Gia Reed’s “Life-Changing” Journey Through Education
| by Alex Skov
“You do a little bit of everything in teaching, but I really feel like you have to have that passion because it’s so easy to get burnt out and [that’s] not fair for your children or your students,” Gia Reed said.
Hearing her say it, you would think Reed had her sights set on teaching since she was a child. In reality, though, Reed first stepped onto the job as a pre-K teacher while working on an undergraduate degree in psychology because her natural love of people and engaging nature lent itself to the work. Later, a career assessment would help the idea become more concrete when it scored teaching and counseling as her best professional fits.
Choosing a career path can be complicated for anyone, and as Reed didn’t let anything stop her from exploring every option — not even borders. Luckily, teachers are in-demand internationally and Reed had a personal connection who understood the importance of earning a U.S. teaching license for educators worldwide.
“My husband is all things education. He’s one of those people that is just like a connector, and so he is always trying to help other people in different areas like that,” Reed said. “He’s also in leadership, so he just Googles a lot of different programs and he’s constantly looking at further opportunities for certifications and different things like that.”
Those searches led to Reed’s husband finding Moreland University’s TEACH-NOW Teacher Preparation Certificate Program and becoming an advocate for the 100% online, 9-month certification pathway.
“Living abroad, he’s had some people that worked under him that needed to do the teacher certification, and he was like, ‘I’ve been looking and researching and I’ve heard great things about Moreland [University],’ and a lot of people have actually gone through the program because of his suggestion,” Reed noted, “and then he was talking to me and said, ‘You should go ahead and do it.’”
Reed had already taught in China and South Korea without her certification, and she had been in no rush to earn it.
“I kind of dragged my feet, to be honest,” she shared, “and when I enrolled and just kind of started talking to the professors, I was like, ‘Wow, I should have done this a long time ago,’ so it was a great decision.”
And — along with her husband’s recommendation — all it took was a global pandemic to convince her to start the certification process.
“It was like the perfect opportunity”
After living and working in South Korea, Reed and her husband moved back to the U.S. to plan their next steps, knowing Reed’s next step was earning her full teaching license. However, the COVID-19 health crisis gave them more time to plan than they originally expected.
“The world just stopped, so everything was like, ‘Okay, let’s rethink and see what we’re going to do,’” Reed recalled. “[I was] just trying to find a program that I could go through, and I feel like Moreland was that bridge because I was able to do it online. I didn’t have to go to school or be in person every day, so it was like the perfect opportunity to just get the next certification.”
Already armed with a certificate for Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL) that opened the initial doors for her to lead classrooms abroad, Reed’s licensure journey was officially underway. As she progressed through TEACH-NOW, she was motivated by a new job opportunity that would allow her to teach students up to sixth grade.
“I had my eye on one school,” she remembered. “I said, ‘I want to work at this school. This is my school.’ It was my one and only interview, and I will tell you, Moreland really prepared me. I had the answers, I felt so confident, [and] I knew what I was talking about.”
Reed was offered and accepted the position, a teaching role in Hong Kong.
She also got a Master’s in Education with a specialization in teaching multilingual learners through Moreland’s M.Ed. Add-On program, which empowers TEACH-NOW graduates to earn a master’s degree in as little as 3 months.
“I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’ve grown [in] just like a year’s time.’ I felt like an expert, to be honest,” Reed said. “One of the things that I [had] really struggled with was the technology piece, and I felt like you get so many resources [and] so much support during the program.”
That support was key to building Reed’s confidence, and it paid off.
“Just going into that interview, I knocked it out of the park,” she said. “I do have to attribute that to Moreland because I felt just beyond prepared for the interview.”
Advice for International Teachers
Having taught in a variety of schools across multiple countries, Reed’s journey is full of practical lessons for current and aspiring international teachers, but she emphasizes one before all others.
“First and foremost, I would always say learn as much as you can,” Reed said. “I feel, especially with the education field, you have to stay abreast of what’s going on within the classroom, different technologies. So, being able to join different organizations and connect with other teachers will be very useful and just being able to get out there and talk to other people… You’ll find out something new from another teacher, or they can give you some tips on different things that you can do within your classroom, so I really feel like it’s important to build your network and that community so that you’re able to share ideas, information, and just continue to grow as a person and also as an educator.”
Reed also noted that adopting a growth mindset helped her succeed throughout her program.
“[My instructors] talked about [having a] growth mindset and it’s a common thing that’s just thrown around in the educational field and just in life too, but those 2 little words were so powerful to me because I felt like, ‘Oh my gosh, you have an opportunity to just do it right,’ and even if you fail, it’s an opportunity to grow,” Reed shared.
She also noted that Moreland’s instructors were instrumental in helping her develop a confident, growth-oriented perspective throughout her program. Moreland instructor Dr. Eddie Johns, in particular, provided her with support during her 12-week student teaching experience.
“He was my clinical [advisor] and I was so stressed out because we were actually getting ready to move to another country. I was like, ‘I don’t know if I can do this,’ and he was like, ‘We’re going to drag you across that [finish] line,’” Reed recalled, noting that Johns’ support and encouragement helped ease her nerves, as did kind words from the other members of her cohort.
What’s Next?
With her new U.S. teaching certification, Reed is taking on her new adventure in Hong Kong.
“We’ll be here for the next few years, and we’ll see what happens next,” Reed said of any future plans.
Wherever Reed goes, though, she will take the lessons from her transformative learning experience with her.
“I don’t know if this sounds cliche, but I feel like my Moreland program was better than undergrad. I just really had a positive experience and I felt so empowered and so supported…and then it’s just taken my career to the next level. So, so many different doors are open to me now and being able to transition into a better position with a better school and better pace,” Reed said. “So, it really was life-changing, to be honest, for me and for my family.”
If you’re ready to transform your education career, Moreland is ready to support you. Complete your free application to our 100% online 9-month TEACH-NOW Teacher Certificate Preparation Program or one of our 12-month master’s degree programs today. It takes less than 15 minutes to take this important step toward upleveling your teaching skills.
