Teaching a subject you're not good at

[YangChiFan]

Hi guys.

My dream job is to become a teacher, specifically a chemistry teacher as I love the subject so much, however I've already come to the realisation that no one's going to hire me purely for chemistry, so I'm probably going to have to teach the other sciences as well if I want to become a teacher.
My biology is decent, my physics isn't too great and the rest are just terrible. Anyone know how I can deal with this?

Just as a side note, my cousin (who is now 2nd or 3rd year teacher) is teaching maths and geography. I remember growing up that she wasn't a bright student in maths, and even in her vce she only did further maths (in which she scored somewhere around 20-25). For uni, she was pretty average which raised my eyebrows on how she even got a job as maths teacher.

I know vce results are not the be-all and end-all, but you should have some proficiency in your area right?

Wow, reading over this makes me sound very ignorant. Sorry if I offended anyone.
Any input would be great. Thank you!!

[vox nihili]

Hi guys.

My dream job is to become a teacher, specifically a chemistry teacher as I love the subject so much, however I've already come to the realisation that no one's going to hire me purely for chemistry, so I'm probably going to have to teach the other sciences as well if I want to become a teacher.
My biology is decent, my physics isn't too great and the rest are just terrible. Anyone know how I can deal with this?

Just as a side note, my cousin (who is now 2nd or 3rd year teacher) is teaching maths and geography. I remember growing up that she wasn't a bright student in maths, and even in her vce she only did further maths (in which she scored somewhere around 20-25). For uni, she was pretty average which raised my eyebrows on how she even got a job as maths teacher.

I know vce results are not the be-all and end-all, but you should have some proficiency in your area right?

Wow, reading over this makes me sound very ignorant. Sorry if I offended anyone.
Any input would be great. Thank you!!

There's a big difference between being good at a subject and being a good teacher of it. Obviously as you get to the higher years it's important to be able to get your head around the content; however, not always necessary to know it 100%. Often I find that teachers/tutors who are really, really good at a subject often find it quite challenging to teach that subject, as their knowledge of it is just so far away from where the students are. They often struggle to find ways to break down the knowledge, because for them it "just is".

My personal experience with this has been in replacing classes. I've taught classes in BusMan, PE, Ancient History, Classical Studies and everything in between, despite my background being in Biology. These classes were surprisingly straightforward, because it forced me to engage with the students and get them talking to me about what they knew (and what I didn't). Likewise, as a tutor I think I'm probably stronger as a maths tutor, despite methods being my worst subject by quite a margin. This is because it doesn't inherently make sense to me,so I can break down the logic I have to go through in my head for the benefit of the student.

[Aaron]

I'm currently a qualified secondary teacher and teaching at the moment.

I wasn't that great at maths in high school, but managed to find my feet and build my knowledge from essentially nothing during my bachelor's degree. I now teach Maths and Computing. You have time to fix any subject area you aren't that competent in.

Tutoring is actually different to teaching so that can't really be used as a comparison. Perhaps VCE teaching & tutoring maybe, but overall they are very different. As a qualified teacher you cannot isolate yourself specifically to Chemistry (in VCE terms). You may be called upon to pretty much teach anything - this profession is one where you are required to wear so many hats it isn't funny. Like me, I have a degree in IT but I couldn't just walk in and say "I want to only teach VCE Computing". It doesn't work like that. That's all i'll say on that matter...

however I've already come to the realisation that no one's going to hire me purely for chemistry, so I'm probably going to have to teach the other sciences as well if I want to become a teacher.

Yes. If you want to teach Chemistry you'll most likely have to also be qualified in General Science (Year 7-10) or Maths (7-12). They are the two most common pairings with a specific science method area.

You don't have to take on something like physics. Like above, it can be a different method area. Your teaching method areas for a teaching degree (if you're doing postgrad), stem from what you've studied during your bachelor degree. So if your degree is full of maths and IT subjects, then obviously your methods form that. If you do a double-major, by default these two become your method areas to teach in. If you go into a bachelor of education/teaching, you learn content as well as the actual ed component of it.... so that decision is yours.

I remember growing up that she wasn't a bright student in maths, and even in her vce she only did further maths (in which she scored somewhere around 20-25).

Actually in a very similar position - I only did Further Maths myself, scored around the 30s but now can competently teach it. The experiences beyond high school definitely helped. From a teaching pov, it actually is much different than from the student pov... the responsibility you have often motivates you to become better.

Hope that helps. Happy to answer any Q's you may have, given my relevant experience in this space.

Cheers.

[YangChiFan]

Thank you for the replies
@Aaron, can you teach any types of maths now (like from yr7-yr12 spesh)? What degree did you do at uni
So I should take up chemistry as my major, then as a minor I should take general science?


 

[Aaron]

Thank you for the replies
@Aaron, can you teach any types of maths now (like from yr7-yr12 spesh)? What degree did you do at uni
So I should take up chemistry as my major, then as a minor I should take general science?


 

I can - but it doesn't mean I necessarily want to! I have two method areas that I am officially qualified to teach: Maths and Digital Technologies (both up to year 12 incl. VCE). I have an IT degree so naturally my main method area is IT/Computing/Digital Tech (so many names now.. argh). For a subject like spesh it is very rare to see a new grad taking a subject like that... even a year 12 subject in general is somewhat rare (but it happens!). I did an IT degree which had A LOT of elective/free options so that allowed me to get another minor in stats, with some additional discrete math units.. based on that I met the requirement for maths. If your majors aren't clearly defined and there's alot of room to move in your degree, really if you see yourself doing postgrad teaching.. a bit of planning is required to ensure you meet the eligibility for when you get there in the end. If it's a bachelor, no planning really necessary, just choose your method areas and the content takes care of itself.

I am teaching 7-9 at the moment in both maths & digitech by choice. Think it's really important to state that. I have a very strong interest in transition/year 7 so i try to involve myself in this space as much as possible. My leadership ambitions are around this too.

Well it depends on the degree tbh - if you do a BSc in most cases you'd have the option to do a double major (so two diff areas). If not, a major & minor should be fine - see below.

Refer to this doc, it's the holy bible of teaching admission: https://www.vit.vic.edu.au/media/documents/publications-and-forms/forms/Specialist_Area_Guidelines_2015.pdf