Teach for America...

[Kaleigh]

To all the teachers on here, what do you think of this program?? Have any of you had a child that did this?? DD has a 3rd round interview with them after Thanksgiving break. It''s an all day interview, 9-5.

I am conflicted, because she''s waiting for another job with a Real Estate investment firm, she didn''t get the analyst job. But they did say there is a new position she would be perfect for that is being created as I type and they want to discuss it with her once they have it nailed down, and have been in contact with her regularly. It''s her dream company and is here.. She doesn''t want to move away.

If she did treach it would be High school level math/ and AP level math.

If she is lucky enough to get an offer, it has to be one that is here, she''s not willing to move away. She wants to be close to us, her BF and friends. Do they factor that in?? I would think that would be a big thing, in someone saying, I give you 2 years, but need to be in such and such.... Again, need to know more.


So your thoughts?? You guys always give such great advice!!! TIA.

It''s soooo her decision. But she always asks me for advice, and can''t give it if I am not well informed!!

Enlighten me, please!!!

 

[KimberlyH]

A neighborhood acquaintances'' daughter participated in Teach for America for 2 years. We''re in San Diego County, she was placed at a school in Los Angeles; I don''t believe she had any say in placement. I''ve never discussed it with her, but according to her parents it was an amazing experience and she has learned much from participating in the program. Her dad was quite apprehensive about her taking the position (she''s been quite sheltered and she was placed at a school in a neighborhood with a high poverty rate and students who face a lot of personal challenges) but her mom thought it would be a great thing for her to do and they both felt she grew a lot as a person as a result of this experience.

 

[Haven]

Congrats to her for getting to the 3rd round interviews!

I know a lot of people who have done this. They work very hard, and they''re very tired during the program. Think of it as you would an immersion language program--they just throw you right into teaching with very minimal preparation, and TfA typically places teachers in areas of high need. This means that there are often additional issues they''ll need to face--lack of funding, behavioral issues, poverty levels, etc. At least, everyone who I know who has done the program has been placed in such an area.

They''ve also all had to move out of state for their assignments. I''m not sure how it works today, but I know that people had very little say in their location in former years. And I don''t know anyone who has taught AP level doing TfA, I imagine that would be unlikely. Most teachers don''t even get to teach AP level courses until after they''ve been in a district for many years.

In my mind, the positives are great experience, a "free" master''s degree (right?), and some serious experience working outside of your comfort zone. The negatives are a lack of formal preparation and high stress placements. Also, I''m not sure how other schools work, but my former employer wasn''t very big on hiring TfA teachers. But that is totally subjective.

I''d say if it works out and she gets placed locally, AND she doesn''t have another job lined up, go for it. I will add this warning, though: teaching is a very difficult job for *anyone* to do well, so if it''s not really a passion of hers, she may end up resenting all the outside work that goes into being a high quality teacher. It''s difficult to happily work hard at anything when you''re not really passionate about it, so that''s something to consider.

 

[Tacori E-ring]

We have a family friend doing this. She got sent to a VERY rough school VERY far away. I did not know they let you stay local. I would take Haven''s advice to heart. I do think it is a great program but not the right fit for everyone.

 

[neatfreak]

Maybe they are desperate these days or something but as of a few years ago you had no say in where you were sent and also pretty much always were sent to a rough district that probably has never heard of AP classes...

 

[Elmorton]

A friend of DH''s did this as a pit-stop on his way to law school - was placed about 4 states away from where he grew up and where he went to college, so he didn''t know a soul other than the folks he met when he got there. He''s now finishing up his degree in admin, and still teaching because he fell in love with teaching and wants to be able to make changes in schools. From what I understand, yes, typically you are put into pretty rough areas. His was inner-city combined with a lot of non-native English speakers/migrant workers, if I remember correctly. The stories he told at the beginning ranged from hilarious to heartbreaking. He taught middle school, so that doesn''t help with the AP issue.

Also, while our friend isn''t one to talk about this, I know he lives rather simply and typically has roommates. It''s definitely not a path you choose if you''re interested in a pay scale that is similar to the climbing the corporate ladder.

