Teach For America, also known as TFA, is a registered 501 nonprofit organization that strives to strengthen educational equity and excellence within the United States of America. Founded by Wendy Kopp, TFA launched with 489 corps in six geographical regions. Through maintaining a strong national presence since its establishment in 1989, Teach For America now has over 6,400 corps located in 53 regions. These dedicated corps annually teach close to 400,000 low-income students throughout the United States of America. I would volunteer with Teach For America if I could choose any organization in the world to volunteer with because I am inspired by the organization’s history and I believe in its mission. To begin, the history of Teach For America …show more content…
According to Teach For America’s website, the organization’s values include pursuing equity, strengthening a community, achieving impact, choosing courage, acting with humility, demonstrating resilience, and learning continuously (“Teach For America.”). TFA’s dedication to incorporating diversity, equity, and inclusiveness in our education system is truly an admirable mission. Another core value that Teach For America assigns to their educators is to encourage inclusiveness in the assigned schools. Through building authentic and reliable relationships between students and educators, TFA is able to unite communities with a common purpose, unique perspectives, and shared values. Part of the reason behind this organization’s success in achieving its goal is the thorough recruitment process which chooses applicants to teach in designated low-income school districts. Teach For America specifically invests in corps and staff members that understand the current situation of public education. Corps then work to replace inequitable practices with stronger curriculum and infrastructure within their assigned schools. When determining who will be accepted as a teacher, Teach For America takes into account the current needs and opportunities of their regions. It does this through placing an applicant where they will have the best impact on the outcomes of the students as well as filling deficient areas like early childhood education, math, science, foreign language, and special education. Applicants also must meet standards like a minimum GPA and coursework prerequisites. Implementing standards for their corps allows Teach For America to ensure that it is providing reliable educators in order to achieve its
Past attempts at solutions were Teachers for America, Experimental Certification of Ethnic Colleagues for Elementary Schools, provisional certification, and emergency certification. Teachers for America is a very easy, "six week crash course in teacher survival skills taught primarily by teachers from their troubled placement sites."(Roth, 220) These teachers are said to bring "enthusiasm and intellect" to the classroom. In inner city and urban school systems, where most of the student body is poor and in the greatest need of good teachers, the TFA teachers are installed. While TFA is a good idea and puts teachers in classrooms, some say that the children who are being used as guinea pigs for this experimental teacher training are suffering. However, after receiving praise from some major cities, its training program was approved in 1995 and it "received $2 million from AmeriCorps, President Clinton’s national service initiative."(Mosle, 3) Experimental Certification of Ethnic Colleagues for Elementary Schools (E3) was an effort to "increase the representation of males and people of color on teaching staffs of elementary schools,"(Shade, 261) in response to teacher shortages. This solution was implemented for three years and was very successful. Provisional certification is given to a person who has been certified in another state and has passed the Praxis II, "but who needs one or two courses Maryland requires for teachers.
I believe Clark Atlanta University will prepare me for future leadership by creating and building new traits within me. I want the opportunity to prove that I can become someone significant even with the guidance of my peers. By attending Clark Atlanta University, I will be able to learn the skills that a leader should possess, whether within my classes or within my community. During my junior year of high school I was involved in the “B.E.E. Club” which is a mentorship for young ladies that help support freshman female students to achieve their goals. I was also actively involved in the “Fashion and Design Club” which is to advocate personal development through leadership, social etiquette, and corporate skill to build confidence, and poise.
...e school, such as; Pelotonia, Light the Night for leukemia and lymphoma, Franklin County Board of Developmental Disabilities, etc… For many of these organizations I have volunteered more than once. Volunteering at Light the Night has a story. For my 16th Birthday party, I wanted to have my friends and I volunteer in the day while having fun at night. So I had 7 boys and girls, along with me, volunteer for Light the Night, organized by me. The party was a huge success and a lot of fun. I look forward to organizing more volunteer opportunities for my friends and I.
Assignment - Educational historian Merle Curti has written that the history of American education is a story about the quest for power, a struggle for cultural, economic, and political freedom and equality. In a well-written, typed paper, explain what Curti means and also explain at least three historical examples that embody this meaning. Be explicit and detailed.
Teach For America is a nonprofit organization that recruits college graduates and professionals to teach for two years in the neediest communities in the United States. Wendy Kopp came up with the idea of Teach For America while writing her thesis during her senior year at Princeton in 1989. Kopp may have been successful with the program, where others such as the Department of Education, state and local government, even the National Parent Association were not. This success was accomplished by first establishing a clear and concise mission that appealed to many young people, who themselves wanted to give back to their community. Secondly, she made the hiring process highly selective.
My goal to be a Teach For America corps member was instigated by my family background and experiences in the Waco community as a volunteer tutor. My aunt, who taught high school English in a low-income community in Michigan for over 30 years, has inspired me to teach in order to fight against the inequalities facing low-income students. Her commitment to nurturing and developing students, regardless of the circumstances they were facing, led me to pursue service opportunities in Waco that would allow me to emulate her. Specifically, volunteering at an elementary school in the center of Waco gave me the chance to work and grow with the type of students that my aunt dedicated her life to. In continuing her efforts, I want to help counteract the education inequalities facing our nation.
