Year 1: The Residency Year

You’ll spend 14 months training under experienced classroom teachers and our expert faculty. That includes two summer sessions and a full academic year in a school. 

During the Residency Year of the Urban Teachers program, below are some things to expect: (www.urbanteachers.org/nuts-and-bolts/)

Co-Teaching

You will spend your first year progressing in classroom leadership under the direction of a licensed teacher. Throughout the year you will progress from classroom assistant to a full classroom leader with various skill-based checkpoints to meet to ensure you'll be fully prepared for leading your own classroom in year 2. 

The Programs of Study 

Urban Teachers offers programs of study in Elementary Education, Secondary Literacy, and Secondary Mathematics, in addition to Special Education, in which everyone will become certified. You can preference your program of study in your online application, but there may be additional requirements for the math or Secondary ELA/ELAR placements. Placements are not guaranteed; however, we make every effort to honor your preferences based on our students' and school partners' needs. Additionally, you are unable to switch city placements after beginning our program. More information can be found here.

School Placements

Applicants have the opportunity to state their preference for the city, grade level and content area during the application process. If invited into the program, Urban Teachers will send a "Letter of Intent" with the city placement; each city has different school matching processes. Urban Teachers places teachers at all grade levels (PreK-12) based on the needs of students and school partners, not the resident preferences. While we do try to accommodate preferences, teaching in high-need communities often means working where you are most needed. We do, however, guarantee you will get a placement with one of our school partners, all of which are high-need, low-income public schools. 

Once placed, residents will, ideally, continue at their schools as teachers in years 2-4.  Your program of study and placement will determine your certification areas. Program of study placements will be made in May 2018, prior to the start of Summer Institute.  Urban Teachers works closely with you throughout the placement process. 

Another important feature of the Urban Teachers program is that residents and teachers in each cohort will be placed together in schools. Urban Teachers believes that teaching needs to be collaborative so individuals can constantly learn from and support each other while they are training to be an urban teacher.

School Types

Urban Teachers residents are placed in both traditional public schools, as well as public charter schools; therefore you are unable to preference which school-type in which you are placed. Placements are needs-based and set by the site teams and school partners. For more information about where we work, please check out our current cities page (http://www.urbanteachers.org/current-sites/).