Pros
direct coaching, great fellow teachers (who are overworked)
Cons
This review is specific to Amistad Academy Middle School--not sure if all AF schools are this hellish. They expect you to put in 100+ hours per week and arrive to school with energy and a smile. And you are forced to give the children deductions for the smallest most ridiculous things. On an average day, more than half of my 5th graders were in detention for minimal misbehaviors (it's so easy to earn 4 deductions in the 5+ classes they have in a day and land in detention)! One of the fellow teachers was actually reprimanded for giving too many "credits" when she was trying to make her classroom a positive space by giving less deductions and more credits for positive behavior. The administration's lack of respect for their staff's personal time is also ridiculous! Emails and calendar invites coming in after midnight, calls on weekends: they have zero respect for what little personal time you are spared out of school. Then for new teachers, they made us stay AFTER SCHOOL to attend "culture club" where you basically practiced precise directions (even if you had precise directions down to a science already), expecting these "teacher moves" to magically solve the horrible school culture that is a direct result of the students' lack of respect for the deduction system. In my school alone, they lost 5 teachers in the first 3 months, and yet they changed none of the policies. Working at a place like this is neither healthy nor sustainable! Stay far, far away!