Pros
I loved working with the teachers and students here! If you have energy and persistence, you can grow your own program to innovate and inspire. Many of the other teachers and some administrators have advanced degrees and are interested in best practices for project-based learning, fostering critical thinking and group work. The classes are smaller than in many public schools, so you can work closely with your students and customize their lessons. The students are from all over the world, and bring diverse cultural perspectives to the school. It was really a pleasure to teach them.
Cons
The teaching days are very long--often you stay to help students or for clubs and activities. A typical day is 7:30 AM to 5:00 or 6:00 PM. There is never enough time for everything you want to do. This is common for most classroom teaching and not unique to CATS Academy. I describe it like drinking from a fire hose. The biggest challenge was the budget--while often it is very generous, every once in a while the administration will decide to freeze spending and hiring. This can be very stressful for academic departments building programs and trying to get new teaching talent. This environment also created a general lack of consistency and contributed to the disorganization and high turn over the school suffers from.
