I was just reading about the teaching fellows programs at boarding schools. How much are TF used at any school? Are the kids and parents happy with the quality of instruction?
I don’t think we had these at our school.
We have around 8 per year at Lawrenceville, 4 first-year and 4 second-year. Some of the best teachers I’ve had are/were fellows, and many actually stay on even after their “fellowship” ends.
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I know of a few at Deerfield. My student had 2 teaching fellows from U of Penn in Math during 4 years. Both were excellent.
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Awesome, glad to hear the teaching fellows are a positive for the kids, at least those from the UPenn program.
Mercersburg usually has a couple - recently one English and one science teacher. Both were awarded permanent faculty positions after their fellowship. They both taught courses, had mentors in experienced faculty and were fully involved in school life (coaching, dorm duty, etc). I know both of them and thought they were excellent and a wonderful addition.
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Kiddo1 has had mostly positive experiences with TFs at her school. I believe she was underwhelmed with one. While I was initially hesitant about “inexperienced” teaching, we have concluded that a fresh approach to teaching is often quite welcome.
Having said all of that, I would be remiss not to mention that a U Penn fellow was arrested for inappropriate behavior the year (or two) before Kiddo1’s arrival. That risk is obviously not exclusive to teaching fellows, but I do still worry a bit about the vetting process of TFs.
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The great thing about TFs is they tend to be super high energy. Our DK was really happy with theirs.
Here are a couple of Hotchkiss’ programs with Columbia and Penn:
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A lot of LC teachers are Penn fellows, surprisingly. And a lot of them come from boarding school themselves, which makes them more relatable (to students) on top of their age range. I like them personally, and I’d like to do PF after college so I think they’re great ahah.
We’ve seen good and terrible teaching fellows. They are fairly common.