<p>Does anyone know of a resource that has the specific background requirements for different subject areas in each of the placement areas? I’ve been looking, but I haven’t found anything yet, and it would be super helpful in figuring out which areas I want to highly prefer</p>
<p>I was wondering the same thing. I asked my local recruiter about it, but I haven’t gotten a response yet.</p>
<p>Hey all! I’ve been trying to post on here but was having authorization issues. Moving on to the final round, so excited!
I submitted my preferences the other night, I was thrown off by the “access to a car” part since I don’t drive or have a license, and hardly any regions don’t require a car. Wondering if that means you require daily access to a car to and from work, or just are recommended access to a car in case of emergency!
Either way, I live and work in Philadelphia and it says “highly recommended” for access to a car, and you definitely don’t need a car here. I would like to stay, so Philadelphia was my #1, followed by Pittsburgh and DC. I thin being in the first round you have pretty high chances of getting your top choice, but who knows. I wouldn’t mind moving, but I’d like to stay!
Anyone from Philadelphia moving onto the final round??</p>
<p>I’m originally from Philly! I think the reason that they recommend a car is that some of the placement areas within the region are in areas with less access from public transportation, so if you were teaching in one of those parts, it would probably be helpful to have a car</p>
<p>@emac542, I agree with jazzcatastrophe in that some of these areas may have iffy public transit. I am from Boston and can tell you that you would need a car if placed in the fall river/south coast region. But you wouldnt need a car at all placed in Boston city limits. I currently live in Austin and can tell you also that Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio would be cities that I personally, WOULD NEED a vehicle in. But some people find navigating the bus systems easier than I do. I cant imagine anyone needing a car in San Fran, NYC, or Chicago either</p>
<p>@elemteacher and @jazzcatastrophe - have you still not found anything about specific background requriements? I have been looking as well, but all my online sources seem rather ambiguous. I would like to teach high school math, but have not taken many upper level math classes. I have however taken a lot of upper level finance and financial modeling classes that I hope will clear me for that placement. Does anyone have any information/experience regarding this?</p>
<p>Who’s getting nervous/excited about next week?!?! My interview is next Thursday, so I am going to spend the next few days and the majority of the weekend preparing my lesson. Does anyone who was accepted for the junior deadline have any pointers for preperation?</p>
<p>@townie01 I never found any comprehensive list, so I ended up looking at alternative certification requirements state by state for the regions I’m interested in. I’m kind of in the same boat, I would love to teach high school chemistry or biology, and have taken a good chunk of coursework in both (and have a minor in chem), but I know that at least in some states, they want you to have majored in the subject to teach it. That being said, I know that for a lot of the places I looked, they said that you had to have x credits in a subject OR pass different certification tests, so as long as you do know the material, you can do well on the tests and still teach it.</p>
<p>As for nervous/excited, I think the fact that I spent like 2 hours last night scrolling through last year’s thread for pointers instead of studying for my biochem test this afternoon probably says a lot about how I feel haha</p>
<p>@jazzcatastrophe I feel the same way! I haven’t been focused on my studies at all - just research, research, research about TFA. Hopefully it pays off!</p>
<p>Well, I heard back from the recruiter I had contacted, but I’m not much help because I’m looking to teach elementary! And he said there’s really not set requirements for elementary, as long as you’re well rounded. And I’ll actually be certified to teach elementary & have my Master’s, so it shouldn’t be a problem. Some of my classes are just so broad, they were hard to categorize.</p>
<p>& I’m also way more focused on TFA than school. I had a paper due tonight, but I am the luckiest girl ever, because class was cancelled.</p>
<p>Also, does anyone have an extra long list for region preferences? I have it narrowed down to 17, and I can’t seem to make it any smaller. I just want to go everywhere.</p>
<p>Hello,</p>
<p>I’m super excited to report that I’ve been selected for a final interview, I’m also excited to have stumbled upon this group. I was initially a bit overwhelmed by the status page and all the deadlines, specifically the transcript portion, my university has a 14 day turnover timeframe…yea I should have requested it sooner. </p>
<p>But never the less, I’m excited about the interview! I’m replacing my nervousness with excitement. I’ve completed my assignment/teaching preferences (after researching requirements in for each state), my recommenders forms have been submitted by my recommenders. Now I’m working on gathering ideas for my five minute lesson plans!</p>
<p>Good luck everyone!</p>
<p>Congratz to everyone who was moved on to the final interview. </p>
