Internships

Interested educators: We are accepting applications for our 2025-26 intern weeks: March 31-April 3, 2025 (Grades 5-8); April 7-10, 2025 (Grades Pre-K--4); Sept. 29-Oct.2, 2025 (Grades 5-8); Oct. 20-23, 2025 (Grades Pre-K--4); March 30-April 2, 2026 (Grades 5-8); and April 6-9, 2026 (Grades Pre-K--4). Apply today using CTL's internship application.

Please contact internship@c-t-l.org with any questions or to request a PDF of the application.

CTL's Internship Program

• Teachers spend four days, Monday-Thursday, at the school and immerse themselves in CTL’s schedule, organization, curricula, 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.
• The cost to each interning teacher is $950, payable in full no later than six weeks in advance of the first day of the internship.
• CTL teachers review applications and select the intern teams together in early August. Our main criteria is compatibility of a teacher’s vision and sense of purpose with those of CTL.
• Priority application deadline is August 1. However, applications are reviewed on a rolling basis and will be considered if space is available.
• CTL is located approximately an hour north of Portland, Maine. We recommend local accommodations Cod Cove Inn or Sheepscot Harbour Village Resort.  Interns should anticipate that they will require a car during their stay in Edgecomb. CTL can assist you with lodging or car rental arrangements.

CTL is a demonstration school for teachers from around the world. The faculty has drawn on theory and research, including our own, to show how Pre-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.

Instruction in writing, reading, and math is organized as a workshop, which combines whole-group instruction, via minilessons, with conferences with individuals about their independent efforts. We believe such an approach has intrinsic value, transfers readily to life beyond school, engages students, and motivates them to sustain the work of learning. CTL’s philosophy and methods invite other 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. We believe key elements of the CTL program provide a realistic alternative for teachers seeking more effective models for teaching and being with children and collaborating with colleagues.

CTL has hosted interns from 40 states...

and 10 countries!

The intern program serves classroom teachers of grades Pre-K--8 interested in learning more about teaching writing and reading at any grade level, with rich opportunities to observe and confer with CTL teachers about literacy instruction. Participants learn about writing and reading minilessons, conferences, spelling instruction, age-appropriate literature and poetry, and approaches to recordkeeping and evaluation. Visiting teachers can anticipate interning alongside other 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.

The Intern Program: Who Benefits and How

CTL Teachers…

• Examine their own teaching practice
• Broaden their impact as an educator
• Are able to elevate their practice by presenting to others
• Deepen their commitment to the rationale for their teaching methods
• Bond as faculty while they collaborate to teach others
• Stay up-to-date on current professional development and research
• Form mentoring and collaborative relationships with teachers both during and after their time in Edgecomb

CTL Students…

• See grown-ups as lifelong learners
• Take pride in themselves as students
• Gain perspective on their own education
• Feel proud of CTL and their own role as a teacher and learner here
• Meet visitors from around the country–and world

Visiting Teacher-Interns…

• Learn about writing and reading minilessons, conferences, spelling instruction, age-appropriate literature and poetry, and approaches to recordkeeping and evaluation 
• Have rich opportunities to observe and confer
• Are mentored all week long by CTL teachers and have an opportunity to ask every question
• See how CTL teachers collaborate as colleagues
• Return with resources to put to use in their classrooms: forms, evaluations, minilessons, syllabi
• Experience a week-long period of reflection and immersion (vs. a seminar or conference session)
• Connect with other teachers in their cohort
• Prepare to act on what they have learned and make substantive changes in their own classrooms

The Students of Visiting Teacher-Interns…

• Experience the benefits of CTL’s strong systems in their own classrooms
• Are able to experience choice, rigor, and authentic learning as writers and readers
• See their teacher as a life-long learner