Advice/Question

Hi everyone! I will be a junior this fall and I came here to ask about high school teaching requirements and get some advice. For reference I live in Indiana.

I’ve always been pretty 50/50 on either teaching 4th-5th grade or teaching high school history. I feel pretty torn because I see so many pros and cons with each option. I work at a daycare where I’m a teacher in the school age room. I like my job because it’s given me insight on pretty much all grade levels, what I like and dislike about each age, etc. I feel comfortable and confident with elementary aged kids and I feel like that plays into how I feel. My major is elementary education (my school doesn’t offer secondary). I also feel a little pressure from my family to go the elementary route.

But deep down I feel like teaching high school history is what I want to do, even though there are some things I’m worried about with that too. One of the biggest things is classroom management. I’m only 20 and I honestly find the idea of teaching teenagers kind of intimidating. I was in high school myself only a few years ago and I remember seeing how some of my classmates treated our teachers and it was ridiculous to say the least. I feel like I’ve learned how to get respect at my job, but those are elementary aged kids, not teenagers. I feel passionate about history and have loved it since I was a kid, and honestly math has been a struggle my entire life and I don’t think I would be good at teaching it to my students.

The question I have is about the requirements I would need to be a high school teacher with my degree being in elementary education. Do I just need to take the content exam or is there another step I need to take? Any advice for the Praxis content exam? (I’m terrified of Praxis btw)

I will take any pointers, advice, or things to think about. I have no teacher friends so I thought getting some advice on here could help, sorry if my post is silly lol. Thank you all!❤️