Somebody Wrote About Why They Hate Teach For America

And it wasn’t us this time.
Ed Notes has featured a post written by former NYCTF Feministe, entitled Why I Hate Teach for America.
Click here

The Reason Alternative Certification Programs are Seriously Flawed

I was on Facebook the other day and came across these work descrptions from current or former NYCTF/TFA members who all work at my school.
1. ” I teach in the ghetto so I can get a free Master’s Degree…I’m seriously reconsidering my long-held stance on gun control…”
2. ” I teach my darling little gangstas in [...]

New York City Teaching Fellows-Biting the Hand that Feeds Them

I still have a problem with alternative teacher certification programs; I don’t feel that they address the real problems that face our schools and I have serious concerns about sending people with no training to work with our neediest students.
That being said, I’ve noticed something interesting about the New York City Teaching Fellows Program - [...]

What Exactly is ‘Highly Qualified’?

I had the following conversation with a friend (who is not a teacher) over dinner tonight. He has a MFA and MS in American Lit. and is one of the brightest men that I know. He has been trying to figure out if teaching would be his next step.

Friend: TFA is known for bringing in [...]

Biased Research Throws Veteran Teachers Under a Bus

The Urban Institute released a report on March 27, 2008, stating that Teach For America teachers are more successful getting students to pass standardized exams than more experienced veterans. The authors of the report write:
The findings show that TFA teachers are more effective, as measured by student exam performance, than traditional teachers. Moreover, they suggest [...]

Fill in the Blanks…

Please take a moment to read the following information and fill in the blanks.
____________ approached the teaching profession with some suspicion. They could not fire all the existing teachers, but saw many as uncommitted to the ____________ or even hostile. _______ had the curriculum rewritten to provide a ________approved curriculum. Teachers had much less [...]

Why I Don’t Recommend the NYCTF to Those Who REALLY Want to Teach

I received seven weeks of pre-service training from the Fellows program before I entered the classroom. During those seven weeks I took courses in Educational Psychology, Teaching Students with Disabilities, Classroom Management, Lesson Planning, The History of Education and more. They were accelerated classes which meant that we briefly glossed over whatever the professors thought [...]

The Value of Traditional Teacher Preparation Programs

An Assistant Principal asked me to meet with a prospective teacher for next year. It’s pretty common for us to lose a percentage of our staff each year. We’ve learned to start interviewing early.
This particular teacher caused a great deal of excitement. She had come through a traditional teaching program! She [...]

“Behold, I Send You Forth as Sheep in the Midst of Wolves”

There is a Great Divide between old and new teachers, but according to the welcoming committee at the NYCTF New Teacher Ceremony, the reason is because “older teachers don’t like you. And they shouldn’t. They are afraid of you because you have the power to do what they can’t. You can change the schools. You [...]