The Intern Program at CTL

The Center for Teaching and Learning opened its doors in 1990 as a non-profit demonstration school funded through foundation grants, tuitions, and donations. The student population includes eighty children of mixed abilities in classes of combined grades, K-8. The tuition is set purposely low—one-third that of other independent schools in the area—and each year we work hard to raise sufficient tuition assistance so that our student population closely resembles that of a typical Maine public elementary school.

CTL is also a demonstration school for teachers from across the U.S. and beyond. The faculty has drawn on current research, including our own, in order to show how K-8 schools might be restructured. The curriculum stresses real and original work: writing, research, computation and problem-solving, experiments, building, observation, data collection and analysis, the reading of exceptional children’s literature across the disciplines, and artistic, musical, and dramatic performance.

Daily instruction in writing, reading, and mathematics is organized as a workshop, that combines explicit instruction--via mini-lessons and conferences--with students’ independent activity. We believe that authentic activities such as these have intrinsic value, transfer readily to life beyond school, and motivate students to sustain the hard work that learning requires. We hope CTL’s philosophy and methods invite educators to look with new eyes at what is possible for their schools and students.

The intern program is an opportunity for us to demonstrate research-based methods in an environment we designed to match our intentions, beliefs, knowledge, and experience. Key elements of the CTL program can provide a realistic alternative for teachers seeking more effective models for teaching and being with children and collaborating with colleagues. CTL faculty have worked with interning teachers from Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Washington, D.C., Wisconsin, Canada, Ecuador, England, and India.

The CTL intern program serves classroom teachers of grades K-8 interested in learning more about teaching writing and reading at either the K-4 or 5-8 level, with opportunities to observe and confer with several CTL teachers about issues of literacy instruction. Participants will learn about writing and reading mini-lessons, conferences, spelling instruction, age-appropriate literature and poetry, and CTL’s approaches to recordkeeping and evaluation. Visiting teachers can anticipate interning alongside teachers from the same grade levels from schools throughout the U.S. and beyond our borders.

The internship program is structured to make it likely that visiting teachers will be able to act on what they have learned here and make substantive changes back home. We have established the following conditions for participation:

1. Only classroom teachers are invited to apply. We’re sorry that high school teachers, curriculum coordinators, special education teachers, teachers of the gifted and talented, teacher trainers, graduate students, librarians, Title I teachers, and administrators are not eligible. Internships are limited to K-8 classroom teachers because their firsthand experiences with children and investment in helping their own students will be most valuable in translating aspects of CTL’s program in other settings. In addition, since we operate without any of the personnel listed above, we can't offer specifics, in terms of guidance, insights, or answers, that these folks would seek.

2. Interested teachers submit an application (see below) that provides information about their teaching backgrounds. Note: Teachers from one school who are applying to travel to CTL together should submit their application forms together.

3. Teachers spend four days, Monday-Thursday, at the school and immerse themselves in the Center’s schedule, organization, curricula, and methods and theories of teaching. Interns observe instruction, record and reflect on their observations, and work with one another and our faculty; they do not teach CTL students. The focus is on examining the structures in place here and considering implications for back home.

4. The cost to each interning teacher is $800, payable in full no later than two weeks in advance of the first day of the internship.

CTL teachers review applications and select the intern teams together in late July. Our criteria include adherence to the guidelines established in this letter; completeness of the application; and compatibility of a teacher’s vision and sense of purpose with CTL’s program.

The deadline to apply for the 2008-2009 internships is July 15, 2008.

2008-09 internship application (PDF)

Applicants are notified of our decision on August 1; please don’t call the school before that date.

CTL is located approximately an hour north of Portland, Maine. Teachers who live at a distance and cannot commute daily can arrange to be accommodated locally at the Sheepscot Harbour Village and Resort (800-437-5503/207-882-6343). The resort offers rooms with continental breakfast and efficiency cottages (some with cooking facilities), as well as a restaurant that serves lunch and dinner. It is not within walking distance of the school, so interns should anticipate that they will require a car during their stay in Edgecomb. CTL will not be able to make lodging or car rental arrangements.