teacher

director

managing director

leadership development program

corps member

Teach For America

Always a believer in service, I was fortunate enough to have Teach For America select me as a Corps member. WIth an acceptance rate of just under ten percent, and many of the applicants coming from Ivy League Schools, it was an honor just to get in. The greatest honor though came when I worked on a behalf of a low income community, educating Migrant students with limited Spanish and English. From sun up to sun down, I would collaborate with fellow corps members to achieve transformative change in the minds of students. Whether it was lesson planning, management training, or investment strategies, I always had someone who was positive, competent, and dedicated to help me overcome enormous challenges.

My three years on the border helped me identify my strengths and weakness as a person. I am excellent at planning and problem solving, analyzing the perameters of a specific situation, and finding the root causes of difficult, and seemingly intractable problems. For example, I designed a curriculum that specifically addressed the root problems in student's basic reading comprehension. The root problem for my students was their inability to evaluate language in context ( I "killed the audience with my jokes" doesn't literally mean the comedian actually killed the audience, but was rather very funny). Employing a scaffolded curriculum, and various good reader strategies, I managed to lead my students to signifigant gains in reading, and sizeable gains in writing.

My weaknesses were apparent working with, and managing children, especially children who have entrenched negative self-perceptions. A leader in a classroom has to be two things; stern and sweet. I, unfortunately, was always "stern," resembling a drill sergeant on many occassions. It was my job to keep the students on task, and focused, a challenge I, for the most part, managed to overcome. However, I was unable to alter my students negative self-perceptions.

Motivating my students was also a challenge, another weakness of mine. To overcome it, I had to use a classroom economy system, a basic token economy system. Students would earn fake money to buy pencils, college t-shirts, candy, and other items by making good grades and behaving well. This system kept my classroom under control, but I never really connected with my students, which is the key to motivating children.

After three years, I gained skills which will last me a lifetime, and allow me to make a positive difference in the world. However, this experience proved overwhelming after three years. Working twelve to fourteen hours a day for three years, in a high stress environment on the Mexican border proved too much. In my next opportunity, I definitely am seeking a work-life balance.

My work hours on a day-to-day basis are from 7:15 am--4:45 pm. I usually arrive to work around 6:45 am, and do not leave until about 5:30. I physically teach students from 9:30 -- 4:00 PM, with one 25-minute lunch (and 3 minute passing periods). Outside of these times, I spend my time planning, designing and creating Physics curriculum resources from scratch, attending professional development sessions, collaborating with other teachers, and grading. Although I leave work at 5:30 pm, I normally will put in at least 2-3 more hours of work at home.

Teaching has been one of the most difficult endeavors I've undertaken, and fighting through these challenges on a daily basis has taught me innumerable lessons. One of the most important of which is the value of "grit." I believe that teaching is one of the most difficult, rewarding, and sometimes unforgiving exercises in leadership. I graduated with a degree in Biology from UCLA and was given a Physics classroom at a charter school in urban south Chicago. I am provided no curriculum, and no textbook. I had close to no lab resources at my disposal. Every single thing, from every lesson to every handout to every lab, had to be designed and implemented by me. As a teacher, I looked at myself as a leader of 190 students who required a great science education, regardless of my position as a first-year teacher. I tied my success directly to their achievement. This attitude taught me so much about the finer details of leadership, and I believe that the lessons I learned can be applied to every workplace, regardless of my position.

Despite the position that I've been placed in, I've been able to experience success at various times. I regularly have received positive reviews from my superiors, and I have been the first teacher to last at the Physics position for longer than a year (most do not complete even one year at this school). Amidst the stress of being held accountable by 190 students on a daily basis, there are times that I truly enjoy my work. Given all that I try to teach my students, I've realized that I can often learn from them. Their smiles and positive energy is a reminder to my older, sometimes more cynical self, that life is meant to be enjoyed.