 

[WishfulThinking]

I did a lot of research regarding Teach For America when I was finishing up my BA last year and trying to figure out what the next step was, so I''ll pass that info along.

Last year and I am guessing this year the spaces are EXTREMELY competitive and of the people I know who got accepted I think the determining factor in their application was that they were willing to be placed anywhere-- and they ended up flung off to random impoverished parts of the country, none of them were placed even remotely locally. Not to be a Debbie Downer but I think it''s unlikely that your daughter would make the cut if she has specific requirements about where she is willing to work; you typically mark what your preferences are in order and they disregard those and send you where they need you. There are a ton of people trying to get into TFA and pretty limited spaces overall.

It sounds like the real estate firm position she might be in the running for is a better bet if she is really sold on staying locally, as she would probably have a lot more say about it, and the pay is almost certainly better. However, they''re TOTALLY different experiences and different occupations so it''s difficult to advise about that. If she is planning on applying to graduate school TFA would look very good on an application and give her plenty to talk about. It would be very difficult, though.... definitely not something you''d want to do unless you were sure you could give it your ALL. I might be kind of biased because I ended up doing an AmeriCorps position which is similar--literacy tutoring--and it''s been a very mixed bag. I make terrible pay and work very long hours at a job no one appreciates at all, but my kids make it worthwhile to go to work every day. The training, like training for TFA is very rushed and not all that comprehensive so they really do throw you to the wolves. Also like TFA, I am serving low-income and at-risk kids which can be very difficult at times. Rewarding, but difficult. If she is interested in service positions more generally she could also look into AmeriCorps, which may have some local positions, but while there are other perks [loan forbearance, $ toward paying off student loans, health insurance] the pay is generally pretty bad, so she''d have to really be into it.

Good luck to your DD! I am sure whatever she decides will turn out just fine.

 

[Indylady]

I have a close friend who taught with Teach for America for a year, and she found it to be a very stressful experience. She had an ulcer from the stress in the first few months of teaching, and said that a summer training just isn''t enough. She is a very bright and motivated student, and is now in her first year of law school...it just wasn''t the right fit for her. I''ve heard some people who have loved it, and some that have had a really hard time.

 

[AGBF]

Lisa, It''s funny, but I think that this is one of the programs my niece has been considering!!! (Yes, the one who goes to school with your son!) She has applied for a Fulbright scholarschip to teach in Argentina and she has also been considering teaching in a US school where she could use her Spanish. (She has had a double major in Spanish and Italian in college.) I don''t know if she will get the Fulbright and I do not know if this program is right for her. I just thought that it was interesting that one of your kids'' paths was again crossing the path of one of my nieces!

AGBF

 

[Kaleigh]

Date: 11/23/2009 9:19:17 PM
Author: AGBF


Lisa, It''s funny, but I think that this is one of the programs my niece has been considering!!! (Yes, the one who goes to school with your son!) She has applied for a Fulbright scholarschip to teach in Argentina and she has also been considering teaching in a US school where she could use her Spanish. (She has had a double major in Spanish and Italian in college.) I don''t know if she will get the Fulbright and I do not know if this program is right for her. I just thought that it was interesting that one of your kids'' paths was again crossing the path of one of my nieces!

AGBF

Oh Deb, and here our paths meet once again, how cool is that?? Best of luck to your Niece. You''ll have to let me know how it goes.

To everyone that replied... Thank you. I needed to hear the pros and the cons.

 

[swimmer]

You are getting lots of good info. I had a former student get in two years ago, he wanted to stay in the Northeast because his father was dying, he was told he could stay because of this extenuating circumstance, then they sent him to Louisiana. He graduated with honors in Physics from MIT, there are chronic shortages in this subject everywhere, so he was assigned to teach Kindergarten. He is fluent in German and Spanish, so he was assigned to a Haitian Creole school.

