About this role
Support Secondary Teachers through English Methodology Trainings
Description: Two government organizations in Ukraine work to support and promote effective English Language teaching and learning across the educational communities in their regions. They aim to create a respectful caring environment that values all perspectives, experiences, and contributions, where teachers can engage and learn through meaningful communication and find emotional and psychological support during the war. They provide teacher training courses for teachers in regional schools to pass certification successfully. Teachers strive to support students’ personal and professional growth developing their soft skills, problem solving, critical and analytical thinking, leadership, and social cooperation. During the war, the number of teachers and students increased in the region because many of them had to flee to find a safer place in the western part of the country. There are a lot of intentionally displaced families hosted here.
Through participation in the TEFL Virtual Service Pilot (VSP) project, education partners from both organizations intend to support English teachers from village and small-town schools by providing an opportunity to communicate with native speakers, while improving their conversational skills and developing a communicative approach to teaching. Together with its partners, VSPPs will co-develop and co-plan interactive training sessions on various topics for conversation, as well as promote the study of new approaches to teaching conversational language. The partners hope that by cooperating with VSPPs, they will attract more English teachers remotely for intercultural exchange and an enriched understanding of American life and traditions.
One of the organizations has previously collaborated with the Peace Corps, including with the Virtual Service Pilot. One of the organizations is collaborating with the Peace Corps for the first time through this engagement. Both organizations understand that the role of a VSPP is very different than a Peace Corps Volunteer or Peace Corps Response Volunteer.
Desired Qualifications: Education: Master's degree in secondary education and relevant certification: TEFL, TESOL, Cambridge, or similar
Experience: • Virtual engagement and communication • 2 years training secondary school teachers • Participation in communities of practice related to secondary school education • Developing teaching resources
Required Skills: Education: Bachelor’s degree in education
Experience: • 2 years of teaching secondary school • Facilitating/conducting online lessons • Strong communication skills
Intercultural skills and motivation: Flexible, strong cross-cultural agility, high tolerance for ambiguity, able to work independently, resourceful, creative, and genuinely motivated and capable to serve virtually
Host Country Partner’s Mission and Goals: The Zakarpattia Institute of Postgraduate Pedagogical Education’s mission is to provide in-service education support and training for the area schoolteachers and introduce current approaches and methods into classroom teaching and help teachers to cope with the war challenges they currently face. The institute provides regular courses for teachers and conducts webinars and training on different topics in line with the Ministry of Education reforms. The institute also facilitates Olympiads for the students and prepares them to take tests and encourages them to participate in different competitions.
More information can be found on their website: https://zakinppo.org.ua
The Varash Town Council of Rivne Region promotes the professional development of teaching staff. The Centre for Professional Development for Teachers provides teachers with professional training, psychological support and counselling. The main tasks of the center are to summarize and disseminate information about the professional development of teachers, coordinate the activities of professional communities, create a database for the professional development, provide psychological support, advise on planning professional development, organize and conduct supervision, create documents for educational institutions, familiarize teachers with the specifics of organizing the educational process online, and introduce an inclusive approach to teaching and using modern technologies. The Centre for Professional Development of Teaching Staff is in Varash of Rivne Region, is located near the Rivne Nuclear Power Plant and thus schools in Varash did not have opportunity to cooperate with PC in the past. VSP is the only option for teachers to connect and benefit from PC professional support and cultural exchange.
More information is available on their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/VarashCPRPP
Virtual Service Engagement and Tasks: The VSPPs will engage in the following tasks, in collaboration with their host country partners:
• Co-facilitate an initial meeting with partner teachers to assess their priorities and interests • Co-plan and co-design 90-minute biweekly methodological sessions relevant to the needs and interests of English Language teachers on teaching approaches, modern techniques, raising students’ motivation, formative and summative assessment, teaching in difficult times, remote teaching and learning, etc. • Co-teach biweekly 90-minute virtual English as a Foreign Language (EFL) session to groups of 10–15 teachers • Co-develop at least 10–15 session outlines with relevant resources in cooperation with Ukrainian counterparts while preparing for virtual meetings (approximately 2–3 hours weekly) and share with teachers
VSPPs are expected to engage in the tasks listed above for an estimated 5–15 hours per week. This engagement is estimated to be 5–8 hours per week.
Online collaboration will generally occur between 3:00 p.m.–6:00 p.m. Ukrainian time. Specific times will be determined during orientation.
The Host Country Counterpart will have access to WhatsApp, Zoom, and email for regular communication and collaboration.
Per the Child Protection Code of Conduct, when engaging online with minors (0–18), two adults must be present.