Why should I join the Inspired Teacher Certification Program?

The Joys of Teaching
Teaching is one of the most dynamic, intellectually challenging, and rewarding professions available. As a highly effective teacher, you will make a direct impact on the lives of children by helping them to achieve beyond their perceived limits.

Training
Inspired Teaching is committed to ensuring that the new teachers we recruit and select are thoroughly prepared to be highly effective teachers. The engaging, innovative coursework in teacher preparation is one of the primary benefits of participating in the Inspired Teacher Certification Program. Participants in this program will learn unique yet effective instructional methods that actively engage learners and will be supported in creating energized classrooms where students thrive and find joy in their schoolwork.

Inspired Teaching's coursework is characterized by innovative pedagogy that engages candidates in experiential learning, discovery learning, and collaborative group work. This approach is based on the belief that engaging learners intellectually, emotionally, and even physically accelerates learning, boosts retention of content, and allows learners to generate insights and cross-curricular connections that might have been missed in a more traditional class setting.

As a teacher in one of our recent workshops put it:  "Inspired Teaching takes a very different approach than ANY other education I've encountered “it is definitely way 'outside of the box,' but it works!"

Support
Research shows that new teachers, especially new teachers in urban schools, often feel isolated and overwhelmed. Inspired Teaching is committed to ensuring that our alternative route teacher candidates get the support they need to achieve their potential as educators. Each Inspired Teaching Fellow will be paired with a carefully selected mentor, who will make classroom visits on a weekly basis and be available to provide individualized, personal support.

Additionally, because each of our Fellows is selected on the basis of a shared vision of what schools can and should be, participants will benefit from the collegiality of a cohort of like-minded individuals.

Inspired Teaching Alumni Network
When you sign up to be an Inspired Teacher you join a family of alumni that spans well over a decade. The Inspired Teaching Alumni Network includes veteran teachers from every subject area and discipline, in schools in every quadrant of DC and throughout the surrounding districts. These teachers are connected through Inspired Teaching's electronic communications, the Teacher Activist Board, Alumni Conferences, additional coursework, and lasting friendships that provide both personal and professional support.

AmeriCorps Benefits#
When you sign up to be an Inspired Teaching Fellow, you become an AmeriCorps member as well. As an AmeriCorps member, you will receive a variety of benefits for your commitment and service. Benefits for AmeriCorps members include a financial education award at the end of service, access to the AmeriCorps network, the option to defer student loans, optional child care benefits, and access to AmeriCorps for support for special needs.*

*While Center for Inspired Teaching is currently a partner with AmeriCorps, we cannot guarantee these benefits for the 2010 cohort given the nature of AmeriCorps competitive grant process and the dependence on congressional funding cycles. Center for Inspired Teaching anticipates receiving final confirmation on education awards for next year in spring 2010, and anticipates that eligible 2010 Fellows will receive an AmeriCorps award.