Pros
The summer I spent with Roots LA under TNTP was hands down one of the best experiences of my life! It was certainly a tough 6 weeks in that I had to work very hard and learn a lot of material in a short period of time, but it was worth it in the end. The amount of knowledge and confidence I am taking away from this program is amazing, and I truly feel like the field experience I got reinforced my passion for teaching. We were matched with a mentor teacher during the program who was a master teacher in whatever subject we were teaching, and got to co-teach for four weeks in an actual summer school classroom. During our field experience, we got constant feedback from our mentor teachers on how to improve, how to lesson plan efficiently, and how to overall be the best teacher we can be. The last two weeks of the program included visits from charter schools, who watched us as we taught, and then invited the ones they saw potential in to interview for teaching positions at their schools after graduation. Overall, this summer was one of the best well spent for me, and I would not be where I am without it!
Cons
This is a program that requires a lot of commitment during it's 6-week duration, and a lot of time will be spent receiving constructive feedback and working to improve.