<p>Some advice that I have is to definitely make sure you can do your lesson within 5 minutes. Having some type of visual aid is always a good idea, and I’d recommend having some type of handout. Definitely practice your lesson before doing it in front of friends. In this situation, you’re going to want to show that you are able to effectively teach a small lesson demonstrating to some extent promise towards being able to teach and manage a classroom. There may also be some ‘wrong’ answers thrown at you by your interviewers, so be able to answer their questions positively. Your fellow interviewees will be students, along with your interviewers. </p>
<p>If you were doing a lesson on irregular verbs and a student (a TFA interviewer) among the crowd says “goed” instead of “went”, you may want to acknowledge that they have the “ed” ending concept down but that this is an irregular verb and and doesn’t follow the traditional pattern. </p>
<p>During the fishbowl group activity, be yourself. Don’t dominate the setting, but don’t be a silent mouse either. They want to see that you can work in a team towards completing a goal. </p>
<p>During the 1:1 interview, definitely emphasize your conviction for wanting to be a teach for america corps member through YOUR LENS. Everyone has a different story, and background as to why they want to do TFA. Some people come from low income background and have experienced educational inequity firsthand, and some applicants may come from quite the opposite background and still want to be part of the movement because of their awareness of the unacceptable injustice of educational inequity. Talk about what makes YOU passionate about TFA’s mission, movement, and why you want to be a part of it. I would recommend knowing some of the statistics (8 out of 100 low income students graduating by the age of 24), and emphasizing how it’s unacceptable that in our country your zip code often dictates your access to a good education. This also plays a big role on your future earning potential, health care, and access to a good quality life. </p>
<p>I hope you all kill the interview process. If any of you have any other questions, feel free to shoot them here. </p>
<p>I also recommend you take the regional preferences <em>very</em> seriously. I was originally assigned to teach in one New York, but didn’t fully consider the financial logistics of it so I requested (and was granted) to be transferred to another location (much less popular one). Teach for America <em>very rarely</em> reassigns someone to a new regional assignment after assignment occurs, so I repeat please take that part of the process very seriously.</p>
<p>Thanks so much for your helpful advice, Dracos. I especially appreciate your demonstration of a good response to a “wrong” answer.</p>
<p>I’m curious about your decision to go away from New York–I too am really struggling to balance my desire to live in a big, coastal city and my realism about how much more cost-effective it would be to live in a more rural area. Are you comfortable sharing more details about how you evaluated the finances of joining the corps in New York, and perhaps sharing advice about how to effectively weigh those desires? I’m currently highly preferencing cities in California, my hometown in the Twin Cities, and Denver…</p>
<p>@Dracos - thank you for your insight! That’s erally helpful - especially the emphasis on the final interview. I fear I am going to spend so much time preparing my lesson that I will forget to review some of the data for the interview.</p>
<p>I keep changing my mind on how I am ranking my regional preferences. I have a lot of regions that demand outpaces need in my highly preferred (the Bay Area, Denver, Chicago), so I am thinking critically about which regions that are not like this come first. But, it seems to change everyday, and we have to submit our preferencse for tomorrow!</p>
<p>I am going to spend the weekend preparing my lesson. Thank you again for all your tips! Interview is one week from today!</p>
<p>is anyone submitting their app for the Oct. 25th deadline?</p>
<p>Hey!
I have my interview this coming Monday (YIKES!) and I am having a personal wardrobe meltdown. I have been on about 20 different websites looking up information about interview attire and I am getting conflicting opinions. Does anyone have any hard rules for TFA interview clothing?</p>
<p>Such as: Should I wear pantyhose with a conservative dress?
Is a sweater ok to wear rather than a blazer? (I have a blazer/suit jacket, but it makes me look quite broad shouldered)</p>
<p>Thanks so much! And good luck to all those doing this interview process this week!</p>
<p>@victoriapat</p>
<p>From what I’ve read, I definitely think a sweater would be okay instead of a blazer. I’m planning on wearing black dress pants, flats, and a nice blouse. Most people have said they felt really overdressed at the interview when they were wearing a full pant suit, but also not to wear like khakis and a polo. I hope that helped!</p>
<p>Interesting article about TFA:</p>
<p>[Teach</a> for America recommendations: I stopped writing them, and my colleague should, too.](<a href=“http://www.slate.com/articles/life/education/2013/10/teach_for_america_recommendations_i_stopped_writing_them_and_my_colleague.html]Teach”>Teach for America recommendations: I stopped writing them, and my colleague should, too.)</p>
<p>My final interview is tomorrow and I am super excited and super nervous. I haven’t spent the time I should have preparing my lesson but I am spending all day on it today. Good luck everyone! I am teaching a Geography lesson tomorrow, what is everyone else planning to do?</p>
<p>Thanks so much @elemteacher! Good luck!! :)</p>