TFA offers virtually no actual training on classroom behavioral management or high-quality instructional practices, and your experience in this program is very much determined on your placement (e.g. will anyone at your assignment be willing to support you on student behavior or help you improve?). Given that TFA doesn't train you and some schools are bad enough that administrators can scream at teachers and threaten their employment over *mere minutes in a class period* being lost due to behavioral issues, I cannot recommend the TFA program. You can never expect anyone to help you at any of these schools and, barring an extreme issue that you must feel very comfortable documenting and reporting (such as harassment based on a protected class from a supervisor at your placement school-- AmeriCorps policy protects YOU in this instance), TFA will also not allow you to transfer schools once they assign you to one. 

Because TFA, again, won't train you; you have to take the first job offer at a school that you get in order to remain in good standing; and there's a high chance they will not allow you to move schools under any circumstances, you are effectively risking your professional and financial future with a roll of the dice. I thus cannot recommend TFA-- the outcomes really can vary from quitting during semester 1 due to intolerable staff / admin climate and shouldering thousands in debt to getting a supportive placement and a free master's degree. And your outcome in the program is, again, all about placement-- something over which you have little to no control. 

A typical training day in Teach For America begins at 7:30 am at my school training site.  At my school site from 7:30-7:45, I would begin preparing materials for pre-k students to arrive.  I taught and co-taught half days, which meant at 1 pm I would leave my school site for professional development.  From 1pm to 6pm would begin PD covering a wide range of topics from TALK strategies, Head Start Regulations, Unit Planning, Creative Curriculum, lesson planning, behavioral management practices including the No Non-sense Nurturer approach, and GOLD objectives.  The last part of the evening was reserved for socratic seminar discussion on inequities in education, until usually 7 or 8pm.    

I learned how to shape my time management skills even tighter than previous experiences, and I learned effective teaching strategies through a rooted philosophy of student led play (pre-K) and teacher objective driven lessons.  I worked in a collaborative of four people in a Chicago co-hort of close to forty corps members.  Each member of  my collaborative brought unique skills to the table to learn from, and as a group we collaborated on classroom decisions. The most difficult part of the job was in collaborating on classroom decisions, as each of us were training to become lead teachers. The most enjoyable part of the job was every morning for me, when my students would arrive.  In a pre-K environment at a community based organization parents are often required to enter the room in the morning.  The relationships built with the parents were often the key to a successful day for each student.  The morning arrival was my favorite part of my day because I could gauge from parents and students what each student was going to need that particular day, in order for it to be a successful day academically and emotionally.

The Teach For America Summer Institute is an intense experience that is meany to prepare teachers for their upcoming two year commitment. Institute lasts for five weeks, each week being completely filled with student teaching, planning, seminars and lectures. A typical day begins at 5am when you get on a bus and go to a school in downtown Phoenix. The day is mixed with lectures regarding classroom management, planning, curriculum and planning. Additionally, part of the day is spent teaching a block of summer school. After the school day, teachers return on a bus back to Arizona State University and spend the night planning, grading and learning how to interpret data. 
The management of summer institute is done well, with several staff members guiding, coaching and informing new teachers to the best of their knowledge. The staff understands the demanding circumstances and are supportive. Due to this stressful environment, teachers learn to lean on one another for support, which releases some of the nerves. 
The hardest part of the job is being put in front of a class and being told to teach with only a week of coaching. My personal opinion is that this practice is slightly irresponsible and leaves students without the most effective instruction. 
The most enjoyable part of the job is the feeling of accomplishment at the end of each week. New teachers are put to a test of being able to withstand challenging conditions and learning several new skills that are immediately put into practice. Each week surviving feels like an accomplishment in and of itself.

I learned that I am capable of much more than I imagined as TFA provides many stretch opportunities.  It is an active culture with plenty of opportunities to network.  There is strong support for remote employees.  Benefits are good and the organization is very diverse.  I enjoyed working here and found myself surrounded by really motivated peers.  Results-oriented culture and goals driven.

The toughest part of the job is that there was a fair amount of change and organizational shifts.  While this is normal for many organizations, it could feel unsettling at times.  Teach For America is committed to a good change management process but it took some time to get good at this.  A typical day at work might include 6-7 calls plus project management.  Project Management is a critical skill at TFA as you are constantly moving work along.