I teach a course for TFA students in my area, they have to take grad school classes at night after teaching all day, I feel so badly for some of the kids, they were not prepared for the poverty and viciousness of this cycle of urban...desperation. But some of them are thriving. They all graduated at the top of their classes at very fancy private schools. So far, several have already quit, most plan on going in to law after this, but some have the heart and intestinal fortitude to make it as teachers. If your daughter is sure of education, but wary of TFA or knows she wants to be in a specific city, she might want to check out programs like the NYC Teaching Fellows, many large cities (I think you are in CA?) SF has a similar program, they have their own teacher training programs, some are good, some are iffy, but if she wants to do this, they can be a great way in where she wants to be. TFA is very specific that you do not get to go where you want. One student left b/c she wanted to be in St. Louis, which is very high need...but they sent her elsewhere.

Also, just as an FYI: there is no way for a first year teacher to teach AP, in order to teach AP you have to attend their summer workshop (expensive week long all day seminar) to get certified by the College Board as an AP teacher. If this is not done, then it is just an honors class and can''t be listed as AP on the transcript. Schools that have non-certified teachers teaching AP are somehow reprimanded by the College Board. I also had to show evidence of a masters in my subject area and full certification by my state (minimum teaching experience 3 years), but am not sure if certification requirement is the norm.

Good luck to your DD! Very impressive to get to third round.

 

[Kaleigh]

Date: 11/23/2009 10:41:03 PM
Author: swimmer
You are getting lots of good info. I had a former student get in two years ago, he wanted to stay in the Northeast because his father was dying, he was told he could stay because of this extenuating circumstance, then they sent him to Louisiana. He graduated with honors in Physics from MIT, there are chronic shortages in this subject everywhere, so he was assigned to teach Kindergarten. He is fluent in German and Spanish, so he was assigned to a Haitian Creole school.

I teach a course for TFA students in my area, they have to take grad school classes at night after teaching all day, I feel so badly for some of the kids, they were not prepared for the poverty and viciousness of this cycle of urban...desperation. But some of them are thriving. They all graduated at the top of their classes at very fancy private schools. So far, several have already quit, most plan on going in to law after this, but some have the heart and intestinal fortitude to make it as teachers. If your daughter is sure of education, but wary of TFA or knows she wants to be in a specific city, she might want to check out programs like the NYC Teaching Fellows, many large cities (I think you are in CA?) SF has a similar program, they have their own teacher training programs, some are good, some are iffy, but if she wants to do this, they can be a great way in where she wants to be. TFA is very specific that you do not get to go where you want. One student left b/c she wanted to be in St. Louis, which is very high need...but they sent her elsewhere.

Also, just as an FYI: there is no way for a first year teacher to teach AP, in order to teach AP you have to attend their summer workshop (expensive week long all day seminar) to get certified by the College Board as an AP teacher. If this is not done, then it is just an honors class and can''t be listed as AP on the transcript. Schools that have non-certified teachers teaching AP are somehow reprimanded by the College Board. I also had to show evidence of a masters in my subject area and full certification by my state (minimum teaching experience 3 years), but am not sure if certification requirement is the norm.

Good luck to your DD! Very impressive to get to third round.

Thanks swimmer. I think saying she''d teach AP was MY mistake. DD never said AP, I just assumed if she would teach high level math that would include AP. MY bad.

I do know it''s a very prestigious thing to be asked to interview with them. When they contacted her, they knew everything she had done on campus. She liked that, and went into it with an open mind. But am thinking it''s not going to be the right fit for her. She really wants to follow her passion which is Real Estate developement and investments. She had lots of experience in this field, so am hoping something works out, what a time to be finding a job....

 

[KimberlyH]

Date: 11/23/2009 10:55:56 PM
Author: Kaleigh

I do know it''s a very prestigious thing to be asked to interview with them. When they contacted her, they knew everything she had done on campus. She liked that, and went into it with an open mind. But am thinking it''s not going to be the right fit for her. She really wants to follow her passion which is Real Estate developement and investments. She had lots of experience in this field, so am hoping something works out, what a time to be finding a job....

If she doesn''t have a passion for teaching I wouldn''t think it would be a good fit for her, especially considering the needs of the population she''d likely be serving. It is a horrible time to find a job (for teachers too, at least in CA!) and I hope things work out for her. Life has a funny way of falling into place.

