NYC Teaching Fellows interview, quick review...

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:

1. 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)
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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...

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.

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.

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

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!

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.

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

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.

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.