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President Obama is appearing in a new public service announcement released by the Department of Education Wednesday. The PSA is intended to promote the President’s TEACH initiative, which he launched with U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan in September 2010.

TEACH is a national initiative aimed at recruiting a new generation of enthusiastic, qualified, and committed educators. A DoE press release describes TEACH as, “dedicated to inspiring America's best and brightest to consider becoming teachers, and to celebrate America's great teachers.”

The anchor for the TEACH project is its website, www.teach.gov. Aspiring teachers can learn more about the profession, find open teaching positions across the country, and read testimonials from teachers, community leaders and celebrities, including Oprah Winfrey, J.J. Abrams and John Legend.

Coordinated town hall-style teacher recruitment events are also happening across the nation at high schools and universities. Spike Lee and MSNBC contributor Jeff Johnson are among the celebrities who have joined the effort and participated in town hall events this year.

The President is not the only high-ranking government official to film a TEACH video. Director of Domestic Policy Council Melody Barnes, Second Lady Dr. Jill Biden and Secretary of Energy Steven Chu have also starred in short videos where they recollect their favorite teachers.

Find a teaching job

The Become a Teacher section of the Teach.gov website offers a plethora of resources for prospective teachers, including teacher preparation programs, financial aid and incentives, licensing and certification, state and district information, career resources, and job listings (pictured above). As of Friday, special education jobs were the most prevalent, with 492 available. Math teaching jobs (288) and early childhood education (278) were the second and third most available.

Massachusetts had the most job listings (808), with Vermont (325) and Florida (310) rounding out the top three.

Among the financial aid and incentives offered for prospective teachers are a catalog of federal grants and programs, as well as scholarship opportunities and links to the Federal Student Aid website.

Among the available grants is the TEACH grant, which offers up to $4,000 a year in grant assistance to students who are completing or who plan to complete coursework needed to begin a career in teaching.

For more information on teacher salaries and career training from Schools.com, read:

• Preschool Teacher Salary & Career Outlook
• Kindergarten Teacher Salary & Career Outlook
• Elementary School Teacher Salary & Career Outlook
• High School Teacher Salary, Career Forecast, Trends and Training
• College Professor Salary, Career Forecast, Trends, and Training