Training and Support
Training
The Blue Engine fellowship begins each year with an intensive, three-week training institute in New York City that will help fellows acquire the skills needed to become effective tutors in an urban high school setting.
- The training period is intensive– eight hours per day for three weeks immediately preceding the start of the school year.
- The institute focuses on core principles of instructional leadership including: goal setting, baseline measurements, behavior management, benchmarking, differentiated instruction, problem solving, and tracking towards mastery.
- Structured opportunities will be provided for corps members to observe effective tutorials in action and gain firsthand practice leading tutorials on their own.
- Fellows will also learn about the New York City school system, their partner school community, and the practical dimensions of the fellowship year including transportation, budget, and a comprehensive benefits review.
We recommend that Fellows make housing arrangements and move to New York City by August 1st, 2010.
Housing stipends are not part of the Blue Engine fellowship, although resources will be provided throughout the late spring and summer for Fellows to connect with each other, find roommates, and secure housing in the city.
Read more about how to live on a stipend in New York.
Support
Blue Engine Fellows will be provided with strong professional supports during their entire year of service Throughout the recruitment, selection, training, and fellowship phases of each program year, Blue Engine provides Fellows with the resources that will help them develop the instructional and leadership skills they will need to succeed. There is no more powerful motivator than results, and we have designed our support structures accordingly.
Each partner high school has a full-time Blue Engine school director—a top-notch professional with classroom experience whose sole purpose is to ensure that Fellows have the instructional supports they need to become highly effective instructional leaders. School directors are often former teachers themselves with strong records of performance in schools serving low-income communities. Their role is to:
- Conduct observations
- Provide feedback
- Train fellows in the use of proven, data-driven strategies to improve student learning
- Work closely with teachers and principals to find solutions to the inevitable problems that will arise, providing a constant bridge between Fellows activities and the administration at our partner schools.
Blue Engine’s support structures provide opportunities for Fellows to:
- Increase technical skills, including the ability to create long-term plans, assess student progress, implement age-appropriate methods, invest students in their success, and translate lesson plans into effective, differentiated instruction.
- Enhance awareness of the local school context, learn about the challenges that students confront daily and how to address those challenges appropriately, and recognize the importance of respect and open dialogue in a diverse cultural setting.
- Build professional capacity in a workplace setting, including taking collective responsibility for the outcomes of the fellowship team, managing conflict situations, implementing engaging after-school projects, accepting constructive feedback, and adopting successful work habits.
- Develop career awareness, including a better understanding of graduate school and social-impact career options, discerning career interests, building strategic relationships and transferable skills, clearly documenting the achievements of the fellowship term, and preparing for the transition beyond the Blue Engine fellowship year.