Growing up, I have always known that I wanted to work in the education field. I believe helping students learn and grow is my purpose in life. I believe the purpose of education is to see students develop and grow. I believe the role of the student is to come to school and learn new information that they can apply to their lives. I believe the role of the paraprofessional is to be the assistant for the teacher and provide assistance to the students. I believe the community plays a major role in education, especially the parents and guardians. They are a part of their child 's education and provide support for them when they need it most. Education is not going away anytime soon, so we need to look at what education
Kim, in the United States, grades are not the only factor in evaluating school applicants and job candidates. From Rhodes Scholar selections to college applications, excellence in other areas such as leadership, volunteer activities, sports and arts is equally important (p82-90). In American schools, students are encouraged to do volunteer work. So much so that many schools have guidelines for how much time students are expected to spend serving in the community. Children learn the value of giving from an early age. Volunteer activities is one way Americans feel a part of things and share the goal of serving and contributing to build their communities. From neighborhood watch programs to environmental issues, Americans do not wait for the government to initiate action: they take action to bring about the changes they desire. Therefore, Americans view volunteer work as a way to teach children and young adults values such as cooperation and teamwork, dedication and work ethics, equality and social justice, leadership, generosity and compassion for
The Educational Philosophy I Will Incorporate in My Classroom Education serves as the foundation to a lifetime of learning. Since every child is unique, I believe that it is important for them to learn in an environment that is both safe and stimulating. By creating this type of atmosphere, the students will be able to realize their intelligence and use it constructively. As a future educator, it will be my goal to establish a classroom that is, 1) non-authoritarian, 2) student-centered, and 3) focused around student experience. These three elements are part of Progressivism, the educational philosophy I plan to incorporate into my classroom.
Volunteering enables a person to develop new skills that he or she would otherwise not have been able to develop. Unlike most other organizations, a charitable organization is happy to give positions to passionate, though inexperienced, individuals who desire to help others and benefit the community. Therefore, an individual with little experience in a field of work can gain meaningful skills that he or she can use in the future. For example, while I volunteered at the hospital this summer, I learned about the daily work lives and professional duties of doctors and nurses. Had I not volunteered, I would not have learned about these things. I was always interested in the medical field, but volunteering at the hospital let me explore my interests and en...
Every teacher has a different method of teaching. The teachers that I have had in my school career have been no exception. In this way, each teacher has set an example for me, as a future teacher, to follow or not to follow as I see fit. With the examples from my teachers and in continuing my education, I am developing my own method of teaching. I plan to use a combination of teaching methods in my own classroom. My method will be an eclectic approach because I will be using components of more than one philosophy. I will be using essentialism, behaviorism, progressivism, and existentialism.
Before the education system was implemented in the U.S., many political figures “wanted to create a national culture and qualified politicians for a republican government” (Spring, 2014, p. 10). Thomas Jefferson was the first to propose “an education, but with limited access for the whole population” (p. 11). On the other hand, Horace Mann called the father of the public schools believed that education was essential to reforming the society and one “important idea was that all children in society attend the same type of school. The school was ideally the common place for all children” with the philosophy of equal opportunity for all (p. 12); however, many were the debates at that time, how to incorporate education in an unfair society. That is why the big question about the U.S. education system is: what are the political and social goals of education since then to now?
Children are our future and it is up to us as educators to point them in the right direction. I always enjoyed school and found it fun and exciting. As I got older, I only remember the teacher's that made a difference in my life. I want to the teacher that makes a difference in a child's life. Whether it be as simple as a teacher, or advanced as a father-figure, I will be their for the children.
The way the UVA program uses research and real world experiences to help prepare educators for the challenges faced by special education teachers, and allow them to convert that learning into real classroom skills, is appealing to me and fits with my educational goals. The tools taught in the UVA program are the same tools used by my best teachers and helped me excel in school even though I was a special education student during my entire K-12 school career. I have a personal relationship with some of the struggles that special education students encounter. These students can feel so different from everyone and may believe that they can't succeed in school. I want to be there for them as an example that they too can overcome challenges and succeed. Moreover, I have worked with many different teachers during my last three years and my time as a teaching assistant has given me the ability to observe teachers and see how they employ different teaching
I believe that teaching is the most important profession in the world. How else can we continue to develop in such a technical world, or in any other way, for that matter? Without the transfer of knowledge to young minds, we will stagnate and wither as a world. Teaching is hope for better, more successful futures. Learning is hope for becoming better individuals, for gaining intelligence, and for implementing practical experiences in our future. Since we always tell our children that they should plan for their futures and work to realize those goals, the teaching profession should “practice what it preaches” by helping young people to reach those goals. Teaching reading during the past five years has been rewarding beyond my imagination. I have watched non-readers become readers, I have watched scores and student confidence improve, and I have been part of that change. What a reward!