Chapter 3: Placement

The process of deciding where a corps member will be placed begins before an applicant is even accepted into the program. A few weeks before someone is scheduled for a final interview, she or he must log into their Applicant Portal and answer questions that will identify not only where they are likely to go, but also what they are likely to teach if chosen. For me, it was an exciting and fun prospect that really got me thinking about my future and not only what it might look like, but what I wanted it to look like. Once I placed myself in the position of telling Teach For America what I wanted my corps experience to look like, the thought of not being accepted became almost unthinkable. But I know that this does happen to some applicants, which I can only imagine is a difficult situation.

When I logged on to the Applicant Portal to complete my location and teaching preferences -- just in case, I reminded myself, I was actually accepted into the corps -- I was greeted initially with a large map of the United States. The map detailed all of the areas that Teach For America recruits people to work in, and my job involved perusing these areas and choosing 10 that I would be interested in moving to.

I'll reiterate here that Teach For America's purpose, so they say, is to only place corps members in "high need" regions -- that is, areas where there are severe teaching shortages or are otherwise facing educational crises. Teach For America claims that their purpose is to step into those regions and play a part in mending whatever happens to be broken. (And yes -- part of the training that Teach For America offers its corps members really does leave many of them believing that deeply systemic educational crises can be overcome with young, idealistic teachers who promote the power of high expectations.) All of this means that a Teach For America corps member cannot simply teach at any school, in any part of the nation, that she or he wishes to. Each corps member is sent to one of these "high needs" regions, which includes high-profile areas such as the inner cities of Chicago and Los Angeles, but also other areas including New Orleans, a few areas of Texas, and the rural towns of the Mississippi Delta.

Again, I had to choose 10 that I'd be willing to live and teach in, and I knew that I could be assigned to any of those 10 regions, depending on a number of factors. Because I didn't want to leave my current living situation in the Bay Area, I put that region as my #1 choice (which meant that, if assigned there, I could wind up teaching in either San Francisco, Oakland, Richland, or San Jose). I knew, through online inquiries, that getting assigned a position anywhere in California was particularly difficult, because who doesn't want to live in California? (I know, I know -- many people don't, but the fact is that many, many, many people do, and that leads quite a few TFA applicants to put the California regions as their #1 priority regions, too.)

Because my mom and sister (and her husband and children) lived in Las Vegas, and I'd lived there before, I chose that as my #2 spot. (I learned later on that if you put certain areas near the top of your list, you are almost guaranteed to be sent there. The Mississippi Delta was one of those areas, and Las Vegas was another.) New York was also on my list, as that would place me close to my dad (who lived in Toronto), and so was Dallas (where my at-the-time love interest resided) and New Orleans (which featured cultural aspects I was extremely interested in). There were other places, of course, that I listed, but I wasn't as concerned about them because Teach For America stated that they always try to place people in regions as close to the top of their list as possible. When I submitted my preferences, I honestly had no idea what to expect, though. I knew, at the time, that my first priority was getting accepted, and after that accepting my placement would be, as they say, "cake."

After submitting my region preferences, I was also asked to weigh what I would and wouldn't want to teach. During this session, I ranked various grade levels and subjects, such elementary education, high school science, and special education, among others, on a three-tiered scale: I marked that I was either excited about the prospect of teaching that subject, or that I would, simply, teach that subject, or that the prospect of teaching that subject would deter me from accepting a place in the corps. I marked that I would teach just about everything on the list, which was true with a couple of exceptions: I did mark that I would be excited to teach high school English, because my experience teaching college-level English and my graduate degree in that area led me to believe that I'd be better at it than other areas. I also marked that special education would deter me from joining the corps, because I felt wholly unqualified, and therefore overwhelmed, to enter that area. Other than those two things, though, I remained very open in terms of what I would, simply, teach.

Fast forward through the final interview process and my acceptance into the corps, and I realized that I would soon find out exactly where (and what) I'd be assigned to teach. After I was accepted, my Applicant Portal stated that I would find out my region and teaching assignment within 24 hours, so I returned to my job at the bank with nothing on my mind except for what I was likely to find out after my shift. I didn't mention my new job to those at the bank -- I did, after all, have four months of work with them until I'd be leaving to become a teacher. I was, though, noticeably happy and relieved, I think. My demeanor must have been much changed during the second half of my shift from what it was during the first half.

Once I arrived home, my placement was available for viewing: I would be sent to Las Vegas to teach elementary education.

For the first time since reading about my acceptance, I felt a pang of disappointment, my balloon of ecstasy deflating a bit. I hadn't realized until that moment just how much I'd wanted to stay in the Bay Area, and just how much I wanted to teach high school English. I was moving, it seemed, to Las Vegas, and I'd be teaching elementary school. As excited as I was about being accepted to the corps, I was, admittedly, wholly disappointed about my placement.

I called my mom, and she was absolutely ecstatic about the fact that I'd be coming to Las Vegas. And I'd be just fine, she said, teaching elementary school. My mom had a mantra that "everything will work out," despite not having any tools or ideas as to how things would work out, but she was happy at that moment that my son and I would be joining her and my sister in Vegas.

Truth be told, though, my placement actually caused me to reconsider accepting my offer from Teach For America. I received phone calls from my eventual MTLD (manager of teaching and learning -- essentially, the closest thing to a boss I'd experience in TFA), Christy (not her real name), to discuss my decision-making process. I told her that I would much rather be placed in the Bay Area, and I may have mentioned my classroom preferences too, but she reminded me that my commitment was to students, and that I needed to keep that in mind as I navigated my choice. I even went so far as to apply to other jobs -- editing and writing jobs, as well as college teaching jobs -- before finally accepting my offer from Teach For America. After everything, I'd actually considered not accepting.

In the end, though, I did accept my offer and my placement, and began the process of planning a move to Las Vegas. I remained firm in my decision to not tell my current employer, the bank, about this new job until closer to the time I'd be leaving -- perhaps a bad decision, but ultimately something I found to be important. I knew that I would need to be in Las Vegas in late May for Induction, and in Los Angeles directly after that for Insitute, and then back in Vegas for Kick-Off and the start of the school year. At the time, all of this sounded extremely overwhelming, but I assured myself that TFA would adequately prepare me for all that was to come in the near future.