shootingstarfromafar

I know that Teach for America is geared toward college grads and used as a stepping stone. I also have fixed feelings about TFA's mission and what their effect is on low-income schools.

However, I am in my 30's, and I have a bachelor's degree (not in education). Undergrad was a long time ago. After a few years of working in a cubicle, I now work as a preschool teacher's aide making very little money, but I love being in the classroom. I'm attending a great college taking the classes I need to get my licensure to teach PreK-3. But, it's going to take me another 2 years to get my license. I'm in the process of the first year of my licensure program for a total of 3 years.

I'm so anxious to get in the classroom. I just want my own class! I work with full-time lead teachers who are younger than me and have been teaching for 5+ years already. I just want to get started.

I was recently accepted into both Teach for America and The National Teaching Project. I had been planning to go the more "traditional" route of college, student teaching, and a license, but honestly, the fast track is looking pretty good right now. I'm also scared because my fellow teachers and my professors have all been telling me how impossible it is to find a teaching job, especially in early childhood (I live in Ohio). They all say that unless I work in special ed (which I already do, and I'm fine with) I don't stand a chance, but even then, it's unlikely. I also have lots of teacher friends who sub full time and can't even get an interview anywhere. So here's TFA, pretty much handing me a full-time, well-paid teaching job. (I should probably also mention that I'm dragging my husband and I down into serious debt working such a low-paying job - I can't keep doing it much longer from a financial standpoint.)

I'd like to think that I would be coming into the program with more experience and maturity than a 22-year-old, but I still don't want to be associated with the negative stereotype of a clueless TFA member who shows up and takes real teacher's jobs. I just want to be a real teacher with a class of my own! What should I do?