To start with, I need to confess, I've been teaching for 17 years at the same school. I have my master's degree from UNT (University of North Texas), and my teacher certification was done traditionally about 10 years after my bachelor's degree, with a deficiency plan from TWU (Texas Woman's University). I have my bachelor's degree from USM (University of Southern Mississippi).
I've seen some bad traditionally trained teachers. One that comes to mind is just finished her program and she doesn't listen. She talks a lot. Doesn't have much to say. I've also seen some really good teachers who have gotten burned out and should have retired a few years ago. I hope I have the sense to realize that and get out.
However, I've seen something lacking in a lot of the alternative certification program teachers.
One is an attitude towards staff development. Now, I don't like wasteful staff development, and I'll admit that some of the TAG stuff I've done (including the day I had to do in November) can be a waste of time. That was due to one factor – the instructor's attitude, she was hoping we would get out at noon, and of course we didn't. She treated it as a requirement that had to be done, and so did most of the participants.
However, you'll also see that I sign up for as much staff development as possible, especially if it pays me (the two trips I took last summer, one was free and got me in an area of the country I hadn't been, and the other not only let me travel but paid me).
I also try to participate in the staff development as much as possible. Sometimes people do things that set me off, usually fellow participants, but I do try to participate. I also often find that if I step outside and observe, rather than participate I get more out of it. When I do, I'm trying to see why the activity is working or why it isn't.
The other part that I see lacking in a lot of alternative certification teachers, is a lack of respect for legalities and other "outside the classroom" requirements. I've always found that any documentation I do helps me in the end. I even had a bad attitude towards lesson plans which I first started out, which changed dramatically after we had a loss inthe family and I found that I would have to be out of town for several weeks. I gained a new respect for lesson plans after I learned to do them in advance, rather than "weekly". Let me tell you, having everything completely planned out well in advance is a time saver, not a hassle. Of course it is better yet, if someone else did the work — Or if I get paid to do it for everyone else — which is what happens now.
Oh, and the biggest reason I went the traditional route — job security!
At the time I got hired on with Dallas, they had a surplus of teachers, just not Computer Science teachers, in fact, when I first applied they wanted to hire me on with an emergency certificate. I'm really glad I didn't because I would have been the first to go, which would have been hard to be hired, then fired almost immediately (about 6 weeks later). It wouldn't have mattered that they couldn't fill the position, in fact, they never did and I ended up with a better one. 20 minute drive versus 1 hour drive, school that has managed to work NCLB in the best way possible — we're off NCLB long enough to get extra pay but then back on NCLB so we don't get reconstitued and that school has been reconstituded.
It has hurt me to be hired when I was, as if you look at our pay rates, my group is paid the least for the amount of time we've put in. The master's helped in that pay differential and since the distrct paid for most of that Master's degree, it's been good. However, I still have the job security behind me. We lost of lot of alternative certification teachers — most who were still in the middle of their programs.
Oh, and then there's the alternative certification teacher who left my school to go to another local district — he was having inappropriate contact with students at my school and then ended up going to jail for it.
Not saying that traditionally certification teachers haven't done that and won't in the future, but….