Nearly one in four Americans is an enrolled student at any given time. This enormous segment of the U.S. population encompasses people of all ages and from all walks of life. American students have a wide range of educational goals—from learning their ABCs to obtaining an M.D.—but each of these students needs the support of dedicated educators in order to obtain the knowledge and skills they need. As a result of this great demand for talented educators there are job opportunities for teachers in every geographical region of the country. Education is among America’s largest industries, and the different career tracks within education are as varied as the national population of its students.

Despite the wide variety of jobs within education, professionals are attracted to the field for similar reasons. The people who become educators usually have a sincere desire to make a difference in the lives of others—they remember the teachers who helped them to reach their own goals and are thrilled by the possibility that they might be able to inspire others in the same way. The classroom can be a challenging place to work, but for the passionate teacher there is no greater joy than watching students grasp a challenging concept or finding a way to capture students’ imagination and spark their curiosity. Successful teachers are dedicated to achieving this goal and often have a tenacious belief in the power of education to transform students’ lives.

A teacher's goal is to advance their students' learning and cognitive abilities during the school year. Teachers have students that range in age from two or three years old up to adult learners of all ages. Some teachers focus on a single subject or even a single aspect of that subject, while others spend their day teaching several subjects. Teachers may have the same group of students every day, or they may see hundreds of students in a large lecture hall. But the goal of teachers and administrators alike is to ensu...