Frequently Asked Questions
• Will I receive college credit for the course?
• What is the cost of the program?
• Is financial aid available?
• What are critical needs areas and what does that mean for me?
• What is the GPA requirement for admission?
• What materials do I need to turn in to apply, and when are application materials due?
• When will I find out if I've been admitted?
• What does the online class cover? How much time will I have to spend per week on it?
• When and where do I do my sixty hours of observation?
• What will happen at the end of the first component
• What will happen at the end of the second component?
• What grades can I teach when I complete TMI?
• What are the minimum suggested specifications for student computers?
• How much will I be paid once I complete the entire alternate route program?
Teach Mississippi Institute: Frequently Asked Questions
1) Will I receive college
credit for the course?
No, students do not receive college credit
for the course.
2) What is the cost of the
program?
The cost of tuition for the first component, (TMI I)
the online class, is currently $795 which includes the
cost of text books. The tuition for the second component, (TMI II) is $1395. For TMI I, the tuition
will be due before orientation begins in order to guarantee
your admission to the program. For the second component,
the money is due based on a payment schedule, with all payments due by the end of TMI II.
3) Is financial aid available?
Click here for our scholarship page.
4) What are critical needs
areas and what does that mean for me?
The critical needs areas are math, sciences
like biology, chemistry, and physics, foreign languages
like French, Spanish, and German, and special education.
TMI students who choose to teach one of these subjects
are more likely to be accepted to the program and will
more easily find a job after the program ends.
5) What is the GPA requirement
for admission?
The GPA requirement for admission is 2.5 based
on a 4.0 scale. We will also consider students with
a GPA of 2.0 or above on a probationary basis.
6) What materials do I need
to turn in to apply, and when are application materials
due?
We need from you the application which you
can print off of our website, an official transcript
from the undergraduate school where you received your degree, and any official Praxis
I or II score reports that you have. You can request
old Praxis score reports from ETS, but because ETS can
not directly mail reports to us, they will need to be
sent to you, and then you mail them to us. Furthermore,
your application must include the $25 non-refundable
application fee, made payable to TMI
Application materials are due by
February 19, 2010.
7) When will I find out
if I've been admitted?
A few days after the application deadline,
we will email acceptance, conditional acceptance, and denial letters to
all students who turned in complete applications. Thus, it is important that the student
application indicates a working email address.
8) What does the online
class cover? How much time will I have to spend per
week on it?
The online class covers classroom instruction
and application in the fields of effective teaching
strategies, classroom management, state curriculum frameworks,
planning and instructional methodologies, and use of
testing as formative and summative evaluation tools.
During the course students will be required to participate
in online discussions and complete online quizzes.
Students should anticipate spending 6 to 8 hours on
the course every week. In addition to classroom instruction,
participants must spend 60 hours in a secondary school
setting, gaining hands-on supervised experience*. All
students in TMI I are required to attend
a one day orientation and a live seminar. More information will be provided on live
workshops upon acceptance to the program.
* This requirement is reduced to 30 hours for program participants who are concurrently teaching in a Mississippi Public School District or a MDE-accredited private school
9) When and where do I do
my sixty hours of observation?
The sixty hours of observation must be done
in a Mississippi school. You can observe any classroom
in grades 7 through 12 even if the subject area being
taught is not the subject area you wish to teach. This requirement is reduced to 30 hours for program participants who are concurrently teaching in a Mississippi Public School District or a MDE-accredited private school.
10) What will happen at
the end of the first component and at the end of the
second component?
Upon successful completion of the first component of the Institute, participants may apply to the Mississippi Department of Education for the One Year Alternate Route License, which is a non-renewable "special" License. The application is available at http://www.mde.k12.ms.us/ed_licensure/licensure_application.htm Before you apply for the One Year Alternate Route License please keep in mind that it is NOT valid for 365 days. It will only be valid from the date of issuance through June 30. Therefore, if you are issued a “One Year” Alternate Route License on June 1,2009 it will expire 30 days later on June 30, 2009. Alternately, if you are issued a “One Year” Alternate Route License on July 1, 2009 it will expire 365 days later on June 30, 2010.
After you complete the first component of the TMI online program you should seek employment in a Mississippi public school district or a MDE-accredited private school. Securing an appropriate teaching position is the responsibility of the participant, but the Institute will assist where possible. Click here to go to our Employment Resources web page.
Only students who have successfully completed the first component will be offered the opportunity to enroll in the second component of the Teach Mississippi Institute.
11) What will happen at the end of the
second component?
Only students who have successfully completed the first component will be offered the opportunity to enroll in the second component of the Teach Mississippi Institute. Students in the second component must be employed as teachers in a Mississippi public school district or a MDE-accredited private school.
Upon successful completion of the second component of the Institute, participants may apply to the Mississippi Department of Education for a standard, 5-year renewable Mississippi teacher's license. The application is available at http://www.mde.k12.ms.us/ed_licensure/licensure_application.htm
12) What grades can I
teach when I complete TMI?
Students who complete TMI are able to teach their
subject area in grades 7 though 12.
13) What are the minimum suggested specifications for student computers?
Click here.
14) How much will I be paid once I complete the entire alternate route program?
After obtaining the five-year license, teachers who complete the non-traditional route will be compensated at Step 3 of the required salary level. Please note that you should refer to the line that corresponds to 2 years of teaching experience on the MDE Teacher Salary Schedule. MS Code §§ 37-3-2 (6) (b) (viii)
Please refer to the most current Teacher Salary Schedule
on the MDE web-site for salary information.
