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Authors: Donna Foote
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rigor that allows the students to grow academically. If you took all the TFA teachers out of Locke, we would have forty percent roving subs and mass chaos. We would not be able to survive.â
CHAPTER THREE
Youâre in the Army Now
In 1990, the New Teacher Center at the University of California, Santa Cruz, published an article that Teach For America still refers to today. Entitled âPhases of First-Year Teaching,â it describes the stages new teachers move through during their first year.
Anticipation,
the short period that usually begins during training, comes first. The beginning teacher looks forward to the new career with a mix of excitement and anxiety.
Survival
follows close on its heels, soon after school starts. The overwhelmed teacher struggles to stay afloat. This period normally lasts six to eight weeks but can go on indefinitely. Then there is
Disillusionment,
a phase of profound disenchantment when new teachers question both their commitment and their competence.
Rejuvenation
eventually follows. For the lucky ones, it begins after winter break and continues well into spring. For the not-so-lucky, it can take weeks, if not months, to kick in. Finally, as the school year winds down, there is
Reflection,
the final phase of the cycle, in which the teacher begins to envision what the second year in the classroom will look like.
Some new teachers find it hard to imagine finishing the first year. Teaching in a low-income school right out of college is a shock to the systemâlike getting really old really quickly, if you ask some TFA recruits. You shed your old skin, the one you were so comfortable in. A new skin develops and a new person emerges, one who is completely different from the old person. When youâre twenty-two, that takes some adjusting.
The article is illustrated with a graph. The line charting the five-stage cycle starts high, dips very low very fast, and then slowly, slowly risesâunevenly. Thereâs nothing balanced or tidy about the drawing, and thatâs probably apt. The first year of teaching is messy, misshapen, lopsided. And thatâs if youâve been in a traditional university-based credentialing program complete with student teaching and peer mentoring. Teach For America corps members become teachers of record after five weeks of training.
For most of the 2005 recruits, the anticipation phase was just a blur marked by hard work, long hours, and little sleep. It started almost as soon as the candidates accepted the TFA offerâwhen the institute six-course curriculum (called the six-pack), plus the independent classroom-observation assignment, arrived in the mail. The package of pastel-colored, spiral-bound texts covered everything from diversity and classroom management to literacy, learning theory, and TFAâs central thesis, Teaching as Leadership (TAL). Before arriving, recruits were expected to read the texts and complete nine written exercises based on observations of experienced teachers at work. Many corps members (CMs) dispensed with the prep work; they arrived for their summer training cold.
Institute began on a sunny Sunday in early July, when some six hundred Teach For America recruits streamed onto the campus of California State University, Long Beach. They were dressed in tank tops and jeans, board shorts and T-shirtsâsome emblazoned with the TFA logo and the words corps 05. Gucci and Burberry bags could be spotted here and there, but most inductees toted suitcases or hauled huge backpacks. The famous blue pyramid, a campus landmark, towered in the near distance. It all felt very much like the first day of college as CMs found their dorm rooms and the shortest route to the cafeteria.
But any illusions corps members had about the rigor of the training to come were dispelled when they were given a thick three-ring binder with a letter of introduction and the institute calendar. A quick perusal of both made clear that institute
CHAPTER THREE
Youâre in the Army Now
In 1990, the New Teacher Center at the University of California, Santa Cruz, published an article that Teach For America still refers to today. Entitled âPhases of First-Year Teaching,â it describes the stages new teachers move through during their first year.
Anticipation,
the short period that usually begins during training, comes first. The beginning teacher looks forward to the new career with a mix of excitement and anxiety.
Survival
follows close on its heels, soon after school starts. The overwhelmed teacher struggles to stay afloat. This period normally lasts six to eight weeks but can go on indefinitely. Then there is
Disillusionment,
a phase of profound disenchantment when new teachers question both their commitment and their competence.
Rejuvenation
eventually follows. For the lucky ones, it begins after winter break and continues well into spring. For the not-so-lucky, it can take weeks, if not months, to kick in. Finally, as the school year winds down, there is
Reflection,
the final phase of the cycle, in which the teacher begins to envision what the second year in the classroom will look like.
Some new teachers find it hard to imagine finishing the first year. Teaching in a low-income school right out of college is a shock to the systemâlike getting really old really quickly, if you ask some TFA recruits. You shed your old skin, the one you were so comfortable in. A new skin develops and a new person emerges, one who is completely different from the old person. When youâre twenty-two, that takes some adjusting.
The article is illustrated with a graph. The line charting the five-stage cycle starts high, dips very low very fast, and then slowly, slowly risesâunevenly. Thereâs nothing balanced or tidy about the drawing, and thatâs probably apt. The first year of teaching is messy, misshapen, lopsided. And thatâs if youâve been in a traditional university-based credentialing program complete with student teaching and peer mentoring. Teach For America corps members become teachers of record after five weeks of training.
For most of the 2005 recruits, the anticipation phase was just a blur marked by hard work, long hours, and little sleep. It started almost as soon as the candidates accepted the TFA offerâwhen the institute six-course curriculum (called the six-pack), plus the independent classroom-observation assignment, arrived in the mail. The package of pastel-colored, spiral-bound texts covered everything from diversity and classroom management to literacy, learning theory, and TFAâs central thesis, Teaching as Leadership (TAL). Before arriving, recruits were expected to read the texts and complete nine written exercises based on observations of experienced teachers at work. Many corps members (CMs) dispensed with the prep work; they arrived for their summer training cold.
Institute began on a sunny Sunday in early July, when some six hundred Teach For America recruits streamed onto the campus of California State University, Long Beach. They were dressed in tank tops and jeans, board shorts and T-shirtsâsome emblazoned with the TFA logo and the words corps 05. Gucci and Burberry bags could be spotted here and there, but most inductees toted suitcases or hauled huge backpacks. The famous blue pyramid, a campus landmark, towered in the near distance. It all felt very much like the first day of college as CMs found their dorm rooms and the shortest route to the cafeteria.
But any illusions corps members had about the rigor of the training to come were dispelled when they were given a thick three-ring binder with a letter of introduction and the institute calendar. A quick perusal of both made clear that institute
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