Check out this story and interactive spread by Libby Quaid/Associated Press about teaching as a second career and alternate certification. It highlights several career-switchers, including Peter Vos, a neuroscientist and head of an internet startup who now teaches computer science to kids in Maryland; and Alisa Salvans, a makeup-artist-turned-chemistry-teacher, in suburban Dallas. Along with the main story, there are video interviews with these folks and others, including Education Secretary Arne Duncan.
And.....(smirk) we'd be remiss if we didn't note that the package also cites a 2007 study by the Fordham Institute and the National Council on Teacher Quality (it's referenced in the "Teacher Profiles" section; the study is called ???Alternative Certification Isn't Alternative').