Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bronx is Learning

Long delayed update...

2010-03-16T13:20:00.002-04:00

Hello all:

So, this blog as lain dormant for quite some time -- and yet it has still gotten quite a bit of traffic and comments.

My plan to leave my career and become a teacher, like all great plans, was not successful. Changes in the economy, my personal life, and a change in jobs have -- at least for now -- put off any such move.

I will continue to leave the blog up as I think some people have still found it useful as a point of reference.

Thanks to everyone who commented and read.

More delays and financial upheaval

2009-03-13T13:53:00.002-04:00

I got further communications from Teach for America. They've basically re-re-re-waitlisted for the time being. They were actually quite open and clear about the situation. School districts really don't know what they'll be able to afford next school year, and thus they have no idea how many teachers they'll have spots for. I'm not mad at them -- it is what it is. They intend to send out updates on status mid-April then again in May and provide FINAL statuses by end of May -- which I take to mean that if they still don't know the situation by the end of May, that they'll be canceling all further placements for this year.

I'm to hear back from NYC Teacing Fellows next week, but I imagine it will be much the same response.

Aside from all this, there's been some major ground-shifting under my feet in the meanwhile. Without going into great detail, let's just say that the financial landscape for me and my wife has undegone a fairly signifiant change recently. Between this and the ungoing uncertainty with both TFA and NYCTF, I really don't see me going into the teaching profession right now.

Perhaps this was not my time.

More Waiting -- Teach for America and NYC Teaching Fellows

2009-01-21T23:54:00.006-05:00

As per their schedule, I got an update on my waitlist status from Teach for America on Jan 20. My new status is that I have to continue to wait. I still haven't been tossed curb-side, which I suppose is good, but I'll have to wait until March 10th for any more info.

Grrr.

I'm not sure what's up with NYC Teaching Fellows. They've begun sending out emails to people who interviewed in early December. Admissions are given on a rolling basis so, ostensibly, someone who interviewed on Dec 2nd (as I did) would hear before someone who interviewed on Dec 9th. But something is up. A friend of mine who interviewed on the same day that I did got an email saying she was waitlisted, several other people have posted to a message thread on the LiveJournal NYCTF site with their emails -- some outright rejected, others waitlisted, but none accepted. What's odd is that people who interviewed after me have received emails, but I have not.

My friend suggested that this might be a good sign. But knowing the Teaching Fellows, it could just as well be a bad sign, or a neutral sign, or a sign that my last name comes near the end of the alphabet and they simply haven't gotten to me yet.

Here are copies of the NYCTF waitlist and rejection notification emails, both copied from that LiveJournal thread linked just above. Thanks to both of the people who posted them:

Thank you for your continued interest in the NYC Teaching Fellows Program. At this time, we are reviewing your candidacy for the June 2009 program. Because of uncertainty about the budget, which will impact hiring needs for next school year, we are deferring admissions decisions until we have more information that enables us to better project the need for new Teaching Fellows.
Although we are unable to provide you with a final notification at this time, please be aware that you are part of a select group of applicants, and we will strongly consider your candidacy for our program. We expect to inform you of your final admissions decision by no later than Friday, March 27.
We thank you for your patience as you continue through the application process, and we appreciate your dedication to raising student achievement in the NYC classrooms that need you most. If you have any additional questions about the Fellowship, please do not hesitate to contact us at fellows@schools.nyc.gov or 718.935.4101.

and

Thank you for your interest in the NYC Teaching Fellows program. We appreciate the time and energy you have devoted to the application process and your desire to close the achievement gap. We have completed a final review of your application, and unfortunately, you have not been admitted to the Fellowship.
As you may know, the applicant pool for the Teaching Fellows program is extremely competitive. Each year we receive far more applications from qualified individuals than we have positions available.
We wish you the best in your future endeavors.

What's odd is that the wording in the waitlist notification email seems to be saying that it wasn't just this individual who was waitlisted, but that they are "deferring admissions decisions" for the entire program. If that is the case, I would think I'd have gotten the same email myself.

Not sure if that bodes well. I suppose it's a Good, Bad, or Let's See sort of situation -- as is getting into either program at all. Perhaps my path goes a different route altogether. We shall see.

If I hear anything else, I'll be sure to post it up here.

ADDENDUM
I finally heard back from NYCTF. It looks like they are only giving out rejections and waitlist emails. They aren't giving out any actual admissions right now because they have no idea what the demand will be from the schools. They say that we (meaning anyone who wasn't outright reject ed) should hear some final word from them by March 27th at the latest.

My TFA, My LAST, My Everything

2009-01-16T17:08:00.003-05:00

A few updates here.

First, someone commented on a previous post that the "letter" that you see when you log into the TFA applicant portal changed, and now said that we're waitlisted through March, and not until January 20th. As soon as I saw this, I logged in and checked. Indeed, it said March. I was pissed beyond description.

However, I looked today and it says January 20th once again.

Go figure.

I guess I'm still going to find out on Jan 20th. My guess is that it was a technical/computer burp.

There was some other comments on the NYC Teaching Fellows Live Journal site that indicated that the wait time for hearing back from the Teaching Fellows had changed, and it would be 8-10 weeks rather than some other length of time. But really, 8-10 weeks from my initial interview (Dec 2) puts me in the end of January, which is kind of what I was expecting anyway.

And finally, I got my results in from the LAST exam (the intial teacher certification exam that ev ery NY teacher has to take). I won't get into the particulars, but I passed with flying colors.

I'm still feeling a little unsure and fairly anxious about all of this. With the economy doing what it's doing and the NYC education system having to cut back as it is, I wonder if this is the right year for me to be doing this.

Hopefully I'll have some answers in the next week or two.

Thumb Twiddling and To Sir, WIth Love

2009-01-05T11:38:00.008-05:00

God, the waiting. THE WAITING.

I think the soonest I'll hear anything is January 20th -- the date I'm suppose to hear back with more info from Teach for America. However, in rereading the email they sent me back in November, I did notice that they did not say they would necessarily tell me if I were in or out on that date, only that they would provide me with an update on my status. So, in reality, come Jan 20th, they could simply tell me that I'm STILL on the waitlist. Maddening.

And I really have no firm date by which I'm suppose to hear back from NYC Teaching Fellows. I've gotten various answers back from different people. I've heard 5 weeks after the interview (which would be tomorrow). I've heard mid-January. I've heard late-January and even early-February. It's like they've got a drunken monkey spinning a wheel-of-luck doo-hickey in their office deciding our fate.

