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Aloha All,

My name is Nick Vierra and I'm currently a preserive teacher at University of Hawai'i at Manoa. Currently, I'm undecided with which direction to go in terms of attaining my masters degree, jumping into the field of teaching or doing both simultaneously, next Fall. What do you all think would be the best idea? 

Thank you,

Nick Vierra

Aloha, Nick.  I took a teacher workshop at UH Manoa called the Astrobiology Laboratory Institute for Instructors (ALI'I) through the IFA  for four summers and loved the campus.  You're in a good place.  Love Oahu.  Ate dinner at Dukes most nights and we took all the teachers to Top of Waikiki on Kalakaua for our social.

What I did in my career was to look for a teaching job right away and work on my master's degree at night and on weekends.  Sometimes, it's easier to find your first job when you're lower on the pay scale, so getting your Masters before looking can sometimes work against you.  Depends on the school or district.  If you can find a teaching job right away, many times the school will help subsidize your graduate work and they will have salary incentives as you build credits.  Finally, you might search the net for teacher workshops this summer.  Many pay travel costs, give a stipend, or graduate credit for an administrative fee. 

Also, don't limit your search to public schools.  I worked for the Department of Defense in the summers while going to school and eventually was hired full time.  After I retired, I taught in public schools and private schools.  Also there are DOD schools which you can apply for on USA Jobs.  You just have to be positive and open to opportunities.  

Best of luck, Nick.  Aloha.

Nick,

I'm right there with you deciding on whether or not to pursue a master's degree next year or to start teaching.  A lot of the master's programs in education at UH Manoa are online or on Zoom in the evenings.  If your life/schedule allow for you to work on an advanced degree while teaching than that might work just fine for you as I have heard of a lot of other teachers successfully going this route.  They just didn't have a life outside of teaching and school for two years. You do get the added benefit of receiving a pay check while going to school yourself.

I would love to go that route, my sister also got her master's while teaching full-time, but I have three young sons that I have with me 50% of the time so it is pretty much a non-starter for me.  That is why I am on the fence trying to decide on remaining in school to get a master's degree or starting as a full-time DOE SPED teacher next fall and putting a master's degree on the back burner.

James' comment on Dept of Defense schools was great, not a lot of teachers know about that option.  My aunt was a DoDDS teacher for decades and lived all over the world. She just retired last year after 40 years teaching and has a pretty good federal pension now. I plan on teaching abroad for DoDDS once my youngest son is out of the house.  Good luck and thank you for deciding to become a teacher.

Don