Looks Like I'll Be Moving

After I emailed NYCTF inquiring about the possibility of being reassigned to Pace for my master's degree, I received a prompt and informative response.

While Pace supports biology fellows, it does not support biology immersion fellows.  City College is the only institution for fellows assigned to Manhattan that offers a master's program for biology / general science immersion fellows.  For those who do not know what immersion is, here is an explanation:

NYCTF offers two "immersion" programs for fellows that have taken significant coursework in either math or science, but do not have a degree in the field.  In practice, the difference is two more weeks of training in science or math content with an extra $1k tacked onto the stipend for the summer (and apparently a narrowed pool of universities).  

I know last time I said I felt somewhat disappointed, but I've reconsidered.  Now I am excited.  As I am not bound to Queens for any reason, I will look into apartments near City College to minimize my commute.  It would be nice to learn a new neighborhood and just feel some change.  Sure there will be some obstacles like figuring out if/when I can break my lease, searching for an apartment, etc., but I welcome the challenge.  Thankfully I will be able to afford a one bedroom instead of a studio - living in a bread box gets old.

University Assignment

Just yesterday I received an email from NYCTF indicating that I have been assigned to City College for my master's of education in science. I thought I would be excited to received my assignment, but to be honest, I was a little disappointed.

Browsing City College's School of Education website makes it seem like a pretty well-established program. It has also been educating Fellows since 2000. I do not know anyone that currently attends, but would like to.

However, I am concerned about my commute. While I have yet to learn my commuting schedule for summer training, I do know that from my stop on the M train (Forest Ave) to City College is around an hour and a half commute. Right now, my usual commute is to 14th st and takes me no longer than 45 minutes on average with some train traffic.

There is an appeals process for one's University assignment, which I am considering. Also, there is a field on the "My Assignment" tab on the myNYCTF website for alternative Universities. Mine is blank. Just above that is a notice that reads, "Some borough and subject combinations have only one university option. If you are reading this message, then your university is the only one working with your subject area within your assigned borough."

This is simply not true. I am in contact with other Fellows who have been assigned to Pace downtown for my same field of study. All of this is a bunch of mixed messages. So I posted a message on the Fellow message boards asking if anyone else was in my situation and could relate. I received a few empathetic responses, but no solutions. My next step is to write an email to NYCTF inquiring about my options.

I know others may be commuting from NJ or LI, which can be a long commute, but once the commuter rails take them into a central hub, any of the Universities in Manhattan are about the same time away. Maybe I am being too fastidious. I would just like to minimize and not increase my commuting time as I am sure I will be very busy the upcoming summer and year.

PS - Thanks to those who took the survey! I am just interested in seeing, very generally, what everyone's experience has been like. If you haven't taken it, please do! Thanks!

Alma Mater

I recently received an email from the president of my high school (http://whitfield.ccsct.com/). He periodically sends out emails to alumnus providing updates and reflections about current events at the school. As I thoroughly enjoyed my high school experience, I welcome such communications. Correspondence this time was a bit different.

Usually I skim the emails for topics that interest me or names I recognize and they lie dormant in my Gmail inbox. While the fate of this email is the same, I decided to reply and share my new professional development with NYCTF.

My email included wonderful praise for all my previous teachers and great gratitude for my school as a whole. I also provided a synopsis of the Teaching Fellows program with a link to its homepage for further details.

The following day, I was surprised to see an email from my AP Spanish teacher sitting, unread. in my inbox. Her message was glowing with excitement and pride. I was flattered by her kind words about my decision to become a teacher and her experiences with me as a high school student. A few hours later, I received another email from my 8th & 12th grade social studies teacher (the same person) containing comments to the same effect. I responded to both promptly and gracefully, politely thanking them for their kind statements. As it turns out, the president forwarded my email to the entire faculty, as revealed to me by the Spanish teacher.

I was a bit struck that he chose to do that, but, in retrospect am glad he did. It makes me happy to know that the teachers at my Alma Mater who gave me such great opportunity, have some idea of the gratitude I have for them. I hope my future students feel the same way one day.

BTW, You'll be paying us more...

I preface this by saying that I have no problem paying for my education. It is a worthwile cost and I am quite willing to take responsibility for it.

That said, I received an email today from the NYC Fellows Program. The subject read: "Important Update Regarding Your NYCTF Enrollment: Action Required." Thus far, any status updates on myNYCTF have been either positive or neutral. I am not sure this update falls into either one of those categories.

