TNTP Teaching Fellows reviews

I completed the program from 2014-2015 and I still have anxiety and flashbacks about it, hence why I feel I needed to leave a review a few years later. The summer training is awful. You will be miserable, lack sleep, and any resemblance of a social life. You will teach in classrooms that you do not choose (the least of any issue), you will be trained boot-camp style, you will be yelled at, you will be made to feel insignificant, and you will be expected to write insane lesson plans all night, every day for the entire summer. You won't be able to take any sick days, or take any time off to interview for jobs. You'll be "required" to take the first job offered to you. You will suffer the whole year while you teach your first year through pop-up observations. During one of my observations, the "coach" advised me to keep a vibrating timer to buzz off EVERY 30 SECONDS to check for understanding. Honestly, it was one of the hardest and most miserable years of my life. But- I did pass and was able to leave that craziness behind and actually enjoy teaching. Prepare yourself- but might be worth it in the end.

There is no due process in this organization. Fellows are voiceless and threatened with being kicked out of the program each day. Expectations are unclear and oftentimes arbitrary as new punishments and threats of being barred from being able to teach in the fall arise.