We require all prospective New York teachers to complete a comprehensive recruitment process, including the careful reading of nine articles, the submission of a completely filled-out application and the participation in a comprehensive interview. As you can see, our teachers must meet very high standards which we'll examine after first stating what we DON'T require.
This page covers the following topics:
Although we DO require you to have a college degree, we DON'T require you to have teaching licenses or certificates. Also, we DON'T require you to have previous classroom teaching experience. In addition, you are welcome to teach subjects, grades, levels and standardized tests outside the scope of any license, certificate or prior classroom experience you may have. While having these credentials and classroom experience can certainly be an advantage, they in no way guarantee we'll offer you a position. If fact, we've rejected many people with licenses, certificates and lots of prior classroom experience because we felt they taught badly and accepted many people without them because we were convinced they'd be excellent teachers. In other words, we don't care what is said on a piece of paper; our primary concern is that you can teach effectively and successfully.
You must thoroughly know the course content for each subject, grade, level and standardized test you wish to teach. This includes ALL central concepts and main ideas as well as basic concepts, definitions and details of the course. In addition, you must know ALL the prerequisites for EVERY topic in the course, including those from previous courses.
For example, discount problems are usually taught in seventh grade math. In order to teach percent problems, you've got to thoroughly know all facets of percents including the exact definition of a percent, converting percents to and from fractions and decimals, solving basic percent problems, etc. Moreover, you must know all previous topics involved in solving discount problems successfully, including how to convert a percent to a fraction or decimal, how to multiply and divide fractions and decimals, the exact definitions of a fraction and decimal and how to multiply and divide whole numbers.
How do you make sure you know the course content for all subjects, grades, levels and standardized tests you intend to teach? Simple! Visit Amsco School Publications and Barron's Educational Series. Since most of their books effectively present the material covered in grade 1 to 12 subjects and standardized tests (and are inexpensive), you can use them to review anything you may have forgotten.
You must thoroughly know the New York City syllabus and standards for each subject, grade, level and standardized test you wish to teach. It's not enough to thoroughly know the course material for a particular subject. You've also got to know exactly which topics to include and which ones to skip.
For instance, basic addition facts are supposed to be mastered in first grade, the times tables in third grade and percent problems in sixth and seventh grades. So, if you wish to teach first through seventh grade math, you must know exactly which topics belong to which grade. (Of course, if a fourth grade math student doesn't know all his basic addition facts, times tables and how to subtract whole numbers, you'll need to thoroughly teach all these topics in addition to those which make up the fourth grade math syllabus and standards.)
How can you be sure you know the exact New York City syllabus and standards for all grade 1 to 12 subjects you intend to teach? Just order a copy of Curriculum Frameworks from the Office of Instructional Publications Bookstore, where you'll find details of the Grade 1-12 New York City syllabi and standards and links to many related sites and resources. You'll also find information on the Grade 1-12 New York State syllabus and standards by visiting the New York State Education Department website.
In addition, many high school students in New York City must pass Regents exams in Sequential Math 1, 2 and 3, English, Biology, Chemistry, Earth Science, Physics, American History, Global Studies and various Foreign Languages. Obviously, you must thoroughly know the content, scope and format of the last several exams given in the subjects you wish to teach.
How can you do so? Amsco School Publications and Barron's Educational Series both publish a series of Regents Review books which present a review of the course involved and reprints of the last ten Regents exams with answers and complete solutions. You'll also be able to view and print copies of recent Regents exams and learn dates of upcoming ones by visiting the New York State Education Department website.
In addition to a complete knowledge of the course content, syllabus and standards for each course and standardized test you wish to teach our students, you must be articulate. This means you must be able to clearly and logically organize all course topics in your mind and successfully communicate them to the student. In other words, you must have the ability and skill to enable a student to understand, learn and master topics not previously known or known poorly.
Indeed, one of our goals in having you complete our interview is to see how clearly you can express yourself and how effectively you can teach. In fact, we'll switch roles during the interview: we'll become the applicant and you the interviewer. Your task will be to teach us several key elements of the policies, procedures and deadline dates which our teachers must follow. We'll judge your explanations for clarity, completeness, logic, common sense and the other qualities which separate good teaching from bad.
Since our reputation is of paramount importance, we will not tolerate words or deeds which hurt our good name. We're always guided by the highest standards of professionalism and integrity in our dealings with parents, students and tutors. Likewise, we expect our teachers to embrace and follow these same high standards of professionalism, integrity, maturity, honesty and common sense with us and our clients. Consequently, we'll never offer a position to anyone we believe is unwilling or unable to act in accordance with these principles.
To enable our tutoring service to work smoothly and effectively, we've developed a streamlined and logical set of procedures for us and our teachers. You must follow certain procedures when you first make contact with a new student's parents and then arrive to give the first lesson. You must use certain forms and observe certain deadline dates in reporting your lessons to us each month. You must know and agree to follow these and the other procedures as a condition to being offered a teaching position with us.
We've learned many important things in our over forty years experience providing private, home instruction to those with educational needs. Perhaps most important is understanding the difference between a good, successful tutor and a bad, ineffective one is . . . technique. Yes, it's using proper techniques with the realization that many good classroom techniques don't work in a home tutoring situation, and vice versa.
Whether or not you've actually taught in a classroom, think of the many differences between a teaching a class and a giving a lesson. As a classroom teacher, you'll have twenty to thirty (or even more) students to teach. Teaching is frequently interrupted by attendance, giving quizzes, unruly students, fire drills, assemblies, etc., etc. In addition, the teacher usually has to gear his lesson plans to the class median realizing that the slower students will be left behind while the brighter ones will be bored silly. In private tutoring, on the other hand, there's just one student, with no attendance, fire drills, assemblies or discipline problems to steal time from the actual teaching. The lesson plan is always geared to that one student and, because of the one-to-one relationship, neither quizzes nor exams are necessary. Obviously, very different techniques must be employed to make the most of situations so completely different.
In addition, there are many misconceptions about the purpose of tutoring. Many people feel the tutor's main role is helping students with the next day's homework assignments and preparing them for upcoming quizzes and exams. We strongly believe this is a complete waste of time and money. In fact, there should be only one goal of tutoring . . . to enable the student to understand, learn and master the course.
To fulfill this goal, some classroom techniques need to be adopted or adapted. We require our teachers to clearly and completely explain every topic, including all definitions and basic concepts involved. They must write up a complete set of notes so their students can study and review what was explained. In addition, they must assign exercises, some to be done during the lesson and others for homework, to practice, review and reinforce the material covered during that and previous lessons. Finally, they must impose logic and organization to the sequence in which topics are taught. But they must also employ many other techniques which are unique to the home tutoring situation.
We present complete details about these and many other techniques in More Effective Tutoring, Diagnostic Testing and Winning The Parent's Trust. If you want to teach our students, you must learn these techniques and agree to use them in your lessons.
You may agree to teach our students on a part-time or full-time basis. However, we have no temporary teaching positions and so you must agree to tutor our students for at least one full year. Accordingly, we NEVER offer positions to those interested solely in summer teaching jobs or doing some tutoring for a few months. Indeed, most of our best teachers have been with us for several years and some as long as twenty. Finally, you must be willing to teach in a reasonable number of areas in New York City.
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