College Life

Private Schools That Are Well Known for This Major

• Stanford University
• Washington University in St. Louis
• Vanderbilt University
• Johns Hopkins University

State Schools That Are Well Known for This Major

• University of Wisconsin—Madison
• University of Georgia
• Arizona State University
• Michigan State University
• Ohio State University

Classes in the Major

Math: Sorry, guys, but just because you're in the education program doesn't mean you can skip out on the college basics. We just need to make sure that you at least know how to find x—and no, it isn't buried in yours hands, so get your head out of there. Now, obviously, math is just a basic requirement for anyone—don't freak out about taking upper-level calculus, because that super fun stuff is reserved for STEM majors.

Biology: Here's another course that you have to know a little about. If you're planning on teaching the nation's youth about anything in science, you'd better have some sort of background in it. You don't have to memorize the ship Charles Darwin traveled on (it's the H.M.S. Beagle, btw), but you gotta know the basics, i.e. plants use photosynthesis, carnivores hate salads, dolphins are mammals, etc. Nothing's more embarrassing than having a ten-year-old correct you on basic dinosaur anatomy.

Teaching ____: The blank is for all the subjects you could teach. We're talkin' more basics like social studies and language arts. These classes show you how to translate all your big people words into small, bite-sized concepts. You might be thinking "the answer is 'Aristotle,' duh" but you've got to consider whether they can even spell "Aristotle." Hey, maybe they can. If so, give 'em a gold star or two. To be an effective elementary school teacher, you need to know a bunch of little ways to explain big concepts.

Curriculum Design: You will love this course when you're done with it. You can have 1,000 terabytes' (or one petabytes') worth of knowledge, but it's all for naught if you don't know how to put it into a curriculum. For example, teaching multiplication before addition or division before subtraction is a total rookie mistake and is completely avoidable if you have a curriculum. After learning how to put a lesson plan together, you can lead your students into the beautiful world of learning with way less blank stares and head-scratching.

Early Literacy: Teaching a college student is vastly different from teaching a six-year-old. One of these important differences is that college students know how to read. After all, you gotta crawl before you can run. Teaching children how to read is the most important thing you can do—it opens the rest of the world up to them. If that isn't motivation enough, imagine the look on little Jimmy's face when he finishes his first book. He'll be happier than a kid with a banana .