As fellows know, NYCTF covers the majority of the cost of our masters degrees and the rest is covered by bimonthly deductions from our paychecks beginning in October 08 in the amount of $115, no wait, $125, no... $150 per paycheck?

As it turns out, fellows' financial responsibility for our Masters degrees has increased from $5,500 to $6,600. Because of this change, fellows are required to electronically sign another Fellow Committment Form agreeing to the change.

A TIME magazine article recently listed education as the most secure profession during a recession. (I read the article in hard copy and have not been able to find it online- When/If I do, I will post it.) While I do not disagree with TIME, the email from NYCTF cites budget cuts as the reason for our increased financial responsibility. I must reiterate that educational costs are a noble expense, but the bottom line is that my paycheck will be less because of the city's economic constraints. Looks like education is not as secure as TIME claims it to be, at least to some degree.


A Short Addendum:
As the state of the economy slowly, but surely cuts into my future paychecks, I acknowledge another source of funding. NYCTF gives the opportunity to current fellows to apply for an AmeriCorps grant which has a potential education value of just under $10K. I can't pay my landlord with it, but it will certainly mitigate the effect of any outstanding student loans.

Another Short Addendum:
After a thorough Google search, I've found the article I referenced above. However, I cannot seem to find it directly in TIME, so maybe it was published elsewhere - my mistake. The article "5 Recession-Proof Careers" by freelance writer, Clare Kaufman was published online, albeit with no apparent date. It lists teacher only second to nurse in recession-proof careers. Here is the link: http://education.yahoo.net/degrees/articles/featured_5_recession_proof_careers.html

Resume & Cover Letter Workshop

As fellows, we have a wide variety of resources at our disposal. Those resources are centralized on the myNYCTF website. One of the events recently offered was a workshop on developing an appropriate resume and cover letter for submitting to principals during the job search. I attended the event last night.

To be frank, a lot of the material covered in the workshop felt pedantic. Anyone who has written and revised a resume that has helped acquire a job would have known most of the content that was covered.

Conversely, a fellow's resume should abide by a few conventions, specific to education. An example would include putting teaching experiences or experiences with children near the top of the document (it may seem intuitive, but all might not see it the same). For the most part, most things presented in the workshop would apply to any general resume.

I have never written a cover letter, proper. Often resumes are sent out as email attachments in response to a craiglist posting accompanied by a short paragraph in the body of the email. When applying for teaching position, a cover letter is essential. It should introduce you, express interest and expand (not repeat) upon the content of the resume.

As tedious as it may be to hold a current job, matriculate full time and conduct a full-fledged job search, it is a necessary step to succeed in the teaching fellowship. While I feel somewhat overwhlemed, I am sure that with a few keen revisions and additions to my resume and an articulate cover letter, I will acquire a position at a school where I will be a happy and effective educator.

NYCTF Experience

Keeping a blog is a high maintenance activity, but I am determined to do so.

Recently, I was accepted into the New York City Teaching Fellows. The program is intended to recruit new teachers from other disciplines, fields or fresh out of college. Fellows receive intensive training in the summer preceding the school year. Before the school year begins, fellows are hired as teachers in their assigned subject areas and borough. While the program trains fellows to teach in New York City's under-served public schools, each fellow is responsible to secure a teaching position at a school in his or her assigned borough and subject.

In preparation for training, fellows must conduct a school visit during which he or she observes a class for not less than two hours. The experience is intended to immerse fellows in a school's culture and give them a taste of what their new career might be like.

In my own experience, I contacted a fellow who teaches biology in the Bronx and observed his classroom. It was unlike any educational experience of my own. Students were loud and rowdy. A few sat in the back of the classroom, physically separated from the students in the front. Those in the back either had their own conversations, completely unrelated to the class, or slept. In the front, students noisily, albeit enthusiastically interacted with the teacher, engaging the material. The whole process was simultaneously exciting, terrifying and motivating.

While the teacher warned me that his classes tended to be more lively than others, I was still glad to see his portion of the student behavioral spectrum. I left feeling ready and excited to begin my new career.

Some time later, I found the teacher whose class I observed kept a blog of his thoughts and reflections about his experience teaching. His record keeping inspired me to keep such a record myself in the form of this blog. While he has kept his since the second semester of teaching, I hope to maintain a more comprehensive one that starts from the beginning. I would like to document the Teaching Fellows process from acceptance to pre-training to training to teaching to the unknown.

Hence, this is the beginning of what I hope will be an insightful record of events upon which I may look in the future and others may look in the present. It will illuminate the inner workings of the Teaching Fellows program and the raw experience of teaching in New York City.