Clarity of progression and excellent administrative support
I signed up for iTeach to obtain my professional certification in Florida. It would be an extreme understatement to say that the certification process was NOT clearly explained by my school district and this led to an extreme time crunch when it came to completing all of my professional preparation coursework and field experience requirements. One aspect of iTeach that I found extremely helpful was how they laid out the certification steps and requirements on their candidate landing page. This made it exceedingly clear what requirements or coursework needed to be met before progressing to the next stage of the process and iTeach helpfully checks off each item as they are completed. Also noteworthy is that you can complete the assigned coursework at your own pace and you can progress in courses while waiting for previous assignments to be graded. On only one occasion did I have an iTeach instructor not grade an assignment within the 48 hour window expectation. Far more frequently, instructors graded my assignments the same day I completed them, including one instructor who would routinely grade assignments within hours, even when I submitted after midnight. I also want to shout out Mr. Silvio Delgado, the director of iTeach Florida, for his hands on work and involvement in the program. As a special education and social studies teacher, my certification situation had some unique difficulties that caused some confusion with the certification and field experience process. When I reached out to iTeach over Winter break with some concerns, Mr. Delgado called me directly, on a weekend, to explain the process and requirements in detail. During my field experience, Mr. Delgado took the initiative to reach out to my assigned observer to explain the time constraints I was under to complete my certification, and at multiple other points throughout my time in the program, Mr. Delgado personally reached out to the Florida Department of Education to request clarification on my behalf, as it was literally not possible for me to get a straight answer from the state. I highly recommend iTeach to prospective candidates.