Anyway, now on to "To Sir, With Love" -- a pretty cool movie with Sidney Poitier. He's a clean-cut, well spoken teacher in a bad school in a bad neighborhood in London. His kids are in their final year of schooling and utterly unteachable. He decides to throw out the curriculum and, instead, teach them about life -- he starts with manners, making everyone in the class call eachother as Sir or Ms. and by their proper, last name.

The movie is one of the better of the "teacher makes a difference" genre, though a bit dated. Of course, if "Sir" was teaching in NYC, he'd be unable to do any of this, because of the regents exams. 8)

Anyway, if you haven't seen it, check it out.

ADDENDUM
Really, for no good reason whatsoever, I wandered over to the NYCTF website and looked at what they had up under Application Timeline. They say that applicants should hear by mid-January and that those who interviewed in early December (i.e. ME) should hear within five to seven weeks. So 5-7 weeks puts me at anywhere between tomorrow and January 20th.

We'll see if they actually get back to me in that timeframe.

OK, that's all.

ADDENDUM to the ADDENDUM
This post has been quoted over on GothamSchools.org.

Also, I should add that that, after an email from me asking a few question, I got a nice email from the folks at the NYC Teaching Fellows. They answered my questions and also informed me that I would be hearing some word by, and I quote, "mid-late January."

I'm going to unilaterally decide that "mid-late" means somewhere between Jan 15th and Jan 25th.

I should start up a betting pool on when I'll actually hear from them.

LAST exam, quick review.

2008-12-15T09:44:00.003-05:00

I took the LAST exam (one of the first NYC teacher certification requirements) this past weekend. It's a general knowledge and general analytical skills assessment test. There's really no way to study or prepare for it -- maybe other than simply looking at a sample exam up on the state's website. It really could be described as a "making sure you're not a moron" test, which I suppose is not that bad to have.

It consists of 80 multiple-choice questions and a 300-600 word essay, for which you're given 4 hours, which is WAY too much time. I'm completely anal about taing standardized tests and check/re-check my answers a ton, and I was out of there in just over 2hrs. Again, if you're on the road to teaching in New York, you'll need to take this exam, but it's a fruitless endevour to fret or at all concern yourself with this test. If you can pass it, you're fine -- and if you can't, there' really no way of changing that -- other than boning up on ALL OF KNOWLEDGE ... 8)

Of course, I'm really hoping that I wasn't pushing on fate to have taken this certification exam before getting into either the New York Teaching Fellows program or Teach for America. Ugh.

Now, it's just a waiting game -- about a month to go before I should hear from both.

LAST exam tomorrow -- head start? or Karmic disaster?

2008-12-12T10:15:00.002-05:00

Anyone who wants to teach in the NYC public schools, regardless of the route by which they get there (NYC Teaching Fellows, Teach For America, traditional certification) needs to jump through a number of hoops, one of which is the LAST exam.

LAST stands for Liberal Arts and Sciences Test and consists of 80 multiple-choice questions plus a 400-600 word essay. As per NY State's own language on it, "The explicit purpose of [the exam] is to help identify for certification those candidates who have demonstrated the appropriate level of knowledge and skills that are important for performing the responsibilities of a teacher in New York State public schools." -- or put another way, to make sure that teacher's have a basic level of genereal knowledge and aren't dumbasses.

I'm taking the exam tomorrow.

I wanted to get a jump on the game and get this one rather bothersome requirement out of the way so I'd be ahead of the game come Spring (since there are other exams and requirements to deal with). I do worry that it may have been a giant Karmic kick in my rear-end, since I haven't actually been accepted to either NYC Teaching Fellows of Teach for America yet.

oy vet.

I'll provide some notes on the exam this weekend.

NYC Teaching Fellows interview, quick review...

2008-12-04T08:44:00.002-05:00

I know. I know. I've been lazy. I've already had a few people bug me about putting up my thoughts on the NYC Teaching Fellows interview -- especially as it compared with the Teach for America interview. So here goes...

I had my interview this past Tuesday evening. Two things right off the bat: it was a PACKED house, there were easily 75-80 people there; and I like that they had it in the evening (4:30p-10p) rather than in the middle of the day. Their program is obviously geared towards people with jobs, as opposed to TFA, which had their interview mid-day, jobs-be-damned.

Though things were in slightly different orders, the NYCTF interview and the TFA interview, some details aside, were fairly similar (as I expected they would be). So here's a quick run-down of the NYCTF interview and some of the major differences:

They both had multiple-choice quizzes, but the NYCTF quiz was much more math-centric and really required some mathematical/analytical skills, while the TFA quiz was more about answering situational questions about teaching and reading information off of charts/reports. The math on the NYCTF quiz was not difficult math in itself (no calculus, trigonometry, etc) but each question was somewhat involved. I could see someone who has trouble with math having trouble with this quiz. I'm sure a good number of people didn't finish it. It was 23 questions and we had 30 minutes. Oh, and during this first bit, while we were all taking this quiz, 2 mice ran across the room. Good stuff. I think they might've been part of the interview process. 8)
NYCTF then had a 1 page "sample essay" by a 6th grader. You had 10 minutes to go through and mark up all the mistakes, focusing on spelling, grammar and punctuation.
We then split up into smaller groups and did our lesson plans. This part was almost exactly the same as in the TFA interview. While basic humility prevents me from commenting on my own performance, I will say that most of the lessons in my group sucked donkey balls. One or two were decent, the rest ranged from awful to God awful. I spoke with a few other people in other groups and this wasn't the case across the board. Possibly I got stuck in a sucky group.
Then, just as in TFA, we had a group discussion based on a short reading that described a situation in a school. The interviewers did not participate in the conversation, but overlooked, jotting down notes, and seeing how people in the group interacted. I believe they were less concerned with the solutions that the group came up with and moreso with how each person interacted with the group: did one person hog all the air? did someone not speak at all? could people agree and disagree civily, etc. This was similar to the group discussion we had with TFA -- though I felt here, it was a little less organized.
We then had to write a short (1-page or so) essay, pretending we were writing a letter to our principal about some issues. This wasn't far off of the written essay we had to do for TFA.
Then we had our 1-on-1 interviews. Some big differences. TFA 1-on-1s were 45-55 minutes long, these were 20 minutes, in-and-out. The TFA interviews were much more conversational, in-depth, and probing. In this interview, the interviewer was heads-down, rapid-fire Q&A, very impersonal. Very difficult to get and read on how the interivew went.

