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Inspiring Young Minds 

Shape the future by educating young learners as an elementary school teacher and Hardin-Simmons graduate. Your career will involve developing lesson plans, teaching core subjects, and fostering a supportive and engaging classroom environment. Your passion for education will inspire and nurture the growth of your students. 

What to Expect

62k

$62,340 Median Annual Salary

Bright

New job opportunities are very likely in the future.

N/A

No Data Found.

What you Should Know

  • English Language: Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, and rules of composition and grammar.
  • Education and Training: Knowledge of principles and methods for curriculum and training design, teaching and instruction for individuals and groups, and the measurement of training effects.
  • Mathematics: Knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, statistics, and their applications.
  • Customer and Personal Service: Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
  • Psychology: Knowledge of human behavior and performance; individual differences in ability, personality, and interests; learning and motivation; psychological research methods; and the assessment and treatment of behavioral and affective disorders.
  • Therapy and Counseling: Knowledge of principles, methods, and procedures for diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of physical and mental dysfunctions, and for career counseling and guidance.
  • Computers and Electronics: Knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming.
  • Public Safety and Security: Knowledge of relevant equipment, policies, procedures, and strategies to promote effective local, state, or national security operations for the protection of people, data, property, and institutions.
  • Administration and Management: Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
  • Administrative: Knowledge of administrative and office procedures and systems such as word processing, managing files and records, stenography and transcription, designing forms, and workplace terminology.
  • Communications and Media: Knowledge of media production, communication, and dissemination techniques and methods. This includes alternative ways to inform and entertain via written, oral, and visual media.
  • Sociology and Anthropology: Knowledge of group behavior and dynamics, societal trends and influences, human migrations, ethnicity, cultures, and their history and origins.
  • Geography: Knowledge of principles and methods for describing the features of land, sea, and air masses, including their physical characteristics, locations, interrelationships, and distribution of plant, animal, and human life.
  • History and Archeology: Knowledge of historical events and their causes, indicators, and effects on civilizations and cultures.
  • Philosophy and Theology: Knowledge of different philosophical systems and religions. This includes their basic principles, values, ethics, ways of thinking, customs, practices, and their impact on human culture.
  • Personnel and Human Resources: Knowledge of principles and procedures for personnel recruitment, selection, training, compensation and benefits, labor relations and negotiation, and personnel information systems.
  • Law and Government: Knowledge of laws, legal codes, court procedures, precedents, government regulations, executive orders, agency rules, and the democratic political process.
  • Telecommunications: Knowledge of transmission, broadcasting, switching, control, and operation of telecommunications systems.
  • Foreign Language: Knowledge of the structure and content of a foreign (non-English) language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition and grammar, and pronunciation.
  • Fine Arts: Knowledge of the theory and techniques required to compose, produce, and perform works of music, dance, visual arts, drama, and sculpture.
  • Biology: Knowledge of plant and animal organisms, their tissues, cells, functions, interdependencies, and interactions with each other and the environment.
  • Engineering and Technology: Knowledge of the practical application of engineering science and technology. This includes applying principles, techniques, procedures, and equipment to the design and production of various goods and services.
  • Design: Knowledge of design techniques, tools, and principles involved in production of precision technical plans, blueprints, drawings, and models.
  • Sales and Marketing: Knowledge of principles and methods for showing, promoting, and selling products or services. This includes marketing strategy and tactics, product demonstration, sales techniques, and sales control systems.
  • Medicine and Dentistry: Knowledge of the information and techniques needed to diagnose and treat human injuries, diseases, and deformities. This includes symptoms, treatment alternatives, drug properties and interactions, and preventive health-care measures.
  • Transportation: Knowledge of principles and methods for moving people or goods by air, rail, sea, or road, including the relative costs and benefits.
  • Economics and Accounting: Knowledge of economic and accounting principles and practices, the financial markets, banking, and the analysis and reporting of financial data.
  • Physics: Knowledge and prediction of physical principles, laws, their interrelationships, and applications to understanding fluid, material, and atmospheric dynamics, and mechanical, electrical, atomic and sub-atomic structures and processes.
  • Building and Construction: Knowledge of materials, methods, and the tools involved in the construction or repair of houses, buildings, or other structures such as highways and roads.
  • Production and Processing: Knowledge of raw materials, production processes, quality control, costs, and other techniques for maximizing the effective manufacture and distribution of goods.
  • Chemistry: Knowledge of the chemical composition, structure, and properties of substances and of the chemical processes and transformations that they undergo. This includes uses of chemicals and their interactions, danger signs, production techniques, and disposal methods.
  • Mechanical: Knowledge of machines and tools, including their designs, uses, repair, and maintenance.
  • Food Production: Knowledge of techniques and equipment for planting, growing, and harvesting food products (both plant and animal) for consumption, including storage/handling techniques.

