A teacher isn't just someone you realize you look up to later in life. A teacher is someone who teaches important life lessons while making sure to include academic lessons along the way.
Typically, a teacher only works during school hours, which means they get to beat rush hour traffic. Although, it's not uncommon for teachers to spend their nights and weekends preparing lessons and grading papers. An added bonus of being a teacher is getting to enjoy summer vacation.
How to Become a Teacher
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a teacher. For example, did you know that they make an average of $22.83 an hour? That's $47,494 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 3% and produce 53,100 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Teacher Do
There are certain skills that many teachers have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed physical stamina, communication skills and patience.
How To Become a Teacher
If you're interested in becoming a teacher, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 63.9% of teachers have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 15.1% of teachers have master's degrees. Even though most teachers have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a teacher. When we researched the most common majors for a teacher, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or master's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on teacher resumes include associate degree degrees or high school diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a teacher. In fact, many teacher jobs require experience in a role such as cashier. Meanwhile, many teachers also have previous career experience in roles such as substitute teacher or internship.
Teacher Career Paths
In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of nanny you might progress to a role such as lead teacher eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title center director.
Teacher
Center Director
7 Years
Assistant Principal
10 Years
Education Director
7 Years
Elementary School Principal
12 Years
Lead Pre-K Teacher
5 Years
School Principal
10 Years
Show More
Average Salary for a Teacher
Teachers in America make an average salary of $47,494 per year or $23 per hour. The top 10 percent makes over $65,000 per year, while the bottom 10 percent under $34,000 per year.
Average Teacher Salary
$47,494 Yearly$22.83 hourly
$34,000
10 %
$47,000
Median
$65,000
90 %
What Am I Worth?
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Top Colleges for Teachers
1. University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA • Private
In-State Tuition
$55,584
Enrollment
10,764
2. Harvard University
Cambridge, MA • Private
In-State Tuition
$50,420
Enrollment
7,582
3. Northwestern University
Evanston, IL • Private
In-State Tuition
$54,568
Enrollment
8,451
4. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC • Private
In-State Tuition
$8,987
Enrollment
18,946
5. New York University
New York, NY • Private
In-State Tuition
$51,828
Enrollment
26,339
6. Boston University
Boston, MA • Private
In-State Tuition
$53,948
Enrollment
17,238
7. University of Washington
Seattle, WA • Private
In-State Tuition
$11,207
Enrollment
30,905
8. Columbia University in the City of New York
New York, NY • Private
In-State Tuition
$59,430
Enrollment
8,216
9. Brown University
Providence, RI • Private
In-State Tuition
$55,466
Enrollment
6,752
10. SUNY at Buffalo
Buffalo, NY • Private
In-State Tuition
$10,099
Enrollment
21,404
Top Skills For a Teacher
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 17.4% of teachers listed esl on their resume, but soft skills such as physical stamina and communication skills are important as well.
Choose From 10+ Customizable Teacher Resume templates
Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Teacher templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Teacher resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.
Teacher Demographics
Teacher Gender Distribution
Female
74%
Male
26%
After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
- Among teachers, 74.3% of them are women, while 25.7% are men.
- The most common race/ethnicity among teachers is White, which makes up 72.3% of all teachers.
- The most common foreign language among teachers is Spanish at 46.2%.
Online Courses For Teacher That You May Like
Advertising Disclosure The courses listed below are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the course, we may receive a commission.
Educational Psychology & Special Education (Certificate)
Informational content for educators and parents to learn about teaching and understanding exceptional children...
Assessment in Higher Education: Professional Development for Teachers
Are you a teacher in higher education wanting to get the best out of your students and assessments? Then on behalf of Risbo, Erasmus University Rotterdam, we would like to welcome you to this MOOC on Assessment in Higher Education. In this MOOC we will guide you through the different phases of preparing, creating and evaluating the assessments in your course. After participating in this MOOC, you will be able to: 1. Design an assessment that is constructively aligned (content, level, methods) wi...
Music Education for Teachers
In the Music Education for Teachers specialization, you will explore ways of integrating popular music into your teaching. You'll begin by learning from two highly experienced teachers, Krystal Banfield, the Vice President of Educational Outreach for Berklee College of Music, and David Alexis a Berklee Professor and long-time instructor for the Berklee City Music Program. They will take you through their process of incorporating popular music, improvisation, arranging, and music technology into...
