More Waiting -- Teach for America and NYC Teaching Fellows

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

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

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.

Oooofaa! Teach for America answer.

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:

1. I completely screwed the pooch on the written quiz portion of the interview -- but I'm fairly sure this is not the case.
2. I horrendously misread how the interview went and I actually sucked.
3. 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.

NYC Teaching Fellows interview scheduled...

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.

Had my Teach for America interview today....

... 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.

Some Numbers for the NYC Teaching Fellows program

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.

NYC Teaching Fellows, advanced to interview, WOOT WOOT!

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

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!!

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:

1. "Closing the Achievement Gap" by Kati Haycock
2. "Education expert Haycock: With change, achievement is possible" by NYSUT News Wire
3. "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!!!

NYCTF Info Session -- My Thoughts

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

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.

The NYCTF application process, timing ...

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:

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