I'm graduating with a math degree next year (BSc Maths - more theoretical than applied) from an African university, and am going to the US next year to visit a friend for a few months. However, I'd like to do something to make a little money while he's at work/school - particularly in Maths.
What can I do with this qualification in the US?
Could I teach high school kids or primary kids? What am I qualified to do? I'd really rather not end up waiting tables at McDonalds or whatever it is that people end up having to do..
Also I want to figure out, during my time there, exactly what I want to do with my maths education and I am really interested in learning what schooling systems work/don't work, all over the world.
Would I need to do additional studying to gain access to this career?
Almost universally, to teach in a public school (and virtually all private schools) one needs to obtain teaching certification within the state one wants to teach, and almost universally, this requires successful completion of a teacher education program. At many Universities, you can earn "post-bachelor" certification in math (secondary level), provided you have a bachelor's degree in math, and/or have completed a degree with the required math one usually completes if earning a degree to teach math at the secondary school level. These post-bachelor certification programs typically run $1 - 2$ years, largely comprised of education focused coursework and courses in teaching methodology, in addition to a semester of full-time, supervised "student teaching". (Some two-year programs also include a combination of "teacher-certification" requirements, and the coursework required to earn, additionally, a master's degree in teaching.)
To teach at an elementary school typically requires successful completion of a bachelor's degree in Education.
What I'd suggest is looking into tutoring math, and/or working in the standardized test-preparation industry (tutoring and preparing students for the SAT, ACT, Praxis tests, for example). Those sorts of jobs do not necessarily require teaching certification.