After being wait-listed with TFA, I'm hesitant to guess at how I did at the NYCTF interview. But I think I did well. I think my lesson plan was solid. I'm unsure how the 1-on-1 went, but, again, I think I did ok.

At this point, all I can do is wait.

I was told that we'd hear back from NYCTF around mid-Jan, so maybe Jan 15th? And I'll be hearing back from TFA on Jan 20th. So I have about 7 weeks of sitting around with my thumb up my bum.

If anyone has any specific questions about either of the interviews, just shoot me a note.

NYC Teaching Fellows interview today --- plus, long time no see...

2008-12-02T09:38:00.002-05:00

Yeah yeah, I know. I haven't posted in several weeks. It's been a combination of me still being pissed off at Teach for America for putting me on their waitlist and life getting really crazy for a bit: work=crazy/busy, vacation-to-Italy=crazy/wonderful, Thanksgiving=crazy/yummy, training for Bronx 1/2 marathon=crazy/crazy...

But this blog isn't about ME, it's about teaching. Well, ok, it's about me trying to teach...

Anyway ... today I have my interview with Teach for America (as does my compatriot-in-crime, KC). The interview process for NYCTF seems fairly similar to that of TFA, so I'm extremely interested to see how they differ. I'll try to come back tomorrow with a decent report on how the interview went.

Oooofaa! Teach for America answer.

2008-11-19T12:52:00.002-05:00

Well, I suppose it could be worse.

I got an answer back from Teach for America this Monday -- and am on the waitlist. This means that I won't hear back until Jan 20th.

After my interview, which went rediculously well, this irked me a little bit. I put it down to one of three things:

I completely screwed the pooch on the written quiz portion of the interview -- but I'm fairly sure this is not the case.
I horrendously misread how the interview went and I actually sucked.
I put down that I could and would only accept admission if placed in NYC, and I think that they are holding off doing any placements in NYC because of ensuing budget cuts there, I was put on the waitlist.

So, a little bummed, but at least I didn't *NOT* make it -- at least not yet.

And I have my NYC Teaching Fellows interview in 2 weeks.

Meh.

America the Beautiful...

2008-11-05T11:13:00.003-05:00

This blog is about education and teaching, period. I think too many educators' blogs become, at times, overwrought with political rants and ideological banterings. However, because I think it important enough to do so, and without gushing (or sobbing) with my own liberal, conservative and/or moderate views, I interupt this blog for a brief note about the election.

This country is amazing, if not always perfect.

I love politics. A lot. Way too much. Election Night is like my every-four-years Superbowl (which I guess would make it more like the Olympics or the World Cup, but I'm trying to keep this American-ey here). As I sat there drinking my 6-7 fingers of scotch (whether in celebration or in sorrow I won't say) I had to thank God I was born here. HERE. And, with all its worts and scars (which, at times, are horrid), and with all its imperfections (of which there are many), the system here in the United States (both political and economic) continues, daily, to amaze me with its flexibility, its fortitude, and its basic soundness.

That is all.

Now back to your regularly scheduled blog.

NYC Teaching Fellows interview scheduled...

2008-11-03T13:21:00.003-05:00

After being in a sort of application-limbo for the last month, NYCTF finally put up their interview schedule today on their website. The website was completely slammed all morning, so it was like trying to get Yankee tickets on Ticketmaster the morning tickets go on sale ... in other words, it was a giant pig-screw.

I managed to get a slot on the first day of interviews, Dec 2nd. I also got logged in for my Sufferering Compatriot (we shall still call her 'K') and she got a slot that same day. I'll be holding my little secrets of getting into bogged down websites close to the vest -- since I still want an advantage next Spring when yankee tickets go on sale. 8)

The horribly lagged website and the vague timeframe (i.e. schedules will be up some time in November) both lend to the continuing bad vibes I've been getting about NYCTF -- especially as compared to Teach for America.

I'll be curious how the NYCTF interview goes and how it compares with my TFA interview experience.

NYC Teacher Pensions -- the straight poop

2008-10-31T15:45:00.013-04:00

If you've been thinking about becoming a teacher in the NYC public school system -- whether via the NYC Teaching Fellows, Teach for America, or otherwise -- you've given some thought to the NYC teachers' pension system. And if you haven't, you should. I'll try to lay out, as clearly as possible, how pensions work for new NYC public school teachers.

PLEASE NOTE: Do not leave any comments that are political complaints about the teachers' contract, or the UFT, or Mayor Bloomberg. This is not a post about how things should be. It is about how they are.

OK, now that we have that out of the way, let's talk PENSIONS.

Assuming you teach in the NYC schools, teach for at least 5 years, and then retire, you will get a pension -- a monthly check. This is above and beyond Social Security (if it's still around) or any other retirement savings you might have. The size of your monthly teacher pension is, roughly speaking, based on 4 things:

What pension tier you're in
How many years you put in
Your age at retirement
Your FAS (final average salary)

Let's explain these one at a time.

1 - Your Tier
Your "tier" is based on when you were hired. This is an artifact of the complex way in which pensions are usually administered. I won't go into the details, but just know that the NYC teacher pension system currently has FOUR tiers: I, II, III, and IV. Different tiers calculate their pensions differently. If you are a new teacher (actually, anyone hired after Sept. 1, 1983) , you will be in tier IV. You should know this. It affects many of your benefits.

2 - How many years you put in
This is easy. How many years have you been teaching? OK, it can be a little more complicated. If you take time off, or if you have prior service teaching, or if you've served in a war, etc. But really, this is just how many years of service you have teaching. Your pension payments get calculated differently depending on whether you've put in less than 20 years, between 20 and 30 years, or more than 30 years.

3 - Your age at retirement.
As a Tier IV person, you can only receive a pension if you are 55 or older and have taught for at least 5 years. If you retire before age 62 AND have put in less than 30 years, you get pegged with a slight penalty. For example, if you retire at age 55 and have less than 30 years in, your monthly pension checks would be 73% of what it normally would calculate out to.

4 - Your FAS (Final Average Salary)
This is the average of the highest 3 consecutive years' salaries. While this can get complex, usually this ends up basically being your last 3 years of work.

