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Originally Posted by Senusret I
I am a former educator in DC and I could tell you a few things from an outsider's perspective.
I know that the first summer is intensive. I believe the DC fellows teach summer school during the day and take classes in the evening and night.
Then they have the huge new teacher orientation sometime toward the end of the summer -- not just for fellows, but for all new teachers. This will be a good networking opportunity to meet other new teachers.
Somehow I doubt that the fellows get much choice in their placements. If you find yourself in the program and have the choice to rank your potential placements, PLEASE PM ME FIRST. You do not want to be stuck somewhere with a bad principal, and there are plenty, unfortunately.
If you are white, be prepared for what might be your first time experiencing prejudice. Now that the program is older, it's probably not as bad. BUT, some older teachers and/or teachers who majored in education, did student teaching, etc., will look at you as somewhat of a carpetbagger. They will think of you as someone who does DCTF for a few years just for the "experience" and say you helped the poor black children of DC, but you just couldn't do enough, so you felt it was time to go to grad school and become a policy-maker.
I don't know you, so I don't know if this is your plan. If it is, don't tell anyone.
But back to the race thing. A lot of these kids have never been around people who don't look like them, so if you're not black, just brace yourself for a lot of mostly innocent, but sometimes intrusive questions about your background.
I got the feeling from my friend in DCTF that there is not a lot of support once you start teaching. Yes, there is grad school and lots of in-service opportunities, but your biggest support will be from your cohort.
To sum it up.... I feel that DCTF is less of a "Program" than it is a gateway to get people into teaching. Being independent will help -- the ability to befriend senior teachers will help. But be warned -- STAY OUT OF THE TEACHER'S LOUNGE. Everyone who is nice to you is not your friend -- keep personal and professional far, far apart.
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Let me say that I am not part of TF, but have considered it over the past couple of years. I also have friends who have done it or are currently doing it. Many quit within the first year, saying it was much, much harder than they expected. Also that there is not enough support from the school they were placed (either the teachers or administration). Another thing i've heard is the quality of people TF take on is misleading - they make it seem like they take the best of the best, but friends have mentioned having "WTF??" moments when meeting other teachers-to-be in their program.
I think you can group TF folks into two groups - recent grads who are still figuring it out (and run the risk of having America's future teachers not being in it for the right reasons, and then making the turnover much higher) and career-changers who really want something different. Perhaps the latter group are more successful at it, as they are older and kinda have their bearings together. a bunch of snot-nosed brats arent going to break them as easy as some 23-year-old who studied computer science but is kindasorta thinking of law school.
Anyway, i have friends in both groups. The former, one friend just finished his last year (well it was Teach for America, but all the same) and is applying to law school. He was a history major. In the latter, a soror who was an advertising exec who wanted to make the transition for her son, who is autistic and wanted to learn the BOE inside out. Becoming a teacher was the answer for her. They both loved their experiences to date, but there are just as many that have fallen by the wayside with horror stories, literally quitting midyear because it was much too much.
... and this is why my application has been pending for 2 years.