GreekChat.com Forums - Teach for America?

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Originally Posted by ASUADPi (Post 1383343)

TFA's spend 5 weeks in intensive training. I'm sorry, education majors (non-alternate certification) spend 2+ years training. I know from my experience at ASU, that you had to do volunteer tutoring hours prior to applying to the COE (college of education). Then once in the program you spent your last four semesters in the field and 3 semesters taking all education coursework.

one of my gripes: 5 weeks vs. 2+ years. though there isn't a "set" amount of experience that can prep you for the harsh reality of teaching, that is quite a difference of training. i didnt do a traditional undergraduate education program, but i'd expect it to be worth more than a half a summer of intensive training. i'd think of it as cramming for a final exam vs. studying bit by bit throughout the term.

There are couple TFA's at my school right now. I can tell you that I am more educated than them. The most they have done is completed the appropriate coursework required to become state certified. While I have a Masters degree.

i personally value having the Master's over "appropriate coursework." i'd hope that the word "master's" implies that you've mastered the skills necessary to teach satisfactorily with room to work on that craft. of course this isnt always the case.

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Originally Posted by Alphagamuga (Post 1383372)

Based on my own experience taking education classes, reading studies of education, paying attention to educational reform, my impression of education programs is pretty bad. They might or might not actually prepare you teach in a school where you are likely to get a job. Yes, you will have jumped through more hoops than a TFAer, but those hoops might or might not have anything to do with teaching.
At many colleges, the school of education will have the lowest admission standards and some of the weakest students, as determined by GPA and SAT scores.

TFA, on the other hand, pulls heavily from the Ivy league and other top tier schools.

on the upside, many of my friends who student-taught got full-time jobs at their placement. couldve been the NYU credentials, or that they knew what they were doing, who knows. and the education students ALWAYS got ragged on for having the lowest GPA and SAT scores (for the graduate program, you dont have to submit GRE scores!).

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Originally Posted by Alphagamuga (Post 1383620)

Sure, 33Girl, it's true that a lot of smart people aren't particularly good teachers, but if you don't know something then you certainly can't teach it.

exactly. pulling from top-tier/Ivy League schools just says to me you want to put on your website "hey most of our applicants come from schools X, Y, and Z and have X.X GPA" which makes people believe that the students are gonna absorb that through osmosis. as i may have mentioned, i worked alongside a TFA teacher who was a computer science smarty from UPenn, but how did that make him qualified to teach 3rd grade special education?

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Originally Posted by Munchkin03 (Post 1383675)

I have a lot of friends from college who decided to do TFA--not because they actually wanted to teach (my college does not have an undergrad education program), but because they weren't ready to go straight to law/medical/graduate school and figured that they could do that to pass the time for a year or two. None of them were even considering teaching for their careers. The people who did NYCTF were usually committed to teaching for at least 5 years, if not for their entire careers.

Again, with the example above, the kid (i say "kid" cause he was only a year older than me) was killing time before graduate school, and actually said at one point, "we didnt go over this kinda stuff in the summer program" (which is how i found out he was a TFAer).

Now NYCTF on the other hand, i'd give a shot, since youre doing going to school at night and teaching during the day. from its website, it seems way more realistic than TFA, and even though its intensive, its over 2 years and seems like its applicants have more dedication to the education field, which feels like more a fit than doing it to pass time between undergrad and grad.