So, now that we have these 4 factors, we can calculate your pension:

Because you're a new teacher, you're Tier IV -- this simply dictates how to calculate your pension.

Step 1: from years in calculate "pension factor"

less than 20 years: multiply # of years by 1-2/3%
20 to 30 years: multiple # of years by 2%
more than 30 years: 60% + 1-1/2% for every year over 30

Step 2: If retire before age 62 and put in less than 30 years

Age 55: multiply pension factor by 73%
Age 56: by 76%
Age 57: by 79%
Age 58: by 82%
Age 59: by 85%
Age 60: by 88%
Age 61: by 94%
Age 62 or above: no pentaly

Step 3: Multiply Final Average Salary by pension factor
... and there you have it. You're monthly payment.

Anyway, just thought people should know what the heck was going on with teacher pensions. And, there is a nifty calculator for figuring out what your annual pension in retirement would be here.

Had my Teach for America interview today....

2008-10-28T20:36:00.003-04:00

... but no review.

For a number of reasons, I'm going to skip giving a detailed review of the full-day TFA interview -- at least for now.

I will say that it was very well organized, there weren't too many mouth-breathers there (either interviewees or interviewers), and, overall, by the late-afternoon, I was more impressed with TFA than I was at 9am. (Hopefully the interviewers think the same of me).

I continue to get mixed answers about whether or not I'm "required" to stay/sleep at the Summer Institute (bootcamp). I've gotten a shaky YES, a fairly confidant NO, a very confidant YES, and another shaky YES. So, while the official word on whether I have to start stocking up on Ramon noodles and buy that John Belushi poster where he's wearing that shirt that says "college" on it is still out, I'm still of the mind that they can't F-ing keep me from going home at night.

FIGHT THE MAN!!

OK, anyway. That's all for now. Good luck to everyone else who's interviewing in this first round.

Follow up ... Teach for America bootcamp -- living in the dorms

2008-10-26T12:11:00.000-04:00

Just a follow up to the whole issue of having to live in the dorms.
I've gotten some info back from someone from Teach for America, and it seems like special cases can be made for people who live nearby or have certain family situations, etc.

And frankly, I can't imagine how they would enforce such a rule. Even if I "had to" live in the dorms, what's to stop me from simply leaving at night and coming back in the morning? It'd be pretty silly of them to even try and quarantine a person like that (especially a clever bastard like myself).

So, I'm a little less concerned about this now and I can go back to being concerned about the interview on Tuesday and my lesson plan.

Teach for America bootcamp -- living in the dorms??

2008-10-24T12:11:00.004-04:00

An interesting piece of information was passed along to me today concerning the Teach for American "summer institute" -- under muttered breath, often spoken of simply as bootcamp.

While I was aware that such a bootcamp existed, I was informed today that this bootcamp takes place on some college campus where all new TFA members must LIVE for 5-6 weeks. Live. In dorm rooms.

While I can see where such room and board accomidations would be a godsend for a youngin' just out of school, I think it would be a non-starter for me. I'm currently looking into the situation to see if, in fact, I would have to live away from home (and hence away from The Wife and my home, etc) or whether I could simply go there in the morning and leave at the end of the day.

I completely understand the need for a few weeks of an extremely intensive workload, going from early in the AM until late at night. But to require that I live with the others is, well, a little cultish and creepy.

More info on this when I get it.

Oh -- and my interview is on Tuesday. I have my lesson plan mostly laid out, and I'm rearing to go.

Blazer ... CHECK!

2008-10-20T13:48:00.003-04:00

I bought my big-boy blazer yesterday for my Teach for America interview next Tuesday. Other than the suit I got married in (which is quite nice, but not necessarily appropriate for an interivew) I really didn't have anything else to wear that wasn't casual.

But no longer! I now have my dark-brown Blazer. I'm ready to rock-n-roll.

Oh, and I think I had a super-sweet light-bulb moment over the weekend while working on my sample lesson plan. And man, 5 minutes FLIES. I think most people are going to try to shove too much material and content into their lesson.

Some Numbers for the NYC Teaching Fellows program

2008-10-16T13:33:00.004-04:00

A fellow NYCTF compatriot of mine (we shall call her K) attended the information session downtown last night. She reported back with a few interesting tidbits:

they will be accepting only 1000 Fellows in June, down from around 1750 last year
around 19,000 people will apply this year
about 50% of applicants get to the interview (compared to 65% in previous years)
(and doing the math) about 10% of interviewees are accepted
75% of the 200 or so June '08 Fellows jobless at the beginning of the school year have since found permanent positions

Frankly the drop down to only 1000 Fellow slots for June '09 freaks me out a little bit. I'm kind of glad I have Teach for America coming along at the same time.

Teach for America -- the final interview. WOOT! WOOT!

2008-10-06T22:32:00.003-04:00

WOOO HOOO!

I got an invite to the final, in-person interview for the Teach for America program today. I've already signed up for the interview on Tue-Oct-28 at the TFA National HQ in NYC. The sucker's all day. 9am-6pm. Oooooofah!

I also had to put in my preferences for subject area and region. Of course, I put down that I could only do TFA in New York. From what I've gathered already, the fact that I'm married, The Wife's job is not movable at all, and I'm a new homeowner -- should make it pretty easy for me to get NYC.

The TFA application process is starting to get a little too baroque for my tastes. I also had to enter in every single detail for every single class I've ever taken (class name, number, department, credits, grade) ... for my entire transcript. They're going to get official copies of my transcripts eventually. Strikes me as horribly inefficient.

So, I have 22 days to get my 5-minute lesson plan done and to figure out what I'm going to wear. I feel I need a blazer of some sort. In my mind, that's what teachers wear.

Yankee Stadium, children, and the woods

2008-10-06T08:26:00.002-04:00

This blog is about teaching, and specifically it's abut me attempting to teach. I've come across plently of "education" blogs that end up being primarily NOT about teaching or education, but about politics or current events or race relations or other such issues of the day.

This blog -- is about teaching. Period.

However, from time to time, I will post something that is only tangentially related to teaching or ... maybe once in a while, not at all apropos to the subject in the least bit. This is one of those posts.

