You want to make sure you get plenty of experience and variety outside of the university. Once you're in an undergraduate college, most universities make you wait until you're in your junior year to apply for admission to the teacher education program. The program for kindergarten and elementary school teachers include courses designed specifically for those preparing to teach in math, physical science, social science, music, art, and literature, as well as prescribed professional education courses, such as philosophy of education, psychology of learning, and teaching methods. For private schools, a masters degree in a certain subject is often all it takes to teach that subject, whether you're a certified teacher or not. If you don't mind the extra schooling, a master's degree could help you inch up the education ladder towards, say, a career in school administration.
Many teachers choose to work toward a master's after they've already been teaching for a few years.
If you majored in something other than education in college, going to graduate school provides a focused path toward certification, since most grad programs are geared toward state requirements. And many schools will help pay for your education. There are ways to get certified in teaching without having to start college all over again. Emergency credentials Believe it or not, there are many public schools out there that don't have enough teachers and are desperately looking for new recruits. For such cases, most states can issue emergency credentials to college graduates who want to teach but who have not met the state's minimum requirements for regular credentials.