Professional Development for English Access Microscholarship and Other Educators

The Public Affairs Section (PAS), U.S. Embassy, Guatemala City, is interested in collaborating with Access implementing partners in good standing to develop, implement, and evaluate an Access professional development project that equips Access teachers and other teachers that are part of the larger Access program community (namely former Access teachers and English teachers at schools from which Access students are recruited) with task-based, communicative learning approaches and learn service-learning appropriate pedagogical skills. The project consists of three components: 1. Teacher Training Sessions (TTS) is English teacher training for in-service English school teachers. Via online instruction participants develop awareness of, and appreciation for, task-based, communicative learning approaches and learn service-learning appropriate pedagogical skills. TTS provides top-notch teaching tools to Guatemalan English teachers to achieve better results in their classrooms and improve the learning process for hundreds of students. TTS is facilitated by internationally certified teacher trainers. Participants receive synchronous on-line instruction, can access asynchronous instruction on the https://teachinghelp.net/ platform, and participate as part of viewing groups in the AE MOOCs. TTS participants are encouraged to participate in the OPEN programs and receive the support of TTS trainers if they are selected to participate. 2. The Teacher Assistant Certificate (TAC) program aims to provide pre-service and in-service English teachers with a solid foundation to carry out assistant teacher duties through work focused on language for class development, exposure to standard teaching principles, and application of effective lesson planning and delivery frameworks. 3. The TESOL Best Practices (TESOL BP) program, guided by World Learning trainers, helps participants enhance their abilities to deliver effective EFL instruction entirely in English with greater confidence and skill and to articulate their understanding of what helps and hinders learning in a learning-centered, communicative English language classroom. By the end of the course, participants can explain and apply principles and theories underlying effective lesson planning and teaching in learning-centered communicative classrooms and demonstrate an initial level ability to reflect on the effectiveness of their own and other’s teaching with improved skills of description, analysis, hypothesis, and planning for future lessons.