1) Yankee Stadium
On Friday, the wife and I (and sister-in-law) took a tour of Yankee Stadium. I've been a rabid, silly fan of the Yanks since the age of 8. I've been going to Yankee games longer than some of the kids I'll be teaching will have been alive. Almost twice as long, depending on which grade I end up in. I would guess I've been to over 300 games there -- but I'd never been on a tour of the stadium. It was excellent. We got to walk out onto the field, along the warning track, sit in the dugout. THE DUGOUT! Where Jeter sits! Where Mantle sat! The wife stole a bunch of dirt from the warning track and shoved it in a baggie in her pocket. The stadium will be missed.

2) children
We also went up to the Adirondacks this weekend for a big family hoo-haa (the wife's family, not mine). There are tons of little'ins on her side. Lots of 'em. Tons. Scurrying around like rabid little honking squirrels. There's something about the unconditional love and trust you get from kids. It's makes the world seem not so awful.

3) the woods
I'll skip all the Thoureau quotes and just say that spending a weekend up in the middle of nothing, on the shore of a deserted lake, with a ton of awesome, loving family, puts all of your real-life decisions in perspective.

NYCTF articles we have to read...

2008-10-02T09:21:00.003-04:00

Some more on the NYCTF interview process.

We were given two articles to read.

The first article (available here) was a hit piece on the NYCTF program and on teaching in NYC in general. Don't bother reading it. I'll sum it up for you: TEACHING IS AWFUL! DON'T DO IT! YOU'LL END UP CURLED UP IN A FETAL BALL, CRYING, CURSING MANKIND....

... that was the basic gist of the article.

I'm not going to say that I think teaching will be easy. I'm positive it will be absolutely strenuous and it will take years ... YEARS ... to really figure out what the hell I'm doing. That said, I think the subject of this article was, oh .. I dunno .. perhaps a little too emotionally unsound to be going into teaching, and maybe a little nutter-butters? Some people just aren't meant to teach -- she strikes me as one of those people.

But I shouldn't let hubrous get the best of me. This is all like someone without kids saying, "What's the big deal? Raising kids is easy!" I could very well end up curled up in a fetal ball, crying, cursing mankind. And when I do, I will absolutely link back to THIS post as proof of what a moron I am.

The second article (available here) is the exact opposite. It's all about how teaching is inspirational and wonderful and, though full of setbacks and various ebbs-n-flows, is just like in the movies, and you're Michelle Puh-Feiffer.

Neither of these articles is overly illuminating. I wonder why people think that, in trying to hash out an issue, putting up to extreme examples of thoughts on that issue is a good idea. Teaching is likely neither of these two things, but somewhere in the middle.

I'm guessing, based on these articles, there's going to be some group discussions at the interview where we have to talk about the hardships of teaching and how we think we'll deal with them, etc. I'm feeling pretty good about having to have a discussion about that, especially with the chance that I may be having it with a bunch of young'ins who've never been out from under Daddy's waistcoat, haven't worked full-time while going to school at night, haven't budgeted their expenses, paid rent/mortgages, planned a wedding, and on and on and on.

Ewww .. that came off as a little snarky. But really, i think that to a 23-24-25 year old, teaching will seem brutle and unbearingly strenuous.

That's all for now -- next big date is just around the corner. I find out on Monday if I advanced to the in-person interview stage for Teach for America.

NYC Teaching Fellows, advanced to interview, WOOT WOOT!

2008-10-01T16:13:00.004-04:00

I got an email today at 3:30p from NYCTF telling me to go look in the applicant portal. Ohh! Ohh! Ohh! As I was logging into the portral -- my fingers kind of jittery over the keyboard -- I was a bit more nervous than I've been in quite some time.

Happy Happy Happy! Joy Joy Joy!

My status had been changed to "Advanced to interview stage" -- Yippy!

Very excited.

A bunch of new materials to read through in the portal. I'll come back with a bit more information once I've digested everything. A few points off the bat:

First, they say the interviews will take place in december ... DECEMBER!!! ... So the interview won't be for like 2 or 2-1/2 months. Ugh. A wise man once said*, "The waiting is the hardest part."

Second, I had to choose my subject area preferences. It said I was qualified to teach 4 different things: English, Secondary Special Ed (grades 5-9), Elementary Special Ed (grades 1-4), Elementary Education. For each, I had to put 'Most Preferred', 'Preferred', or 'Not Preferred'. I didn't want to put 'Not Preferred' for any of them, because, at the end of the day, I really just want to teach. I put English as Most Preferred and everything else as Preferred. There was also a spot for me to leave a comment. I wrote that, among the 3 less prefered topics, I would like Secondary Special Ed over the others.

Anyway, lots more to talk about once I go over it: articles to read, interview prep materials to go over.

More later.

* OK, it wasn't a wise man, it was Tom Petty.

The Teach for America phone interview, my review

2008-09-28T09:48:00.007-04:00

I had a few readers of my blog (wait, did I say readers of my blog? Holy Crap! I didn't think people would actually be READING this thing...) ask how the phone interview with Teach for America went, and what it entailed. Here's a brief summary and my thoughts:

My call lasted about 45-50 minutes, so quite a bit longer than the estimated 30min -- not sure that's meaningful one way or the other. The woman (and I almost want to say 'girl', as I got the feeling that she was fairly young, but more about that in a bit) seemed fairly competent, and was pleasant -- which is a good start. I've done plenty of interviews where the person was awful and stupid to boot.

First we spent a few minutes on Teach for America itself: why I wanted to join, what I thought the goal or mission of TFA was, and what I thought about it. I still find it a little creepy the extent to which they talk about their mission. It has a very, I dunno, religious tone to it. So, we talked about (said robotically) "CLOSING -- THE -- ACHIEVEMENT -- GAP." Just make sure you've read all of their BS literature on their website, and feel comfortable talking about the material, and you should be fine here.

Next, we spent some time going over my resume. She peppered me with some fairly boilerplate resume/job interview questions. They were the sorts of questions one might have trouble answering right out of school, with no job experience. But, really, anyone with even a few years working should have no problem batting these around. Things like:

At work, how do you determine success?
Have you ever come across a challenge at work, and how did you overcome it?
Have you ever had a conflict with someone at work, and how did you deal with it?
Did you ever miss a deadline at work, and how did you deal with it?

... you know, pretty easy stuff if you've been working for a while. Who among us hasn't had work conflicts, challenges, missed deadlines, yada yada boom-bada.

