Whos done it? Who knows anything about it? Do you have any control at all over where you go?

and how about benefits?

[Edited on December 8, 2005 at 1:39 AM. Reason : .]

12/8/2005 1:35:30 AM

i looked into it a little bit before i had decided on grad school... i think i remember the site saying u could chose urban or rural. i think the areas offered in NC were inner city charlotte schools & some poor country area out in eastern north carolina somewhere.

12/8/2005 1:38:35 AM

I am also interested in this, if anyone has any personal experience...now you have twice the motivation to tell us.

12/8/2005 2:10:22 AM

its a decent program but you better be magna cum laude because thats all they want. your gonna either be in the sticks or in da hood

12/8/2005 10:25:50 AM

If you're interested in TFA, candy3039 posted some information about an info session on TWW a while ago--it doesn't look like they'll be on-campus again until the Engineering and CHASS Career Fairs (which doesn't leave you much time until the application deadline), but if you contact her, she might be able to point you to some information.

The best resource is, of course, the TFA website: https://www.teachforamerica.org:

Quote :

"School Choice: Applicants indicate their preferences for regional sites, grade levels, and subject areas on the interview day. Teach For America works to meet these preferences while meeting districts' needs and adhering to district and state requirements. For this school year, we were able to place 96 percent of our accepted applicants in one of their highly preferred sites, and 99 percent in one of their highly preferred or preferred sites"

Quote :

"Benefits: Full first-year teacher salary and benefits, financial aid, plus a $9,450 AmeriCorps education award (if eligible). Student loan forbearance and interest payments for two years."

TFA is definitely selective about the people that they accept (which has always seemed counterintuitive to me, considering the shortage of quality teachers, but TFA's resources are limited). There never seems to be rhyme or reason about their selections...I've know magna cum laudes who were heavily involved in their campuses who didn't get selected. If you want more information about the process, Tony Caravano just went through it and I'm sure he can give you some insight.

Prerequisites and Admissions Policies: https://www.teachforamerica.org/Req_Pol.html

Oh, and the founder of TFA is speaking at UNC's December commencement ceremonies, if you're that interested.

[Edited on December 8, 2005 at 11:27 AM. Reason : add]

12/8/2005 11:25:06 AM

Quote :

"Benefits: Full first-year teacher salary and benefits, financial aid, plus a $9,450 AmeriCorps education award (if eligible). Student loan forbearance and interest payments for two years."

daaaaaaaaaaaaamn.

12/8/2005 11:41:52 AM

It's very selective. If you want to do it out of the goodness of your heart, be prepared to find other options (Peace Corps, Americorps, etc). If you just want to teach, you will find it easier to do lateral entry in NC on your own than go through this process.

12/8/2005 12:06:06 PM

i know 2 people that made it to the interview process that happened about a week ago - it looks to be a good program

12/8/2005 4:57:37 PM

My oldest sister did this program (she grad in '98) and was placed in Baton Rouge. She taught middle school special ed. Although she didnt like the job (the kids were horrible) she said she would do it again because she loved the experence. She meet her husband through the program, he was a year behind at the same school, so that I think was the best part for her.

One of her good friends is higher up in TFA and said that because so many people are having trouble finding jobs in there degree area that the #s for applicants is very high so its a hard to get in. But they also say that if you do get in and do it for 2 years that many grad schools and employers love to see it on the resume (but def not a reason to do the program).

As far as where you go you put down some places you want to go and places you dont want to go and my sister and her husband neither got what they had wanted... my sister wanted a bigger city like NY and my bro in law wanted rural NC.

If you have any more spec questions I can get them for you!

12/8/2005 6:54:58 PM

Its a stupid program. Teachers are highly trained in what they do, or at least they are supposed to be. Just throwing a college-educated person in front of a bunch of poor, misbehaving kids is not the answer to our education problems.

12/8/2005 6:58:49 PM

maybe i am missing something but if TFA is so "selective" then why the fuck do we have a shortage of teachers?

12/8/2005 7:06:20 PM

I think its more we have a shortage of qualified teachers who are willing to work for less money than they could other places... which is in the case in the areas that TFA sends teachers

12/8/2005 7:18:25 PM

~17000 applicants for TFA

~1700 hired

12/8/2005 7:23:38 PM

^^^^it isn't exactly just throwing college-educated kids in classrooms. there is a training program that goes on in the summer for TFA. i think its 5 weeks of all day training.

12/8/2005 8:49:45 PM

5 weeks doesn't really compare to the years of formal training that teachers go through to get certified nowadays.

12/8/2005 9:07:49 PM

I'm about to enter the 5 week training course this summer for TFA

12/8/2005 9:36:37 PM

If you can't do TFA, also look into the Summerbridge program


http://www.summerbridge.org


It's six weeks of teaching in the summer, you usually get a subject and an elective of some sort, and when I was a student in SB (this was 9-10 years ago), you also had a club to help network kids who might not otherwise even speak to each other. The pay is shit for the hours you work, but the quality and fun of the program is what makes pretty much every teacher I knew in Summerbridge do it, and want to continue doing it. You also work with the kids year-round to do tutoring and such, and my SB program did a yearly camping trip. I never taught at SB but when it was camping trip time, they knew they could count on me.

[Edited on December 8, 2005 at 10:08 PM. Reason : camping]

12/8/2005 10:07:21 PM

my friend is doing it in Los Angeles right now. She said it is the best and worst thing she has ever done. One doesnt outweigh the other you just really have to be prepared. She teaches 1st grade and broke up 2 fights the first week. she says its really hard, but it is worth it.

12/9/2005 1:43:54 AM