I recently began substitute teaching on a high school level. I would like to convert this to college credits. I work at this pursuit 35 hours per week. Any suggestions? Thanks. ------------------
The "recently began" part makes it difficult. I've never gone through a life experience portfolio, but I would suspect you would have to be doing this for awhile to get credit for it. A sidenote (not exactly relevant here): Regents used to award credits for college-level classes taught, even if you hadn't taken the class yourself. This was particularly useful for military instructors to gain the same credits their students got. I would imagine that policy remains at Excelsior. Rich Douglas
You probably can't (and shouldn't) get credits for substitute teaching. However, if you gain new knowledge in particular subject areas, you should be able to turn that knowledge into something you could use in a portfolio or on a GRE subject area test (or one of the other tests, for that matter). Tom Nixon Bears' Guide to the Best Education Degrees by Distance Learning
I disagree. I would say that, assuming you are actually teaching and not just babysitting the class, maybe you can, and IMO you probably should, be able to get credit for this experience. I've never enrolled in an Education department, but I've known people who were Education majors. It seems that many (most?) programs designed for k-12 teachers, such as Curriculum and Instruction, include student teaching courses. These courses generally seem to be listed as Teaching Practicum and/or Internship, and are variable credit. I've seen them listed as up to 10 sh of credit per enrollment. The catch is that they are normally supervised by full a time teacher, and from what I can tell you generally have to be enrolled in the undergrad program in order to enroll in these courses for credit. I presume that the supervision is for legal purposes and also probably for assessment, but if you are regularly working 35 hours a week I would think that you could work something out. Assuming that you are interested in obtaining an undergrad degree in Education, I would contact a nearby college or university about this possibility.
