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Be as present as possible

Listen to and value others’ truths

Extend compassion and appreciation towards others

Notice and check-in with yourself often

Speak and value your personal truth

Experience discomfort, but not to your detriment

Virtual Meeting Norms

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Definition of “Prepared” for Pre-Service

As a corps member and developing teacher-leader, you are prepared to engage, full-time, on the first day of Pre-Service when you have completed all action items required to transition to your region and be eligible to teach at Practicum.

To support you to be prepared, during your onboarding and Pre-Service experiences, we will focus on cultivating Occupational Wellness and teacher resilience by developing your:

Teacher-organizational skills, specifically how you keep track of and prioritize all you have to do,
Ability to communicate when you may be off track and need support, and
Teacher-leadership vision.

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Supported Through the Hiring Process

You feel supported to successfully navigate your region’s placement partner hiring process.

Qualified for Teaching Assignment

You meet the requirements (e.g., pass certification tests) to teach a subject and grade level of interest.

Transition to

the Corps

You have access to the logistical information needed to join the corps, including AmeriCorps, regional costs, and transitional and summer funding.

Training and Support

You understand how TFA’s training and support will help you start strong as an educator in your assigned subject and grade level.

Belonging

You feel part of a community within TFA and know who to go to with questions.

Connected to Mission

You understand your role in advancing TFA’s mission through teaching and growing as an exceptional leader.

These are our six Onboarding Standards. They are our promises to YOU.

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What is Pre-Service

The How: Pre-Service Structure

Why Pre-Service matters

Our policies & expectations

Agenda

Close Out

Time for breakouts, connections, and skill-building

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Tonight is about…	Tonight is not about…
Beginning the Pre-Service journey Identifying the information we will need to successfully engage in Pre-Service and understand what resources are available Engaging in some breakout spaces and work time so that we can work on skill-building needed to engage in Pre-Service Hearing from current Corps Members about their experience & advice Asking general Pre-Service questions	Answering very specific regional questions about Pre-Service but we will pass along your questions! In-depth regional details will be answered at your May regional call If you have specific questions about your region that come up during the session add them to the Pre-Service Parking Lot

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Occupational Wellness & Skill-Building

Occupational Wellness includes our ability to achieve a balance between work and leisure

in a way that supports our holistic well-being. Educators can support their Occupational

Wellness by cultivating a sense of self-efficacy in their work with students and

contributions to the school environment

Engage with our worksheet to follow-along for your own skill-building today

Relationship Building: Developing positive relationships with colleagues and supervisors

Organization: Developing time-management and organization practices to most effectively use your time

Communication: Communicating your needs, wants, and boundaries clearly and proactively

Reflection: Identifying your areas of strengths and areas for growth, and seeking out relevant learning

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What is Pre-Service?

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Let’s hear from a current Corps Member and recent Alum

Let’s welcome: Tashara Davis and Haley Ruiz!

Introduce yourself and share:

Your region and what you teach
Your reflections:

What’s a moment from Pre-Service that stands out to you?
How did that moment impact your classroom now?

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Let’s hear from Sunny Brown, a 2023 Metro Atlanta CM

Listen to hear about her reflections on the following questions

What’s a moment from Pre-Service that stands out to you?
How did that moment impact your classroom now?

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What do we mean by “Pre-Service”?

Pre-Service training is the beginning of your development and preparation as a Teach For America corps member. Our vision is that your Pre-Service experience will support you to become teacher-leaders, prepare you to provide your students with a high-quality education, and equip you to pursue a lifetime commitment to advancing educational excellence for all children.

Your Pre-Service experience fosters:

Commitment: A cohesive journey that strengthens belief and belonging to TFA and the work of educational excellence for all children.
Community: Deepended relationships and a network of systems change leaders within your region and across the 2025 corps
Confidence: An ever-increasing confidence and hunger to learn and grow as a first-year teacher

Pre-Service is not designed to equip you with all the learning and tools you will need to be an excellent teacher-leader. That learning process continues throughout your two years in the corps and beyond, if you decide to continue in education.

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Pre-Service Learning Domains

Your Pre-Service learning aligns with 4 Learning Domains, broken down into specific outcomes and actions across your asynchronous and synchronous experiences.

You will learn more about these in your Launch module: “Preview of the Summer Learning Arc.”

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Why Pre-Service matters

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Our Work at TFA

Our Mission

Our Goal

Our Why

Teach For America finds, develops, and supports exceptional leaders–individually and in teams–so they can transform education and expand opportunity with children, starting in the classroom.

We envision a world where educators, policy makers, parents, and students are working together to ensure that their communities’ children have the foundation they need to learn, lead, thrive, and shape a better future for themselves and all of us.

By 2030, twice as many children in communities where we work will reach key educational milestones indicating they are on a path to economic mobility and co-creating a future filled with possibility.

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Pre-Service is the chapter of the journey that begins to equip you with the…

Foundational Knowledge

Skills

Dispositions

= Positive Impact on students in pursuit of our 2030 goals

Added bonuses of Pre-Service includes building relationships, orienting to the TFA network, and getting to know the communities you’ll teach in, all important skills for longevity in this work

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Let’s discuss!

In small breakout rooms, discuss with fellow 2025 CMs the question below:

Introduce yourself: your preferred name, TFA region, what you’ll teach, and where you call home
Your reflections on these discussion questions:

What learning domain (Rigorous Instruction, Learning Environment, Relationships, and Learning) excites you the most? Which domains do you have skills or experiences in? Which domains do you anticipate needing to learn the most about?
How does the Pre-Service experience connect to your “why” for doing this work?

We’ll share out a couple of responses when we come back to the main room

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The How:

Pre-Service Structure

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Number of current corps members for the 2023-2024

school year

At a High Level

Headline: Corps members will be supported to become teacher-leaders, provide your students with a high-quality education, and pursue a lifetime commitment to advancing educational excellence for all children.

