With Ministries of Education focusing on digital distance learning, resource gaps in education are larger than ever. Without our help, children living in extreme rural poverty will never recover from the COVID-19 extended school closures. This program trains teachers on remedial techniques to make sure that this global pandemic does not result in a decade of progress in education lost.
Teacher Training has always been a pillar in our Community School Program. However, with challenges brought on by COVID-19, we pivoted and developed a new course to focus on getting students caught up. There are two components to this innovation:
Our Virtual Course includes 5 2-hour Zoom sessions. These interactive trainings include but are not limited to: lessons on the impact of COVID-19 on learning, in-depth remedial teaching techniques and assessment processes, how to get students’ parents involved, how to incorporate digital resources into lessons and the important role teachers play in children’s futures throughout the pandemic and post-pandemic world.
Our In-Classroom Coaching Program furthers our Virtual Course by using teaching experts to observe and coach teachers on the importance of individualized classroom learning and simple test methodologies to assess learning loss and catch-up techniques to recover learning losses before delivering a new, more advanced, curriculum.
Our virtual program started with just teachers in our 107 communities. However, we quickly realized that since it is virtual and adaptable, it is scalable to not only all teachers in GUA and HON, but those in other developing countries as well. The Ministry of Education in both countries applauded the course and encouraged all teachers to enroll. Since May of 2020 we have trained over 2,200 teachers, just through this virtual course!
Starting in 2021, after each teacher has taken the virtual course, they will be visited by a teaching coach at least four times to observe and coach them on their overall classroom teaching techniques and individualized remedial techniques. We were not able to implement this program in 2020 since schools were closed, but we are excited to this year!
Through our alliance with the Ministry of Education, the Virtual Course is available for any teacher throughout Honduras and Guatemala. It is free and can be easily personalized per country or region.
