From Elementary Teaching  and Colleges and trainings

On August 5, 1997 I was “laid off” as Chief Administrator at ZCLA. Within the week I was researching how to be an elementary school teacher for LAUSD with an emergency credential. I subbed for a while before I found out about the District Intern program.

My first mentor in the District Intern program was a tough little elderly African American gentleman who was proud to let us know he had been a Tuskegee Airman. The lesson he wanted to impart to us new teachers, which he repeated at every appropriate moment was “Show some guts!”. I was blessed to have him as a first mentor. That turned out to be the key lesson for my survival on several occasions.

The District Intern Program:

First is a 120-hour orientation. (3 weeks at 40 hours a week). One thing you will have at the end of the orientation is a 2-week plan for your first 2 weeks of teaching. Then during the two years, while you are teaching you are taking classes every Thursday from 4 to 8 PM. You must attend all of them. And during the two years there are ten all-day Saturdays per year, from 8AM-4PM.

At the end of the two years you have a credential provided you have done the following: You have to teach a prescribed number of days during the 2 year program, and receive satisfactory evaluations from your school administrator. You will be assembling something called the Professional Development Portfolio, which you present at the end of the 2 years. And you will complete something called the Professional Development Plan. You then receive a Professional Clear California Credential. (not Preliminary or Probationary). Recognized wherever a California credential is recognized.

Pros:

• 2 years of intensive instruction totally free

• You get paid full salary for working from Day 1
  

Cons:

• You have full responsibility for teaching when you have had virtually no training

• Due to year-round school track scheduling, my first 2 months of teaching was BEFORE my first DI class, which was classroom management

• My first year was the last year of the Integrated Curriculum, where they emphasized connections between subjects. My second year they were trying to roll in a new curriculum based on high stakes testing strongly emphasizing math and language arts.

I started teaching at Plasencia Elementary in July 1998, at the age of 54. My DI classes started in September. Those two months teaching before my training started were hell.  

#6.1 of SA6. Teaching