Miami Teaching Fellows interview??

Dulcie Edis: I want to teach K-6th. My interview is on 5/10.

Phillip Modafferi: Ok, here we go :} 1/ My MC swears. I can't censor her, but I realised I made her swear a few times more than I should have. So I deleted about half her F words (she only had like 3 or 4 but it lowered their impacts, so now there's only two left). When does your character swear and why? She doesn't really swear, but the few times she does it's in a battle when she or someone is about to get killed or when she's taken my surprise. My secondary character, Farren, swears a lot. Well, not a lot, but alot for me to write. He does it when he's mad, or sometimes when he's flirting. 2/ I made myself cringe seeing the number of phrases I overused in this one WIP. My worst two "I realise that" and "now" at the end of a sentence. What made you cringe when you re-read yourself? I don't really have enough written to know which phrases I overuse :( 3/ Tell me about something you've learnt as a young/am! ateur writer and that now seems obvious. For me it is the use of adverbs. It never occurred to me there was anything wrong with that until people explained why to me on here. Now I can't read anything without cringing whenever I see adverbs (cringe, another word I overused in my WIP). See, I still don;t get what's totally wrong with adverbs- I think they're ok some of the time. I mean, it's in our english language, so we should use them occasionally right? Detail is something that I see now. I used to think people were crazy when they added so much detail to something, but now I can totally see the difference between a non detailed paragraph and a detailed one- and it makes all the difference in the world. 4/ I'm a French speaker originally and one thing I love about the English language is how much freer it is . I may be going overboard with it though. A thing I love is to reassign the use of some words (though I find that works better in poetry than fiction). For example ! I have very much enjoyed using "spasm" as a verb in my latest ! work. That sounds fascinating to French little me, but probably would make English speakers... you guessed it... cringe. So I'm probably gonna have to delete it. When is it appropriate to take liberties with words by inventing or reassigning their uses or voluntarily hurting grammar, syntax and punctuation? Give me one example from your own work. Erm... Oh God, I don't know. People do it, so it's probably fine. Just don't do it too often, just every once in a while. 5/ I've spent a lot of time deleting adverbs, given that WIP was written before I was on B&A. But when is it appropriate to keep a -ly adverb? Give me an example. I've kept this one: "She only pauses for a moment" since deleting "only" would change the meaning altogether and I can't think of how to rephrase it. It's a pretty straight forward and simple sentence, so meh? *looks at question 3 answer* 6/ What about contractions? When do you say "I am" and when do you say "I'm"? I feel a little awkward because I'm i! n first person and I tend to contract in first person, but when I re-read it, it sounds awkward at times and write at others but I can't tell why there should be a difference between these times. It depends. I'm writing 3rd person, so the only time I use things like "I am" is during dialogue. So, it depends on who's saying it and where they're from. My Princes and Princesses, they say "I am, Can not, Do Not" etc. while my non royal (or non royal raised) characters will use the slang contractions....Show more

Georgia Dees: This Site Might Help You.RE:Miami Teaching Fellows interview??I applied with the Miami Teaching Fellows and I have an interview in about two weeks…. Does anyone know what I should expect? Has anyone been hire thru the Miami Teaching Fellows?Thanks...Show more

Logan Bero: So do I (the 17th). Check the city-data.com forums there are some discussions about teaching in Miami. When is your interview?

Clemmie Burkleo: I have an interview wit! h Miami Teaching Fellows also. From the way the it's described in the p! acket, it will be almost exactly like the Teach For America interview. It will be a day long interview with a sample teaching lesson at the beginning, a writing exercise, a group exercise, an information session with MTF alumni or current fellows, and a one-on-one interview at the end of the day. I interviewed with TFA a few months ago, I wasn't accepted, but one of the best pieces of advice I could give you for this one would be to read your articles and focus on things that stand out to you as they relate to improving education because they will likely be the subject of your written/group exercise, pick a sample lesson that does not require a lot of set up/preparation because you will only have one minute to set up, try to make it interactive with a clear objective that can be reached in 5 minues, and make sure you practice it with your friends before hand so that you can make sure it doesn't go over the time limit, when I did TFA, they kept time for us during the sampl! e lesson part, but you might want to wear a watch or something so that you can be sure that you are on track. During the interview make sure you emphasize your commitment to teaching and closing the acheivement gap in Miami. What grade level/subject are you going to be teaching? I'm supposed to teach Middle School English....Show more