TFA is committed to professional development and supporting more junior talent.  I really liked this about the company because it gave me a chance to mentor as a senior leader and exposed me to a wide range of leaders.  I also managed multiple teams and this experience was fun and sometimes challenging as it presented high work volume.
TFA is a caring organization.  It is committed to diversity.  It believes in finding and sourcing strong talent. 

Core values: Respect & Humility, Diversity, Transformational Change, Leadership, and Team. 

Coming in this felt like my dream job, but a lack structure and loose compliance to finance, work from home, and accepted job norms soon turned my work environment into a paid social experiment resembling a last-chance high school. 

People were promoted without education and skill to fulfill new duties, projects were frequently set back by workers abusing work from home policy, budgeting was all but non-existent, and HR and key personnel failed to act in the face of multiple complaints. 

Empathy was cited repeatedly by failed leadership in excusing running a business like a second chance high school for the uninspired. 

Had any of the core values been modestly executed TFA could have been a great place to work. I met a handful of amazingly talented and sincere people at the company, but most people lacked discipline, judgment, and initiative. I quit after more than three years of staff. Working at TFA felt like being on a sinking ship without enough life boats.

TFA has excellent recruiters,  interviewers, and I thought trainers until I was placed and quickly saw that the hours of trading had zero to do with the real world I had stepped into.  Unfortunately, caveat emptor — they paint a picture that is detached from reality.  So, right out of the gate you have a large percentage of new hires (some taking out TFA sponsored loans to relocate) whom quickly realize the disconnect between what they were told and reality.  The schools that you are placed at our troubled, and I haven’t heard of one in my large area that even recognized TFA as anything other than a political outfit that thinks “they are going to bring their young folk in here and show us how to do our job.”  In some cases, they have a point - TFA is just in over its head pursuing its objectives.  It needs to a thorough change in leadership  that pursues input from their employees and ongoing considers tweaks to their model.

The application process is long and egregious and it is not worth your time money taking a day off from your current job or other valuable time that you can spend doing something else on the weekend to waste doing an application for teach for America. Presentations, workshops, multiple zoom meetings, and then they make you wait three weeks or a month depending on when you interview before they give you an answer like people don’t have time and bills that they need to earn. I would not recommend anybody apply for teach for America. They will make you feel very good  During the application process when they’re wasting hours and days and in my case a month of my time. 

And if you apply for a second time and finally get into teach for America, they do not treat you well and ask way more of you than a standard teacher hours upon hours of work off of the clock. Apply for a standard teaching position and do not waste your time with teach for America, one of the most egregious companies that ask you to do way more and offers way less you’re working many hours off of the clock and every other day there’s a staff meeting

Teach For America(TFA) offers a lot of perks such as flexible work locations/schedules, competitive salaries, great medical benefits, and 401K options. The hours are non-conventional, but you do have autonomy in setting your own schedule(pending your job requirements) In contrast, it's ever evolving in it's direction to meet it's mission of "One Day" and creating a more equitable education system. This evolution has led to a work climate of ambiguity and lack of consistency across it's 53 regions in it execution of how to work towards One Day. The messaging and mission of TFA is noble and one to value, but the overall workplace culture needs serious improvement as it relates to streamlining certain practices for all regions in management training and practices, evaluating job performances to prevent subjective-based observations, and consistent expectations and accountability for all employees.  The people are friendly and welcoming, and really want to see positive changes for the better. They are team oriented and strive to be inclusive of all.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Teacher 1 salary reported	$175 per day
Director 3 salaries reported	$88,667 per year
Managing director 3 salaries reported	$81,000 per year
Leadership development program 3 salaries reported	$70,667 per year
Corps member 3 salaries reported	$43,440 per year

Working at Teach For America: Company Overview and Reviews

Teach For America

Teach For America Ratings

Popular jobs at Teach For America

Salary Satisfaction

Job Seeker Tools

Employer Tools

Browse

Stay Connected