<p>Well I am from the exciting state of Oklahoma. I preferred Colorado, San Diego, and New Mexico tied for first, then Nashville and Oklahoma second. My parents live in Chicago, so Icould leave my dog with them but it just seems so weird! At least if I don’t get it I won’t have to be apart from my dog for six weeks.</p>
<p>@Tinitafish Be prepared to have family or friends look after your pup…And for anyone who ends up in Hawaii,be aware if you wanna bring your dog you have to go through a pretty lengthy and expensive quarantine process for your animals (or so I’ve been told).</p>
<p>@jazzcatastrophe…2 bros is definitely the best $1 slice around 
Though, I think $1 pizza can be hit or miss, but hey, it’s a buck! As for non $1 slices, I’m partial to Di Fara’s in Brooklyn, though I’m probably biased since it’s right in my neighborhood and I’ve gone there for years…way before it got popular. Ahh…my mouth is watering just thinking of it…</p>
<p>[Di</a> Fara Pizza - Midwood - Brooklyn, NY](<a href=“http://www.yelp.com/biz/di-fara-pizza-brooklyn]Di”>http://www.yelp.com/biz/di-fara-pizza-brooklyn)</p>
<p>@Tinitafish haha I know what you mean…if I don’t get it I’ll be consoling myself that at least I won’t have to be away from my kitties.</p>
<p>Oooh! I do agree talking about something else on this blog is easing my nerves as well! Let’s keep it up until Thursday (yeah, right!) I am from Ohio and am currently finishing up my undergrad in Spanish Education. I’m hoping to be placed in Massachusetts (Greater Boston area). I have family there and will already have a place to stay. I am surprised that not many people have requested for Mass. According to their site, it was one of the more popular choices. Of course ideally, I would teach Spanish at any grade level if not Spanish, I am hoping for English (already certified to teach English in Massachusetts) or Early Childhood Ed!</p>
<p>I have taken the PLT and Praxis tests for those of you who were asking as well as OPT, WPT, and Masschusetts licensure tests! If you have questions, send them my way! I’ve passed :)</p>
<p>Oh yeah, I forgot the praxis question was asked. I have taken the Praxis tests for Elementary Content Knowledge and they were not bad at all!</p>
<p>I’m from Southern California and I put down Las Vegas Valley, Indianapolis, and Chicago as my top choices. Las Vegas would be ideal for me because I can still drive home during the long weekends to see family and still be able to experience a new city. I’m pretty much open to wherever region though! I really want to experience life outside of LA.</p>
<p>@elemteacher, oh good! I was hoping to hear that!</p>
<p>@gmpink3 Are you hoping to teach Elementary? I did the online study tests for them and everything, and it was very helpful. Because even though it’s fairly easy content, it included a lot of little things that I didn’t fully remember. So practice tests were an easy little refresher.</p>
<p>@elemteacher Yes, i’m hoping to get elementary! Good to know, because I think I will need a lot of refreshers! 
When I was talking to some of the TFA Staff members during my final interview, they did mention that certain regional tests were more difficult than others. I wasn’t sure about the praxis! Apparently, cbest&cset for California regions were supposed to one of the more difficult tests, which is why they place people during 1&2DL so they can have ample time to pass the tests.</p>
<p>Hey all! I am from Massachusetts, but I would like to move to Chicago area because my fiance goes to medical school there and would be much earier on both of us if I moved there post-grad. Also, I would love to teach high school english (as an english major), though I gather that is a very common preference.</p>
<p>@rolemodel32 yea I understand that charter schools are public schools. Maybe I should have specified “traditional” public schools. To my understanding that charter schools may be similar to traditional public but there are distinct differences as well. I know certification requirements are normally different between the two as well as governing. I find the topic interesting because as previously mentioned many are placed in charter schools. </p>
<p>@elemteacher I’m from southern VA very close to NC.</p>
<p>@Teachtoreach Ah, okay. I’m near the coast, and my family lives in Richmond.</p>
<p>@@elemteacher wow I currently live about 10 mins to the city of Richmond</p>
<p>I’m surprised, none of us really have similar highly preferenced areas. And I’m seeing a lot of Southern and Mid-West choices too. I’m surprised how few people preferenced the bigger cities that they say are most popular. Hope we all get placed!</p>
<p>@emac542 yea I was actually surprised with some of the regions that happened to be most popular but I guess everyone has their reasons. Me personally I have tons of family there but I never once thought about listing DC.</p>
<p>Hey guys I wanted to ask a question for all of you. In my final interview, one of the candidates asked a pretty courageous question. She asked if any corps members had experienced any tension with other non-corps teachers since many corps members are finding jobs when other teachers are getting laid off. So I wanted to ask everyone, are you guys nervous about having the title TFA connected to you? I think there is a stereotype about TFA people that they are nothing but rich people who want to use poor kids as a way to advance themselves towards more prestigious careers. How do you guys feel about these stereotypes?</p>
<p>@rolemodel32 I think it’s definitely something to be aware of. That was actually a big factor in my region preferences, I made sure not to preference anywhere non-corps teachers and local communities are actively hostile to corps members. </p>
<p>There are also definitely a lot of stereotypes at play. One I’ve run into a lot (along with the one you mentioned) has been this idea that corps members think that they’re going to magically transform a classroom of delinquent kids into model high achieving students a la inspirational teaching movie. People keep telling me “oh, you know it won’t be like Freedom Writers right?” and it makes me a little bananas because I (and I think most applicants who make it this far into the process) know that it isn’t an easy thing to do, and expect that we would have to work really hard</p>
<p>@rolemodel32 very good question. When deciding to pursue a position through TFA I made myself aware of the controversies that often circulated about the organization. The stereotype you mentioned is a very real conceptual idea as to how people view TFA teachers. In a conversation with a “veteran” teacher she expressed her ill feelings towards the organization. Specifically she stated that "struggling students don’t need participants who use them as a stepping stones to reach their ultimate goal that may or may not actually be teaching. The major concern I’ve heard is that TFAers aren’t “properly” trained and haven’t went through an education program. In response to that I don’t think having an education degree makes you a “good” teacher. Far as taking jobs, I don’t think TFAers are “taking” jobs. We test, we interview and we are either offered a job or we aren’t. I’m going in with the understanding that some teachers may or may not be a “fan” of the organization.</p>
<p>I think it’s easy to get swept up in and understand the arguments of both sides. What’s important isn’t opinion, it’s facts. And the facts are that TFA shows improvement in the classroom over traditional teachers in the critical areas of Math and Science. In other subjects, their classes performed similarly with those of traditional teachers. TFA looks to hire a diverse corps staff, and they are working on diversifying more and more every day. TFA has learned to perfect their hiring process by working with a 30 data point formula that weeds in and out the characteristics studies have shown to be most successful in the classroom.</p>
<p>And those “rich kids” who work for TFA today, years down the line are working for the State, Congress, directing another education-based non-profit, heading a Fortune 500 company. What a lot of people don’t understand is that that IS important, that IS the goal, not another knock to their practice. The more people TFA can say, “Hey, that bigwig who is now sitting in a senate seat working to pass education reform laws or making $10 million dollar donations to get more teachers into high-need schools: he started here”, the better. They are grooming idealistic, socially-conscious, driven leaders to carry on the work that starts in the classroom, but continues far past what any teacher could do.</p>