Programs Related to this Career

Elementary Education Degree

BSHS

English Education Degree

BBS, BSHS

History Education Degree

BA, BSHS

Your Day to Day

  • Instruct students individually and in groups, using teaching methods such as lectures, discussions, and demonstrations.
  • Establish and enforce rules for behavior and procedures for maintaining order among the students.
  • Guide and counsel students with adjustment or academic problems or with special academic interests.
  • Adapt teaching methods and instructional materials to meet students’ varying needs and interests.
  • Plan and conduct activities for a balanced program of instruction, demonstration, and work time that provides students with opportunities to observe, question, and investigate.
  • Prepare materials and classrooms for class activities.
  • Read books to entire classes or small groups.
  • Observe and evaluate students’ performance, behavior, social development, and physical health.
  • Confer with parents or guardians, teachers, counselors, and administrators to resolve students’ behavioral and academic problems.
  • Meet with parents and guardians to discuss their children’s progress and to determine priorities for their children and their resource needs.
  • Use computers, audio-visual aids, and other equipment and materials to supplement presentations.
  • Meet with other professionals to discuss individual students’ needs and progress.
  • Establish clear objectives for all lessons, units, and projects and communicate those objectives to students.
  • Prepare and implement remedial programs for students requiring extra help.
  • Assign and grade class work and homework.
  • Prepare, administer, and grade tests and assignments to evaluate students’ progress.
  • Prepare students for later grades by encouraging them to explore learning opportunities and to persevere with challenging tasks.
  • Maintain accurate and complete student records as required by laws, district policies, and administrative regulations.
  • Enforce administration policies and rules governing students.
  • Organize and lead activities designed to promote physical, mental, and social development, such as games, arts and crafts, music, and storytelling.
  • Provide a variety of materials and resources for children to explore, manipulate, and use, both in learning activities and in imaginative play.
  • Prepare objectives and outlines for courses of study, following curriculum guidelines or requirements of states and schools.
  • Prepare for assigned classes and show written evidence of preparation upon request of immediate supervisors.
  • Instruct and monitor students in the use and care of equipment and materials to prevent injuries and damage.
  • Confer with other staff members to plan and schedule lessons promoting learning, following approved curricula.
  • Collaborate with other teachers and administrators in the development, evaluation, and revision of elementary school programs.
  • Attend professional meetings, educational conferences, and teacher training workshops to maintain and improve professional competence.
  • Administer standardized ability and achievement tests, and interpret results to determine student strengths and needs.
  • Plan and supervise class projects, field trips, visits by guest speakers or other experiential activities, and guide students in learning from those activities.
  • Prepare reports on students and activities as required by administration.
  • Supervise, evaluate, and plan assignments for teacher assistants and volunteers.
  • Organize and label materials and display students’ work.
  • Perform administrative duties, such as school library assistance, hall and cafeteria monitoring, and bus loading and unloading.
  • Attend staff meetings and serve on committees, as required.
  • Select, store, order, issue, and inventory classroom equipment, materials, and supplies.
  • Involve parent volunteers and older students in children’s activities to facilitate involvement in focused, complex play.
  • Provide students with disabilities with assistive devices, supportive technology, and assistance accessing facilities, such as restrooms.
  • Sponsor extracurricular activities, such as clubs, student organizations, and academic contests.

Helpful Skills & Abilities

  • Instructing: Teaching others how to do something.
  • Learning Strategies: Selecting and using training/instructional methods and procedures appropriate for the situation when learning or teaching new things.
  • Speaking: Talking to others to convey information effectively.
  • Active Listening: Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
  • Critical Thinking: Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions, or approaches to problems.
  • Monitoring: Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
  • Social Perceptiveness: Being aware of others’ reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
  • Coordination: Adjusting actions in relation to others’ actions.
  • Reading Comprehension: Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work-related documents.
  • Service Orientation: Actively looking for ways to help people.
  • Writing: Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience.
  • Active Learning: Understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making.
  • Judgment and Decision Making: Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one.
  • Time Management: Managing one’s own time and the time of others.
  • Complex Problem Solving: Identifying complex problems and reviewing related information to develop and evaluate options and implement solutions.
  • Persuasion: Persuading others to change their minds or behavior.
  • Negotiation: Bringing others together and trying to reconcile differences.
  • Systems Analysis: Determining how a system should work and how changes in conditions, operations, and the environment will affect outcomes.
  • Systems Evaluation: Identifying measures or indicators of system performance and the actions needed to improve or correct performance, relative to the goals of the system.
  • Mathematics: Using mathematics to solve problems.
  • Management of Personnel Resources: Motivating, developing, and directing people as they work, identifying the best people for the job.
  • Operations Analysis: Analyzing needs and product requirements to create a design.
  • Science: Using scientific rules and methods to solve problems.
  • Operations Monitoring: Watching gauges, dials, or other indicators to make sure a machine is working properly.
  • Technology Design: Generating or adapting equipment and technology to serve user needs.
  • Management of Material Resources: Obtaining and seeing to the appropriate use of equipment, facilities, and materials needed to do certain work.
  • Programming: Writing computer programs for various purposes.
  • Quality Control Analysis: Conducting tests and inspections of products, services, or processes to evaluate quality or performance.
  • Equipment Selection: Determining the kind of tools and equipment needed to do a job.
  • Management of Financial Resources: Determining how money will be spent to get the work done, and accounting for these expenditures.
  • Operation and Control: Controlling operations of equipment or systems.
  • Equipment Maintenance: Performing routine maintenance on equipment and determining when and what kind of maintenance is needed.
  • Installation: Installing equipment, machines, wiring, or programs to meet specifications.
  • Repairing: Repairing machines or systems using the needed tools.
  • Troubleshooting: Determining causes of operating errors and deciding what to do about it.
  • Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
  • Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
  • Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
  • Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
  • Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
  • Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
  • Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
  • Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
  • Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
  • Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
  • Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
  • Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
  • Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
  • Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
  • Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
  • Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
  • Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
  • Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
  • Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
  • Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
  • Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
  • Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
  • Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
  • Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
  • Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
  • Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
  • Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
  • Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without “giving out” or fatiguing.
  • Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
  • Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
  • Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
  • Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
  • Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
  • Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
  • Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
  • Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
  • Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
  • Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
  • Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
  • Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
  • Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
  • Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
  • Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
  • Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
  • Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
  • Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
  • Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
  • Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one’s side when the eyes are looking ahead.
  • Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
  • Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
  • Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
  • Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.

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