NYCTF: Debates, Distortions, and Discoveries

NYCTF

Whether it is on someone’s blog or a TESOL listserv, I always seem to find myself having to defend the NYCTF. It’s not an enviable position, especially when half the time it’s not to dig into actual flaws of the Fellowship, but to dispel rumors and myth! How exhausting to have to explain to people who talk about such things as “nyctf grad schools” as if the Fellowship has created their own colleges, or who make comparisons between Fellows and experienced teachers with years of teaching under their belt, as opposed to new teachers. There is plenty to say about alternative certification programs, their necessity, their rigor and how their participants are interacting with veteran, traditional-route teachers and vice versa.

However, I will say that through the process of wading through all these misperceptions in a recent tesol listserv back-and-forth, I have found ESL teachers who are really, truly passionate about what they’re teaching, how ESL teachers are being trained and how the students are being serviced. That has been truly refreshing since 8 of out 10 of the ESL veteran teachers at my school once criticized me for working too hard on my lessons, and who made it very clear that their favorite part of the job, aside from vacations, is administering the NYSESLAT test since, for 3-4 weeks, all the push-ins do is testing — no time for teaching.

With all that said, please feel free to post all your questions, comments, criticisms of the Fellowship and expect a response complete with personal anecdotes from my experience and what I have learned from other Fellows, coupled with more objective thoughts. Or if you find blogs by other Fellows, or posts about the Fellowship, please do share as I am always interested in reading on this topic. I have tried, at times, through this blog to give you a sense of my experience in the Fellowship from Day 1 and appreciate when others do the same.