The only part of the interview which I thought was interesting was her questions about ORGANIZATION. How do I organize things at work? How do I keep track of what needs to get done and their priorities -- but really specific questions. Do you keep it on paper? In a calender? In Outlook? Pretty interesting.

We spoke about the 3 articles (listed in a previous post) briefly. That was basically a -- Can you comprehend what you read -- sort of question.

And that's about it.

Anyone who's been on job interviews before shouldn't have any problems. It should end up being more of a relaxed conversation. I think it helps when the person interviewing you is (quite likely) a bit YOUNGER than you. 8)

I don't want to jinx myself, but I think I rocked the box on the interview. Though, really, who the hell knows exactly what they're looking for. I very well may have answered something in such a way as to flag me as a bad pick.

Plan B, step 2 .... ACHIEVED!!

2008-09-25T21:38:00.005-04:00

Plan B being Teach for America. Step 2 being invited for a phone interview.

I got the email today from Teach for America and have already scheduled my 30min phone interview for 11:20am this Saturday. I also put my two "online recommenders" and my back-up reference person in.

We are suppose to read 3 articles:

"Closing the Achievement Gap" by Kati Haycock
"Education expert Haycock: With change, achievement is possible" by NYSUT News Wire
"Washington Commentary: Redefining 'Inexcusable'" by Anne C. Lewis

And, I suppose, be able to speak about them during the interview -- as well as speak about our past job, scholastic, and leadership experience. I've already scanned the articles and, well, I'll give it to TFA, they're really on message ... all the time. It's all about their MISSION. Closing the achievement gap, etc. It's becoming quite obvious that they're interested in getting people to bark their ideals back to them. I've heard some of the same from some people on various message boards.

So they can't just let you teach, they have to indoctrinate as well.

It's ok though. I can play that game.

Look out Teach for America, I'm 'bout to bust yo door in mutha-F-er!!!

Teaching Fellows versus Teach for America

2008-09-24T15:43:00.003-04:00

On the surface, both programs acheive the same end -- a short-cut to the classroom. They both have a quick-n-dirty training session over the summer. They both have some sort of support network. Many similarities.

I found an interesting post on the LiveJournal/TeachForAmerica community board, from which I'll quote:

TFA is sort of like a brainwashing evil cult, in my experience, whereas the fellows has the exact same training and support network without the mindfuck. That said, it's a lot easier to fall through the cracks in the fellows and be a lame teacher flying under the radar, whereas TFA is all over you like white on
rice if you suck. WHich is a good thing, I think.

Very interesting. Just from my experience so far, I kind of had the same feelings. I think I even used the word "cult-ey" a few blog posts ago. Not sure what (if anything) to make of this ... just interesting

Special Ed is the new black...

2008-09-24T09:37:00.003-04:00

... well, at least it was at Hunter College's Open House for it's Graudate Education Program. They had all the different teaching concentrations arrayed around the lobby of the Hunter-West building (not to be confused with the Hunter-East building, the Hunter-North building, or the Thomas Hunter building) and damnit if all the young ladies there (yes, they were all young, and mostly female) weren't crowded around the Special Ed table, elbowing one another aside for better position, like pre-teen girls at a Jonas Brothers concert ... not that I have any idea who they are ...

First, the badness:

The open house was full-up on mouth breathers, to my horror. My hope is that most of them do not become teachers. Likely a foolhearted hope.
Most of the faculty there were some combination of useless and clueless. The woman at the English desk didn't really know anything, though she was pleasant enough.
The informative handout they gave everyone -- all nice and glossy, well constructed and properly bound -- was straight from the program catalogue, which is available online. Again, useless.
A homeless woman wandered in at one point and started shoving the free food into her mouth.

And, the good:

The pleasant woman who knew nothing called over the one guy in the room who actually had a clue. I was able to extract a few useful pieces of information from him.
I found out that, even without any sort of Alternative Certification program like the Teching Fellows or Teach For America, one can obtain an Internship Teaching Certification and begin teaching before fully completing their Masters program. So plan C could possibly have me teaching by the September after next.
I, much like the homeless woman, made off with a bottle of water and a few cookies.
The cookies weren't bad.

So, to sum up:

Like most of the other information sessions I've been to, this was mostly a bust. The great majority of the information supplied at these things is readily available on the web with minimal digging. You would think that anyone even remotely interested in any of these programs would do a modicum of research on their own ... but ... yeah ... I guess not (see "mouth-breathers" above).

Open House for Hunter College Education Masters

2008-09-23T09:46:00.003-04:00

I'm skipping out of work early and going to the Hunter College School of Education Open House for Prospective Graduate Students. It's in the Hunter West building from 4-5:30 today.

I know -- it's a traditional education Masters program, having nothing to do with either the NYC Teaching Fellows or the Teach for America program. I'm going for two reasons:

1) I'm sure there'll be useful information about an education masters program in general -- which is part of both of the alternative certification programs I'm looking to do.

2) You can't have enough fall-back plans, and while NYCTF is plan A, and TFA is plan B .... it's always good to have a plan C.

I'll post back with any good information I gather. However, given my experience with information sessions of all sorts thus far, I'm not expecting any serious enlightenment.

Teach For America info Webinar -- live!

2008-09-17T20:41:00.003-04:00

As I write this, I'm watching and listening to a Teach For America info Webinar. It's kind of like the NYCTF info session I went to last week, but over the web.

A few things that stick out.

First, Teach for America people are a little bit cult-ey when they talk about themselves. They keep talking about their "mission" and its importance and such. Borders on the creepy.

Second, there is ZERO good information being given here. They've giving a broad, basic outline of the program, and a walk-thru of the online application process. Really, nothing that isn't easily available on their website. I suppose I said much the same thing about the NYCTF info session ... but this is, perhaps, a little worse.

I actually think they SHOULDN'T explain how to fill out the application -- at all. It can be an additional filtering mechanism, pushing aside any dunder-heads who can't quite figure it out.

And now, a word from the Devil's Advocate:

2008-09-15T22:08:00.005-04:00

I'm so hopped up on the idea of teaching, so I thought some good devil's advocate thinking would be useful. I've tried talking to lots of friends and family, but have gotten nothing but supportive "Oh! You'd be a great teacher!" sort of responses -- not quite the grappling opposition I was hoping for.

The wife has been the most devil's advocate-ey, though also overwhelmingly supportive -- she's awesome.

