Welcome to A to Z, breakfree! Answering your question is a little complicated, because each state sets its own standards for teachers, and what's required also varies depending on the ages or content you'd like to teach. If you want to teach in California, your best bet is probably to telephone the local county office of education (COE, except in Orange County, where it's the department of education or DE) and ask one of the credential analysts what you need to do. At the least, you may need your university transcript evaluated, and you'll probably need to take a US Constitution exam; at the most, in addition to CBEST, you'll need to take a CSET exam and you might need to enter a teaching-credential program that can last between nine months and a couple of years. CBEST is a basic-skills test (reading comprehension, essay writing, basic math) developed for California; it's accepted (alongside some other tests) in Washington state and Oregon, and I think some other states might accept it as well. It is, as the logicians say, "necessary but not sufficient" for teaching in California, because it covers neither subject-matter knowledge nor teaching practice.
Thank you so much! Thank you, Teacher Groupie!!! Yes, I am in California, Orange County, for the time being. I'm going to follow your advice and call these guys to see what I need exactly in order to be able to teach here. I do have all my diplomas with me and they are already translated into English so... I hope all this process will have a happy ending. One more question, if I may... Talking about teaching in California, is it more difficult to get a teaching job at a private school or at a public school? Is there a significant salary difference? Thank you again for all your help!!!
The Southern California coastal strip as a whole has been pretty difficult for jobs in most credential areas for a number of years, though one hears rumors of an increase in hiring this year. If you're looking for work in science or math, your chances are (probably) better than if you're hoping to teach elementary education or social studies or one of the non-core subjects. Salaries in private schools on average are probably lower than in public schools, but there are doubtless exceptions. If the market is tight for public schools, it's usually also tight for private schools. You might try looking for bilingual dual-immersion programs in which the target language is your native language.
Oh, well... Oh, well, I hope I'll find something eventually. Teaching is something I really like to do, but I have serious doubts regarding bi-lingual schools Romanian/ English . I'm also thinking about special education. I called the people at the DE and I hope they'll call me back 'cause the person in charge was not there when I called. Thank you again for all your help!
Able to teach it? It's in my veins! I used to teach Romanian for such a long period of time. And my students were aged between 6 to 60 . I taught Romanian as a native language and also a secondary language. I would love to teach it here, but ... I honestly do not believe it would be possible. Why are you asking?
(I never answered this, did I? Tsk.) I asked because I can imagine a high school, perhaps, advertising for a composition teacher and deciding to hire the one who could also run a Romanian language club after school. It would be up to you, though, to ensure that the school knows that you could do this. How you'd go about getting credentialed to teach Romanian specifically in grades K-12, I'm less sure: that would be a good question for the people at OCDE.
