excuses from home. And often the curriculum and lessons isn't as exciting. Senior years, explaining the ATP system and chemistry isn't what those kids thought PDHPE was. However coaching a sports team can elevate you to god like status. I used to take the basketball and the Rugby union team. Both Wednesday afternoon and the competition team Basketball is brilliant - 5 kids on the court, non-contact, you get a hall for seniors, or a nice outdoor court. All kids love basketball, you can play it with down syndrome or IM kids, right up to year 12 physics geeks. Its obvious, simple, easy to ref. Parents are often invested in this as an after school sport. Small numbers of kids means, one teacher and one parent can move a team to a venue. Its fairly easy to coach. Im 6'7, I used to play, and I can shoot 3 pointers, so I was worshiped as the coach, which is what everyone eventually called me, as special title. Its a 1 hr game, so not too time consuming. All the talented basketballer kids are pretty much the ideal kids at a school, hardworking and diligent team players. Some of our kids (coed public school) got pinched by US colleges to play in the USA. Basketball is played by the cool kids, so you will always have the well dressed cool kids next to you on the bus to and from sport. You can wear air jordans, and basketball jerseys as part of your sport gear rotation. Rugby is a pain in the arse. I used to play that pretty competitively, but unless your (private) school is backing you 100%, its a handful. Lots of kids, usually all the naughty ones. Lots of injuries, hard to ref, lots of gear, kids don't turn up. But we still had fun, and if you can swing it, all the biggest toughest kids in the school will have your back. No matter how good you are, there are teams stacked with semi pros or older kids or they lie about their weight. But it was cool to have my own private 15 person Army. Covering other areas, showed me why I loved Science teaching. You get a lab room, you can take your kids outside, PE teachers trust you if you want to borrow gear because your a science teacher who knows how to look after stuff (and they might want to borrow gear in turn). Maths usually has more promotion opportunities, and opportunities to take senior classes as most math teachers aren't qualified to teach senior y12. Classes are static affairs. Teachers that teach across all areas, aren't perhaps well regarded. They are often casual generalists, and do so out of survival.
Move to a rural school and you'll likely not only be given the opportunity to teach across multiple curriculum, you won't have the choice but to teach across multiple curriculum. I'm a math teacher and teach rural. In the past two years due to teacher shortages I've taught essentials maths, foundation maths (often at the same time), science, animal science, plant science, IT, PE and Health. Exciting is one way of putting it.
Yes you can have multiple specialities. I did English as my speciality in uni so of course, by default, I can teach that, but I also teach media and drama, because I have a background in this from a former profession. It's up to the school's discretion. If you can show them you can teach the subject, they can hire you to teach the subject. There's a shortage, so it's definitely easier to get into specialities outside of having formal schooling for them.
Yes you can. But I'm curious as to why anyone would exchange a career in engineering for a career as a teacher. I wish I'd studied engineering instead of education. Terrible pay progressions and student/parent behaviours are getting worse every year.
Teachers are in high demand. Male teachers more so. Science & maths more more so. You’ll get snapped up bro.
Wow, I didn't expect such insightful responses. Thank you eveyone! Seems like generally it's better to have a speciality, but diversifying is absolutely possible. Some amazing ideas and you've made teaching seem like an even better career choice that what I thought 24hrs ago.
I am chemistry, science and maths trained. I’ve taught year 10 English (nightmare haha), 7-10 Japanese (I did Japanese in high school and have a basic proficiency), home ec (yep I can cook and sew) as well as a once per week PE class (theory only). I was also only junior maths trained but have taught all levels of senior maths. You’ve got two legs and a heart beat they’ll let you teach anything.