Pre-Work

(27 hours async)

Launch Live!

(16 hours sync)

Virtual

Training

(2 weeks mostly sync)

Practicum Experience

(Several weeks, in-person/

sync)

Kicks off in April, due at start of Launch Live!
~27 hours, on your own time

Your first full-time day as a TFA CM!
Virtual
Includes Kickoff Events

Your intro to teacher skills!
6 hours/Day synchronous,
2 hours/day asynchronous

Let’s put those teacher skills to practice!
5 days/week teaching
Coaching cycles, + ongoing PD

Pre-Service Model

You should plan to end all other employment and plan for childcare if necessary

Think of your Pre-Service experience as your full-time TFA job (like a 9-5 with homework)

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Number of current corps members for the 2023-2024

school year

Let’s view a sample schedule and

your region’s Pre-Service dates

Sample Schedule

Notes:

Launch begins on April 28th for everyone
Times indicated in the Pre-Service schedule are for the timezone of your assigned region
There are 3 different start dates for synchronous virtual training. Your start date depends on your region:

May 19th (Wave 0 regions)
May 22nd (Wave 1 regions)
June 5th (Wave 2 regions)

There are a variety of Practicum start dates depending on your region.
Typically Practicum will be 3 weeks long, but some run 4-5 weeks.
Your region will share your specific Practicum schedule.

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Let’s hear again from an Alumna and CM

Welcome back to Tashara and Haley!

Your reflections:

What do you wish you had known or planned for when it comes to Pre-Service, given its schedule and structures?
What advice do you have for our 2025 corps about how to engage with Pre-Service and get the most out of this experience?

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Let’s hear from Sunny Brown, a 2023 Metro Atlanta CM

Listen to hear about her reflections on the following questions

What do you wish you had known or planned for when it comes to Pre-Service, given its schedule and structures?
What advice do you have for our 2025 corps about how to engage with Pre-Service and get the most out of this experience?

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Pre-Service Policies & Expectations

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Pre-Service Policies & Expectations

Pre-Service is a rigorous experience. Like teaching, much of your schedule is highly structured and created for you. This is to ensure you:

Receive the necessary training to be ready for students on the first day of school, and
Meet a required number of training hours to comply with state licensure laws across the country.

Therefore, we hold high expectations for attendance and engagement at Pre-Service. As we review our attendance policy and think through common scenarios, ask yourself: “What do I need to be successful within highly structured experiences?”

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Attendance:

Pre-Service is a required, full-time professional development commitment
You are granted a maximum of 16 total hours of leave throughout the entirety of Pre-Service which may include no more than 2 teaching blocks during Practicum for truly immovable conflicts.

Details:

Must submit leave request for planned time off
Unable to make-up work
Required # of hours you must complete for your own development and your certification
Our final Pre-Planned Leave Request window closes on May 4th.

Our Pre-Service Attendance Policy

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What Would You Do? Scenarios

Back in your small groups for 8 minutes to discuss a common Pre-Service situation and make a decision about what to do:

Scenario 1: Odd-numbered breakout rooms
Scenario 2: Even-numbered breakout rooms

Whole Group Share Out + What Actually Happened

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Rachel is a 2025 corps member whose region begins Practicum on July 7th. Her sister is getting married July 11th and Rachel is the Maid of Honor. She submitted a leave request for July 9th through the 11th to accommodate for travel, her Maid of Honor duties as well as the wedding itself.

Additional Information and Resources

-Rachel does not have any additional pre-planned leave requests

-1st day of teaching for Practicum is July 8th with a required orientation on the 7th (Practicum calendar)

-CM Pre-Service Policy Supplement (password required: TFACMPSPolicies)

Pre-Planned Leave Request: What Would You Do?

What does our Attendance & Leave Policy say about a situation like Rachel’s?
What important factors are being weighed?
Given our policy and important factors in this situation, what would you do?

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Jamie is a corps member in an early start region, which means their live, virtual Pre-Service programming begins on May 19th.

A friend is helping them drive a moving truck from the West Coast to their East Coast TFA region. They plan to drive May 29th and 30th so they arrive on June 1st to pick up keys for their new apartment
Their live teaching (Practicum) experience begins on June 2nd.
They plan to join virtual training on May 29th and May 30th from their iPhone while they’re on the road.

Additional Information and Resources

-Live, virtual training calendar

-CM Pre-Service Policy Supplement (password required: TFACMPSPolicies)

Transitioning to Your Region: What Would You Do?

What do our Attendance & Leave Policy and Virtual Engagement Guidelines say about a situation like Jamie’s?
What important factors are being weighed?
Given our expectations and important factors in this situation, what would you do?

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Rachel: What did you decide?

What did your group decide?
What factors led you to that decision?

Jamie: What did you decide?

What did your group decide?
What factors led you to that decision?

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What Happened to Rachel?

The Decision:

Rachel’s request for 3 days of pre-planned leave was denied

Why:

The maximum amount of leave allowed at Pre-Service is 16 hours/2 days of teaching
Rachel would miss 3 days of instruction with students, which are critical for relationship-building and learning
Other CMs would have to cover Rachel’s classes in addition to teaching their own
Our historical data shows that CMs who miss significant amounts of Pre-Service training are less likely to:

Complete their 2-year corps commitment
Meet their principal’s expectations for instructional leadership

What ultimately happened?

Rachel was offered a new pathway to attend her sister’s wedding: To be excused from programming on July 10th and 11th.
Because there is Regional Flex Time on July 9th; Rachel will travel that evening
This kept her absence at 16 hours/2 days of teaching, within our attendance policy.

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What Happened to Jamie?