 

[pennquaker09]

TFA is an amazing organization (It''s one of the my favorite charities.) , and participants that finish their two years of service generally have their pick of grad/law/medical school. It was something that I considered, but with Nate''s medical training it was a no go.

I think everyone has given you great information. I know a lot of TFA people, and I definitely concur on the stressfulness of it. I think you have to be really tough mentally. As you know, Kaleigh, I went to Penn for my M.Ed. and we do clinical and student internships in the Philly public schools. Personally, I didn''t find the high school I taught at horrible, but by demographics, it is an inner city school. A lot of the TFA regions are much worse. Like, having started teaching in New Orleans and then coming to Philly, I can tell you that New Orleans is much worse than Philly. I just can''t describe the emotional toll. I''m not a super emotional person, but I spent many a night crying. By the time I got to Philly, I was a rock.

 

[swimmer]

It is prestigious to be asked to interview! I have never heard of that and the Boston area TFA interviews are going on down the hall from me as we speak (the group ones look fun). Getting to the third round is really impressive. TFA is a great experience for so many, like learning to drive a stick shift first, employers know that they can survive and thrive anywhere; and it really does help as PQ said for getting into grad school. But if she is set on living in one area, they are just not going to accommodate that, this is sort of mentioned here: link but vaguely. Have your DD ask directly what her chances are of teaching in her requested location. The TFA rep I chatted with in the elevator said around a %10 chance of getting her top choices, but he said that it is sort of a "bait and switch" in that all the kids think they are going to get hip cities and then they end up in Delta Corps or parts of the US they had only ever flown over before. I was curious about your question, so stopped him and picked his brain.

If your daughter''s heart is set in Real Estate, then are there post-bacc programs or something really relevant to her job development that she should do? Yes, this is a really rough market for looking. Our graduate program applications have almost doubled at the grad school where I teach, and at my high school we have almost one hundred applications in for a position that has not yet been posted. Anyway, I mostly wanted to clarify that AP thing for other readers since so often undergrads think that they will be getting jobs teaching AP, and as Haven also pointed out, there is really little chance of that happening till they have taught for 5 years or so and gotten their masters degree(s).

 

[elrohwen]

A friend of mine did it right after college. She was so miserable that she quit after the first year. Her main problem with it was that the school was 100% unsupportive. She expected the kids to be bad, but I think she expected the school to care at least a little bit. She didn't have any supplies (the copier never even worked) and wasn't given any help.

Her other main problem with the program was the degree of peppiness and optimism, if that makes sense. She said most people in the program seemed peppy to the point of being fake, and she really couldn't identify with anyone. There wasn't any encouragement to talk about difficulties or work through them - just to put on a happy face and pretend like you were having the most fun time in your life. She found it hard to identify with anyone and develop any kind of support network.

So the teaching part wasn't the problem - the program itself and the specific school she went to were what didn't work for her. She still has a lot of regret that it didn't work out, but she really did give it her all. She feels bad that she wasn't able to help any of the kids the way she wanted (though I imagine she helped a few of them more than she realizes).

ETA: My friend was placed in rural North Carolina and had no choice.

 

[Kaleigh]

Date: 11/24/2009 5:15:58 AM
Author: pennquaker09
TFA is an amazing organization (It''s one of the my favorite charities.) , and participants that finish their two years of service generally have their pick of grad/law/medical school. It was something that I considered, but with Nate''s medical training it was a no go.

I think everyone has given you great information. I know a lot of TFA people, and I definitely concur on the stressfulness of it. I think you have to be really tough mentally. As you know, Kaleigh, I went to Penn for my M.Ed. and we do clinical and student internships in the Philly public schools. Personally, I didn''t find the high school I taught at horrible, but by demographics, it is an inner city school. A lot of the TFA regions are much worse. Like, having started teaching in New Orleans and then coming to Philly, I can tell you that New Orleans is much worse than Philly. I just can''t describe the emotional toll. I''m not a super emotional person, but I spent many a night crying. By the time I got to Philly, I was a rock.

Thanks, just seeing this now. I am keeping my fingers crossed for her, she really wants this.. I know you went to Penn, so really value your perspective... She''ll be there all day tomorrow, 9-5. Thanks for your input Penn..