Job type you want
Full Time
Part Time
Internship
Temporary
Best States For a Teacher
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a teacher. The best states for people in this position are Maryland, California, Hawaii, and Alaska. Teachers make the most in Maryland with an average salary of $58,083. Whereas in California and Hawaii, they would average $55,696 and $55,440, respectively. While teachers would only make an average of $54,507 in Alaska, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. Maryland
Total Teacher Jobs:
859
Highest 10% Earn:
$83,000
Location Quotient:
1.56 Location Quotient is a measure used by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) to determine how concentrated a certain industry is in a single state compared to the nation as a whole. You can read more about how BLS calculates location quotients here
$58,083
Avg. Salary
2. New York
Total Teacher Jobs:
1,164
Highest 10% Earn:
$78,000
Location Quotient:
1.05 Location Quotient is a measure used by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) to determine how concentrated a certain industry is in a single state compared to the nation as a whole. You can read more about how BLS calculates location quotients here
$54,484
Avg. Salary
3. Connecticut
Total Teacher Jobs:
629
Highest 10% Earn:
$71,000
Location Quotient:
2.19 Location Quotient is a measure used by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) to determine how concentrated a certain industry is in a single state compared to the nation as a whole. You can read more about how BLS calculates location quotients here
$50,380
Avg. Salary
How Do Teacher Rate Their Jobs?
4.0
4.0
What do you like the most about working as Teacher?
The pedagogical autonomy. Teaching is an art and every year is (and should be) different. I recreate goals, programs and targets according to the needs of the students each year. Maine is an incredible place to teach as it doesn't require 3 page (or more lesson plans for each day. The admins are supportive and teachers are encouraged to improve and change their craft as needed. Show MoreWhat do you NOT like?
The stress and absence of financial support are hard. I spend far too much of my own money buying notebooks because the families think I should. The lack of community support wears you down. The inflexible expectations of upper admin. The endless testing and the unrealistic demands and canned programs that do NOTHING to help students from financial and socio-economically challenged areas succeed. Show More5.0
Veteran teacher • January 2020
5.0
Veteran teacher • January 2020What do you like the most about working as Teacher?
Engaging kids in learning Show MoreWhat do you NOT like?
Over-sized classes because it is difficult to maximize learning. Show More2.0
Teaching in AZ • July 2019
2.0
Teaching in AZ • July 2019What do you like the most about working as Teacher?
Working with young minds. Community impact. Show MoreWhat do you NOT like?
Too political. Long hours, low morale, out of pocket expenses, low pay. Show More1
2
Top Teacher Employers
We've made finding a great employer to work for easy by doing the hard work for you. We looked into employers that employ teachers and discovered their number of teacher opportunities and average salary. Through our research, we concluded that KinderCare Learning Centers was the best, especially with an average salary of $30,654. ESL Federal Credit Union follows up with an average salary of $45,731, and then comes Los Angeles Unified School District with an average of $48,834. In addition, we know most people would rather work from home. So instead of having to change careers, we identified the best employers for remote work as a teacher. The employers include Pearson, POOL, and Lancaster School District
Most Common Employers For Teacher
| Rank | Company | Average Salary | Hourly Rate | Job Openings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Prince George's County Memorial Library System | $52,170 | $25.08 | 435 |
| 2 | Baltimore City Public Schools | $51,673 | $24.84 | 649 |
| 3 | East Baton Rouge Parish Public Schools | $51,340 | $24.68 | 868 |
| 4 | Chicago Public Schools | $49,697 | $23.89 | 835 |
| 5 | English | $49,146 | $23.63 | 390 |
| 6 | Denver Public Schools | $48,979 | $23.55 | 449 |
| 7 | Los Angeles Unified School District | $48,834 | $23.48 | 1,188 |
| 8 | The School District of Philadelphia | $48,650 | $23.39 | 489 |
| 9 | Huntington Learning Center | $48,649 | $23.39 | 464 |
| 10 | Duval County Public Schools | $48,539 | $23.34 | 410 |
Teacher Videos
A Day in the Life of a Teacher
Kindergarten Teacher - Career Conversation
Becoming a Teacher FAQs
How long does it take to become a Teacher?
It takes 3 years of professional experience to become a teacher. That is the time it takes to learn specific teacher skills, but does not account for time spent in formal education. If you include the normal education requirements to complete a college degree, then it takes 6 to 8 years years to become a teacher.
How can I become a teacher fast?
You can become a teacher fast by enrolling in an alternative teacher certification program. An alternative teacher certification program is an accelerated program that allows you to become a licensed teacher in one year if you already hold a bachelor's degree.
What are the steps to become a teacher?
The steps to become a teacher are to decide what you would like to teach, earn a degree, and pass required teaching exams. Your path to becoming a teacher will depend on several factors, including your background and where you live.
Have more questions? See all answers to common education, training, and library questions.
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