Teaching Certificate

Back in 2002, I earned my teaching certificate in the state of Nebraska. I worked my tail off while student teaching and I taught fulltime for a year. After I had Megan, I substitute taught for five years. Once I got pregnant with Christian, it wasn't worth paying somebody to watch my three kids while I substituted. This was 2009. This was the last time I taught in a public school. 

I had to renew my teaching certificate a couple of years ago (2012). The rules said that I either needed to teach full time for a year in an accredited school or take two classes. Since I had previously taken a class, I only needed to take one class, so I did. I was able to renew it with no problem.

Here we are today. I haven't taught in over six years and honestly, I don't plan on going back anytime soon. If I continue to homeschool my kids, I will be home for awhile.

This all came up the other night because of a pile of old education textbooks that I still have from when I earned my teaching degree. I don't quite know what to do with them! I tried to sell them to Half Price books, but they would only give me a quarter for them. Nobody wants them on eBay. Open Door Mission has no need for them and even the homeschool library here in town refuses to take them. They are all outdated and nobody wants textbooks that are over ten years old!

Matt and I got talking about what to do with them on the way to church on Sunday. I said maybe I should just keep them incase I ever go back to teaching someday.  He looked at me and said, "I don't think you will want to go back to teaching." This statement got me thinking, Am I ever going to go back to teaching? I teach my kids now, but it doesn't count towards anything because homeschools are not accredited.  They are exempt schools in the state of Nebraska.

Matt and I then figured out that if I continue to homeschool everybody through graduation, I will be teaching my kids for another 18 years or so.  (Megan has six years left and Micah would start kindergarten her senior year.)  The law says I need to renew my teaching certificate every five years. This means I would need to renew my certificate FOUR times before I am even able to get back to the classroom.

And honestly, am I going to want to go back to teaching in a public school after homeschooling my own kids for 20+ years?? (I have already taught Megan for five years.) Do I let my certificate expire and just see what happens at the time??

I also brought up the "what if" scenario with Matt. What if we DON'T continue to homeschool our kids and for some reason, they need to go back to school? What if Matt loses his job and I need to go make some money? Are these valid reasons to keep my certificate??

If I don't renew my certificate and let it expire, I will need to take all my education classes over again, including student teaching. Would it be most cost effective to take two classes every five years or start all over again when I am done homeschooling??

After I thought this all through, I wanted to know how old I would be when I was finally done homeschooling.  I am 38 years old and if we see Micah all the way through until he is 18, I need to add 38+18, which equals 56. Am I really going to want to go back to teaching full time when I am 56??? (That is if Micah is our last kid!)  Am I going to want to start the whole education program over? Or am I going to want to do something else by that time?

And now, what do I do with those old textbooks??