I thought it would be a good exercise to list out as many reasons as possible why it would be a bad idea for me to leave my computer career and go into teaching in NYC. I'm not saying all of these are real, practical, or even in the realm of probable worries one should have. It is really a list of any fear that has crossed my mind, if even for a split second.

In no particular order:

Despite my valiant efforts at budgeting and my planning before hand, the huge cut in pay will cause me to not be able to pay my mortgage, or my utility bill or some other such important thing
The kids that my wife and I will have, at some point in the not so distant future, will be lacking in basic crap because I'm not making enough money
Money woes will cause stress between The Wife and me
Teaching will be awful, and I'll hate it and I'll quit after the first year, or even after the first month
I'll get stuck in a school where the kids are all monsters, and will end up not reaching a single damn one of them and the whole exercise will be a huge waste of my time
I'll get put in a bad neighborhood and end up getting stabbed outside of the school
While on the mend from that first stabbing, I'll then get stabbed inside the school
In a poetic example of Karma, a kid in one of my classes will throw a potato at me while my back is turned to the class (remind me to tell you more about that one some day)
The teacher's pension that I'll be relying on will go bust after I've put in 19 years and I'll end up retiring to a home for poor old white mother F-ers
Teaching will be awful, but my stubbornness will prevent me from quitting and I'll end up being a bitter, nasty-ass teacher.

OK -- that's really all I could think of. Really not all that bad, eh?

NYCTF Info Session -- My Thoughts

2008-09-11T23:38:00.006-04:00

I attended an NYCTF information session downtown today. Right off the bat, I was a bit put off by the timing and location of the whole thing. Did nobody down at NYCTF headquarters think it might be bad idea to have such a session 2 blocks from ground zero on September 11th? So my antennae are already up, sniffing out NYCTF idiocy.

The session was held at High School for Leadership and Public Service -- which, frankly, puts too much of an Orwellian ring in my ears, but anywho -- down on Trinity street, again, just south of ground zero -- oh sorry, Ground Zero. The session had three parts: 1) info, 2) talk by 2 former Fellows, 3) Q&A.

The information section was given by some dude from the NYCTF who was not a teacher himself. He is kind of their communications/applicant relations/website sort of guy, a little too hipster-dufus* for my tastes. While I'm sure everything he said was useful to many people in attendance, it was not substantially more than what can be gotten by combing their website for 20 minutes.

The talk from the two former Fellows was actually quite good. One was a guy, originally from a small town in upstate New York who moved to NYC to teach ESL in the Bronx. The other was a woman, a lawyer for 10-15 years before switching careers, who now teachings Special Education. They both had good stories and spoke well of the program -- but, I mean, it's not as if they would bring anyone in who had bad things to say about it.

The Q&A session was illuminating on two fronts. First, there actually were a handful of good questions. Second, so many of the questions were outlandishly moronic that it made me feel better about my chances of getting into the program. I actually felt like turning around to some of them and going, "Really? No ... seriously though .... really?! That's your question? Really?" One woman actually asked if, once accepted to the program, whether she could quit ........ the guy running the session wasn't even sure how to answer such a question. He eventually said, "Well, we're not going to ... you know ... come repo your car or anything," -- I enjoyed that.

The few tid-bits of useful information I got:

Borough and topic assignments usually happen in mid-to-late April, but they may be trying to push the schedule a few weeks earlier this year, so everything might end up being pushed forward slightly
the cancellation of the mid-year program means that about 120-130 of the spots might already be taken for the June 2009 program
they've just started looking through June 2009 applications, so people who've applied early (i.e. Me!) should start hearing responses 2-4 weeks from now

Anyway. I wasn't expecting too much out of this session, but it was interesting to go nonetheless.

* Hipster Dufus: Someone who has taken being hip and unique to an extreme and therefore worn the "cool" out of the hip.

Timelines, etcetera

2008-09-08T09:21:00.002-04:00

Currently, I'm waiting on two different timelines, one for NYCTF and one for TFA.

The NYCTF timeline is ill defined and things seem to happen whenever the program gets around to doing them, but, roughly speaking, I should know whether I make it to the interview stage of the process by mid-October.

The TFA timeline is very well define: here. They're almost Nazi-like about it. They indicate (on their applicant portal) whether you've been invited to to attend an interview on Sept 25th, and you MUST respond within 24 hours, or you lose your spot.

In addition to these two events, I'm also going to 2 informational sessions in September: this Thu, Sept-11, I'm going to an info session for NYCTF and on Sept-23, to one for Hunter College's Masters in Education program.

Oh, and I'm looking into the Hunter College program as a Plan-C of sorts -- if I get into neither NYCTF or TFA.

Great quote...

2008-09-05T14:49:00.005-04:00

Came across a great quote by H.L. Mencken about teaching:

"The essential difficulty of pedagogy lies in the impossibility of inducing a sufficiency of superior men and women to become pedagogues. Children, and especially boys, have sharp eyes for the weaknesses of the adults set over them. It is impossible to make boys take seriously the teaching of men they hold in contempt."

Very nice.

Fallback plans, Teach For America, Etc..

2008-09-03T21:38:00.002-04:00

I've now also applied to the Teach For America program. Here's what happened...

So, I was kind of freaking out yesterday. I realized that one of the two essays I submitted in the NYCTF had a few grammatical errors and typos. I think I copy/pasted an unedited version over by accident. Now I'm worried that I won't get an interview because of a copy/paste mistake.

I mean, I have a solid resume, a 4.0 GPA, etc -- I should at least get an INTERVIEW. But it got me thinking -- what if I don't get in. What would my fallback plan be?

I decided my plan B would be the Teach For America program. It's a similar alternative certification route program. It looks like the main difference is that they don't directly subsidize your Masters degree. However, they do pay a monetary bonus equalling about $9500 over two years of service -- and if I got my Masters from a CUNY school, it would financially end up being about the same. I haven't done as much research into the TFA program -- and the information on their website seems far more vague, with much less specifics.

The NYCTF application process, timing ...

2008-09-01T16:46:00.006-04:00

Before I bother getting my skirt in wad about the umpteen thing I MIGHT need to worry about (e.g. finances, classroom violence, moron principals) I need to actually get into the NYCTF program.

There is a great LiveJournal site that anyone thinking about the NYCTF should go read. It's been around since 2005, and is treasure chest of posts from people going through the NYCTF program, or who tried to get in but were rejected, or who got in and have since left teaching, or who have gotten in and are still teaching. Post from all sorts. It's great to get the lowdown of what to expect and how things play out from so many different vantage points.

