Being a Fellow
Summer Training Institute
New Fellows begin their commitment with a six-week Summer Training Institute designed specifically for members of the Indianapolis Teaching Fellows program.
Training will address the interrelated components of instructional design and delivery and classroom culture and management. Fellows prepare for their classroom and students by participating in an intensive, full-time, six-week pre-service training that includes:
- Practice teaching in a classroom setting under the supervision of an IPS teacher
- Seminars and professional development activities on the theories and practices of teaching
- Continuous on-site guidance from experienced teachers
- Discussions and activities around the challenges of teaching in urban schools
Some specific topics include:
- Teaching for student achievement
- Classroom culture and management
- Planning and delivering effective lessons
- Parental involvement
The Indianapolis Teaching Fellows training consolidates a great deal of training time into only a few weeks; thus, training is extremely demanding. Fellows must attend training five days a week from approximately 8:00 am to 6:00 pm daily. Due to the critical part that training plays in the Indianapolis Teaching Fellows program, Fellows are not allowed to miss any portion of the training. In 2010, 100% of Fellows surveyed agreed that given the time frame, Training Institute prepared them to be successful in their first year of teaching.
Timing of Summer Training Institute
Summer Training Institute is offered concurrent with district summer school dates. Typically, Training Institute starts the first week of June and ends the second week of July. All Fellows must attend all portions of Summer Training Institute. We ask that you keep your summer schedule flexible to ensure that you are available.
(Please note that there are pre-training assignments and school observations required of new Fellows in the spring before they start training.)
A Day in the Life of a Fellow
Summer Training Institute is an intense and hectic time. In order to help you prepare for the commitments required during Summer Training Institute, Fellow Jeff Truelock provided a typical day in the life of a Fellow during Institute:
| 6:00 am | Wake up |
| 7:00 am | Traveled to practice teaching at Emmerich Manual High School |
| 8:00 am | Taught Algebra to sophomores |
| 12:00 pm | Lunch break |
| 12:30 pm | Taught Algebra to sophomores |
| 2:10 pm | Traveled to Tech High School (for afternoon Institute sessions) |
| 2:30 pm | Participated in afternoon ITF Framework session where I learned about teaching for student achievement and completed more than I EVER thought possible |
| 6:00 pm | Debrief with Fellow Advisors, additional sessions (hiring, etc.) |
7:00 pm |
Ate dinner with my family |
| 8:30 pm | Completed lesson plans for next day's practice teaching |
| 10:00 pm | Completed homework for ITF Framework session |
| 11:00 pm | Went to sleep |
“I never loved weekends more in my life! Not only did I get to spend time with family, it was a good time to get a lot of work done (rereading the Guidebook sections, preparing for lesson plans by jotting down ideas gleaned from other teachers and educators in ITF and from Practice Teaching). Staying on top of things and being super organized was not an option, and my new colleagues in ITF helped me become even more organized which is paying HUGE dividends right now in my position as a middle school math teacher. The days and experiences in summer institute, exhausting as they were, were the perfect primers for what I am currently experiencing. Implementing what I learned this past summer, I now have to ask quite a few of my students to leave after the bell rings. They want to stay and learn more math! The ITF Summer Institute works if you are fully committed and you work it.”
- Jeff Truelock, 2009 Fellow
Math Teacher
Harshman Middle School
