Michael Savello ‘21, SUNY Oneonta
I’m an education major at SUNY Oneonta. It’s pretty straightforward – my education major is preparing me to teach students in school, though it’s up to me to decide what grade level and subject I want to teach. You can also decide if you want to teach special education students.
Choosing my major
My parents played a big role in helping me choose my major. I really enjoyed my social studies classes in high school, and considered becoming a teacher, but I didn’t decide until I actually came to college. Now, I have a great advisor who helps me choose classes every semester and get ready for new subjects.
Favorite class
I’m a pretty big history buff, and I’m pretty sure I want to teach history after I graduate. My favorite class so far was about military history, which I thought was really cool. It’s not something I’d actually teach high school students, but I loved the topic.
Student Teaching
Although it’s really fun, the workload can be pretty stressful. On top of your classes and projects, you need to student teach, or help lead a classroom to learn more about how to work with students. Most places won’t hire you until you have experience in an actual classroom, so this is really important to get done while you’re still in college.
Career Goals
Like I said, I want to become a history teacher once I graduate. I’ve also always played sports, so I think it’d be really cool to be a high school coach as well. You need a special certification, but most education majors get specific certifications to go with their degrees anyways.
Just because you’re an education major doesn’t mean you have to teach in a traditional school, though. Whether you end up tutoring, or in school administration, or even getting a Master’s degree and working at a university, there are lots of paths outside of the classroom for education majors. Education majors can look into positions and graduate degrees involving: administration, library sciences, instructional technology, managerial training, education development, counseling, and etc.