Teaching 3 subjects

storm2811

So I'm in 5th year and looking at colleges and careers and all that and I want to do teaching, but I want to teach history, art and English but from I can see I'll have to get two different degrees, one for art and the other for English & history, do I? Any art teachers I've had have only taught art as well, nothing else, are you able to teach art and other subjects?

Also, my English teacher teaches, English, history, geography, CSPE and religion, how'd she manage to get qualified in all of those?

Thanks.

LilMissCiara

storm2811 wrote: »

So I'm in 5th year and looking at colleges and careers and all that and I want to do teaching, but I want to teach history, art and English but from I can see I'll have to get two different degrees, one for art and the other for English & history, do I? Any art teachers I've had have only taught art as well, nothing else, are you able to teach art and other subjects?

Also, my English teacher teaches, English, history, geography, CSPE and religion, how'd she manage to qualified in all those?

Thanks.

I can't imagine what degree would let your teacher teach all them so I'd guess she did 2 degrees.

Art is so different to English and History so I'd guess you'd need 2 degrees.

Most schools only have 1 art teacher as that is all is needed to cover demand and the timetable. That's the reason they rarely teach anything else.
For the likes of English, every single student in a school has to study it (bar a few) so on average that would be 20 student groups and 100 timetabled classes. Obviously a school needs 5 or 6 English teachers to cover all those classes. Each teacher would then have other classes to fill up their time (ie. of they employed for 30 hours a week they might have 20 hours English, 8 hours of History and 2 hours of SPHE and supervision (fillers as my teachers call them!)

Hope that makes sense!

spurious

storm2811 wrote: »

Also, my English teacher teaches, English, history, geography, CSPE and religion, how'd she manage to qualified in all those?

Thanks.

She's probably not. She's probably got English and History, I would guess.
Once you're qualified, registered and in a job, a teacher can sometimes be called on to teach other subjects if needed. The cuts have made this worse as schools struggle to hold on to subjects.

To be registered to teach a subject, or to get a job in it, you must have a primary degree (that is recognised by the Teaching Council) in that subject.

storm2811

LilMissCiara wrote: »

I can't imagine what degree would let your teacher teach all them so I'd guess she did 2 degrees.

Art is so different to English and History so I'd guess you'd need 2 degrees.

Most schools only have 1 art teacher as that is all is needed to cover demand and the timetable. That's the reason they rarely teach anything else.
For the likes of English, every single student in a school has to study it (bar a few) so on average that would be 20 student groups and 100 timetabled classes. Obviously a school needs 5 or 6 English teachers to cover all those classes. Each teacher would then have other classes to fill up their time (ie. of they employed for 30 hours a week they might have 20 hours English, 8 hours of History and 2 hours of SPHE and supervision (fillers as my teachers call them!)

Hope that makes sense!

spurious wrote: »

She's probably not. She's probably got English and History, I would guess.
Once you're qualified, registered and in a job, a teacher can sometimes be called on to teach other subjects if needed. The cuts have made this worse as schools struggle to hold on to subjects.

To be registered to teach a subject, or to get a job in it, you must have a primary degree (that is recognised by the Teaching Council) in that subject.

Thanks!
I was wondering as well, why are some teachers only qualified to teach, lets say history, for Junior Cert but not for the Leaving Cert?

spurious

storm2811 wrote: »

Thanks!
I was wondering as well, why are some teachers only qualified to teach, lets say history, for Junior Cert but not for the Leaving Cert?

In the old days, if you had done a subject for a certain number of years in college, you were allowed teach it to Inter. Cert.. Anyone who taught to Inter. Cert. level can tell you it was well beyond the level required for Junior Cert. now.

As far as I know now that's gone, but the situation where you could get a job, say, as a Geography teacher and have a mainly Geography timetable but a couple of History classes can still apply.

In my time, I have taught History, ESS, Religion, Civics, CSPE, SPHE, Geography, Maths , Computers, Communications, Vocational Prep. and Irish.

PictureFrame

Yeah my school has teachers like that too. For example my English teacher is an English, Geography, Maths, Physics and Irish teacher! It's CRAZY!! My Geography teacher teacher Geography, Religion, Irish and CSPE.. I think they just give them filler subjects like CSPE cause of timetable restraints

LilMissCiara

PictureFrame wrote: »

Yeah my school has teachers like that too. For example my English teacher is an English, Geography, Maths, Physics and Irish teacher! It's CRAZY!! My Geography teacher teacher Geography, Religion, Irish and CSPE.. I think they just give them filler subjects like CSPE cause of timetable restraints

That's mad! Maths and Physics are sooo different though! I know my Physics teacher couldn't teach Irish and my English teacher couldn't teach Geography!

seriouslysweet

Pictureframe, can I ask does the teacher with 5 subjects teach them well? I doubt they've indepth knowledge of FIVE subjects!

PictureFrame

seriouslysweet wrote: »

Pictureframe, can I ask does the teacher with 5 subjects teach them well? I doubt they've indepth knowledge of FIVE subjects!

She's brilliant at Physics, maths and geo. Her English and irish teaching is pretty awful tbh!

leaveiton

I'm wondering about teaching a couple of subjects too, so I might as well put it here!

Like the OP, I'm in 5th year too and just considering a few things at the moment. I'm definitely interested in going into something to do with science. I've always had an interest in teaching too. My biology teacher teaches both biology and maths. Is there one course that would enable me to do this, but that would also allow me freedom to NOT do this, if that makes any sense? Bascially, I'd like to have the option of either going for the H. Dip at the end of my degree, or going for something else if I wasn't into teaching by then. I would just ask my teacher, but I'm never able to get her at a good time.

PictureFrame

leaveiton wrote: »

I'm wondering about teaching a couple of subjects too, so I might as well put it here!

Like the OP, I'm in 5th year too and just considering a few things at the moment. I'm definitely interested in going into something to do with science. I've always had an interest in teaching too. My biology teacher teaches both biology and maths. Is there one course that would enable me to do this, but that would also allow me freedom to NOT do this, if that makes any sense? Bascially, I'd like to have the option of either going for the H. Dip at the end of my degree, or going for something else if I wasn't into teaching by then. I would just ask my teacher, but I'm never able to get her at a good time.

Any Science Education degree would allow you to teach Biology and Maths. AFAIK you take two of Chemistry/Biology/Physics/Maths/Computer Science to your degree level. You can do it in NUIM defo. not sure about other places though!

unpure

If you can do Art through Arts (heh) then you can do one of them as a night-course in college (while you're doing your main degree) and have that subject added on to your degree, as far as I know... (Thats what my mom did, anyway, I'm assuming that it hasn't changed since...)