Now, the application process.

The application process (for the regular, summer program) goes something like this:

Apply. Wait for invitation to interview (2-4 weeks??)
Schedule interview (you have 3-4 weeks to schedule something)
Go on your interview. Wait for response (3-5 week??).
If not accepted, you are either outright rejected, or waitlisted.
If accepted, go out for beers.

Now, those timeframes above, giving # of weeks, have been gleamed from the NYCTF website, from peoples' experiences, etc. Of course, I've read and heard of great differences in how long things take.

The initial wait after you submit your application is usually consistently quick, 2-4 weeks. However, it seems like it can be much longer if your application was put in right as they're finishing up the previous group's application process -- say, if they finished taking in applications for the Mid-Year program and you've JUST put in an application for the following year's regular summer program. So, people who've submitted their applications in Oct, for example, usually got answers in 2-4 weeks, without exception. But people who (as I did) put in their applications in August, when the mid-year program applications were just winding up, might not get as timely a response.

I've heard/read/gleemed that about 60% of applicants get an interview. Once you are invited to interview, you only have a few weeks to actually schedule one (via your application portal on the NYCTF website). Once you interview, official NYCTF literature SAYS you will receive an answer in 3-5 weeks. But again, this seems to vary greatly, depending on the time of year you apply. In general, it looks like they do not accept people into the regular, summer program until after the first of the year, and often not until well into February. So if you interviewed in the late fall, you might not hear an answer until 4-5 months later. Whereas, if you interview in Jan or Feb, you could hear a response within a few weeks.

But, the admissions are on a rolling basis, so they fill positions with qualified candidates as they come in. Thus, the earlier you apply, the more spots are open in which to be placed. So the long wait might be worth it.

And then, once you're accepted -- well, then the fun (cough horror) begins.

----
UPDATE

Got some good feedback from the folks at the NYCTF about the timing for step one above. Looks like, regardless of how early you apply, they will not be responding to applicants for the regular summer program until around mid-October.

Why the NYC Teaching Fellows program?

2008-09-01T11:53:00.006-04:00

In response to a long-term, systemic shortage of teachers, the city created the New York City Teaching Fellows program (NYCTF) in 2000. As stated on their website:

... the mission of the NYC Teaching Fellows program is to recruit and prepare high-quality, dedicated individuals to become teachers.

Basically, the program allows someone looking to leave their current career and become a teacher to do so without first having to go back to school, get a Masters, get their teacher certification -- up to a three year process. Previously, this process acted as a significantly high bar of entry for otherwise qualified individuals looking to teach. The NYCTF program short-circuits this bar, allowing candidates accepted into the program to begin teaching immediately (after some brief, fast-track training). All of the requirements listed above are still there, but the Fellows can obtain them all WHILE already teaching. The Fellows also get a subsidised Masters degree.

This is the program I have applied to.

While I've heard many good things about the program, and even spoken with people who have gone through it, the picture isn't all rosy. I've also heard (and read) plenty of horror stories: of newly minted teachers quitting after their first year or even within the first few months; of horrific classrom conditions, abusive and apathetic students, abusive and apathetic principals; of swift disallusionment with teaching; and on, and on, and on.

I'm not going into this with any sort of wide-eyed idiocy. I understand that the average NYC classroom environment may be less than ideal. I understand that, in the end, it all may turn out to be the wrong move for me. I understand all of this. I don't think I'm going to change the world one inner-city kid at a time. I don't think I'm Michelle Pfieffer in that movie where she changes the world one inner-city kid at a time. I understand that, even if it works out and even if I like it, that it's going to be difficult.

I'm not choosing to go into teaching because it's easy, or because I want to "make a difference", or to "give back to my community." I am choosing to become a teacher because I want to teach. Period.

You know how some people decide they want to paint, some people decide they want to climb a mountaing, some, that they are going to write a novel or start an Internet company. Well I've decided that I am going to teach. Of course, I do hope to change a few lives along the way.

I think the NYCTF program gives me the opportunity to get into teaching, relatively quicky, and see if it fits. I fully beleive that it will and I'll spend the rest of my life doing it. But if it doesn't work out -- and I imagine that is something I'll know fairly early on -- I'll have the flexibility to switch back to a career in computers. Such a jump BACK to computers is not my desire, but, if I'm realistic about this (and I've promised myself that I will be), have to keep that as a fall-back position.

This all assumes, of course, that I actually get INTO the program. I'll talk about process in my next post.

I've decided to become a teacher

2008-08-29T21:21:00.003-04:00

Anyone who knows me has heard my many rants about wanting to become a teacher -- ad nauseum. A few days ago -- in one of those epiphanic moments usually reserved for badly written made-for-TV movies, I finally decided I was done talking about it, and thinking about it, and talking about thinking about it, and thinking about thinking about it.

I decided to become a teacher.

I won't go into my entire story (at least not right now), for sake of brevity -- but in short, I'm 33 and have been in the IT industry (i.e. I play with computers in a corporate environment all day) for 11+ years and I am going to toss that all aside and pursue a career as a high school English teacher in the Bronx.

This past Tuesday, I applied to the NYC Teaching Fellows (NYCTF) program. This program is one of the various "alternative" routes to teaching in New York City. It has a fast-track training program for new teachers, subsidizes a huge chunk of the cost of your Masters degree (which is required to teach in NYC), and they do a host of other things to boot. I applied for the 2009 school year -- which would have my training start in June of '09, and teaching beginning the fall of '09.

This is not a done deal, of course. Even if I get accepted to the program, I've given myself at least half a year (until March or April) to actually pull the chord on the whole computer career thing.

Standing between me and the classroom are three main issues:

I have to get accepted to the NYCTF program
I have to do my own research (and soul searching, of course) and make sure I really, in fact want to do this, and want to do it via the NYCTF program
I have to make sure that, financially speaking, this whole thing is even possible. There's a mortgage to pay, you know.

I'll be blogging about each of these 3 issues individually.

Oh, why the blog?? -- Hell, I'm realistic about this, I might have an anti-epiphany two months from now and drop the whole idea, who knows. But I thought it would be interesting to have a place to record my thoughts as I weave my way through this ridiculous little adventure.

That's all for now.

Wish me luck.