Building English Language Capacity for Armenian Students and Teachers

The Armenian office of PH International (https://www.ph-int.org) is announcing a nation-wide competition for recruiting 20 Armenian in-service teachers of English interested in having an experienced educational mentor and in participating in a professional development training on effective uses of ICT tools in teaching English.

This initiative is implemented within PHI’s 4-year (2019-2023) “Building English Language Capacity for Armenian Students and Teachers” (BELCAST) program funded by the U.S. government.

 

PLANNED ACTIVITIES FOR SELECTED TEACHERS

All details regarding this initiative and the process of participant selection are provided below.

ACTIVITY I: A 5-day “Usage of ICT in Teaching English” training in Yerevan (conditionally end of June/mid July 2022)

As the 1^st training activity of this “Educational Mentorship and ICT Skills Enhancement” initiative, the selected 20 teachers will participate in a 5-day training on the “Usage of ICT in Teaching English” led by 2 TEFL specialists, 2 ICT specialists joined by 10 trained mentor teachers of English. The training sessions, led by the 10 mentors, demonstrating effective usage of ICT tools during a lesson delivery, will be supervised and supported by the 4 expert trainers mentioned above. The training will be held in Yerevan and will cover many essential TEFL themes as well as key ICT tools supporting the educational context.

The training will be comprised of 2 parts:

1. The first part (first 3 days) will be led by the 4 hired experts (2 TEFL and 2 ICT specialists) who will introduce to the trainees a wide range of ICT resources that can easily and effectively be used for teaching English, and the technical skills associated with their usage.    
2. The second part (last 2 days) will be led by the 10 mentors who will conduct with their trainees mini English lessons based on the lesson plans developed by them which best illustrate the effective incorporation of ICTs in the educational context. These demo lessons will then be followed by discussions emphasizing the strengths, advantages as well as possible challenges of ICT-enhanced teaching.

After the training, an online meeting will take place with the mentors and mentees: during this meeting the mentees will be informed who their mentor will be and how they will support them throughout the academic year of 2022-2023.

The timing for this activity is conditionally planned for the end of June/mid July 2022 but it will be finalized in agreement with the U.S. Embassy and all the selected mentees will additionally be informed of the exact dates of the event.

ACTIVITY II: Regional Workshops for the Counterpart Teachers (conditionally September-December, 2022)

After the abovementioned 5-day summer training,  the 30 mentee teachers (20 newly recruited and the 10 other teachers already recruited during the Program’s 1^st Cycle) will be asked to utilize a number of English lessons available on the Programs’ online platform (https://belcast.ph-int.org/), and throughout September-December, 2022 will cooperate with their school’s principals and colleagues to plan and organize an up to 3-hour event/regional workshop in their schools for their counterpart teachers presenting the participants the effective incorporation of ICT resources in teaching. Each teacher will be requested to reach out to at least 5 other teachers (from their school or from neighboring schools) and share their ICT-in-Education knowledge with their colleagues. They will be requested to closely work with their mentors in the planning and organization of this event: the mentors will attend the trainings to provide support as well as feedback on the strengths and areas for improvement in terms of the participant group management and delivery of the material by the mentees.

ACTIVITY III: Lesson Observations by Mentors (conditionally January-June, 2023)

In addition to the regional workshops, within the mentorship initiative, throughout January-June, 2023, the pairs of mentors and mentees will intensively communicate with one another and the principals of the mentee teachers’ schools to develop a tentative schedule of lesson observations to submit it for PHI’s approval. Based on the approved schedule, each of the 10 mentor teachers will observe at least 2 lessons per mentee (online or in person) to enhance their ICT skills, promote the usage of ICT in education process, and provide feedback and support as needed.

 

WHO CAN APPLY

To apply to this mentoring and professional development initiative, the interested candidates should have the following professional and personal qualifications, skills and arrangements:

• Should be Armenian citizens, currently living in Armenia and having no plans to leave the country throughout the duration of the Program,
• Currently be employed as an English teacher in school or an English trainer in an educational institution/program in Armenia (including Yerevan); teachers working in public schools are preferred applicants.
• Their school principal’s agreement on the applicant teacher’s involvement in all activities of this initiative (5-day in person training, planning and organizing workshops for their counterpart teachers from their school or from neighboring schools, regular online and offline interactions with their mentee teachers, lesson observations by the mentor teachers at their schools/institutions or via Zoom platform),
• At least three years of experience of teaching English in school/s or educational institutions in Armenia or internationally,
• History of previous participation in professional development trainings or in other programs that promoted the applicant’s personal growth will be a plus,
• Good ICT skills; Internet computer devices and good connection at home or at school,
• Sense of responsibility, proven leadership and teamwork skills,
• Excellent problem solving and communication skills,
• Excellent organizational skills, ability to effectively work under pressure and in new environments,
• Agreements and arrangements with family members as well as general ability to be away from family for the 5 days of the training as well as for future possible meetings within the project.  

 

SELECTION OF 20 TEACHERS

A group of 20 in-service teachers will be shortlisted for this initiative through the below described 2 phases of the selection process:

PHASE 1:

All applicants need to submit an application package to Nune Amiryan, the Program Manager, at nune.amiryan@ph-int.org no later than by May 16, 2022, 6:00 pm, Armenia Standard Time (GMT+4).

 

The application package consists of the following documents which can be downloaded from PHI website at  https://www.ph-int.org/BELCAST/:

1. Properly completed “Application Form”,
2. Their latest updated CV in English (no longer than 3 pages, acceptable only in MS Word and PDF versions),
3. Properly completed “Applicant’s School Endorsement Form” signed by the Principal of the school where the applicant is employed. The applicant teachers should present to their school principals the Armenian translation of the “Planned Activities for the Selected Teachers” section of this announcement so that before signing this endorsement form, the principals are in detail informed of the envisaged activities.

PHASE 2:

Based on the results of the application review and assessment, the shortlisted candidates will be invited to participate in an interview with the selection panel. The interviews with regional candidates will be arranged via Zoom; the candidates from Yerevan may be interviewed in PHI’s Yerevan office.

All applicants will be notified of the selection results my mid-June. The 20 finalists will afterwards be informed of the 5-day training schedule and other details.   

QUESTIONS & SUPPORT

For additional clarifications interested candidates should contact:

Nune Amiryan

Manager of “Building English Language Capacity for Armenian Students and Teachers” (BELCAST) Program

Email: nune.amiryan@ph-int.org

Cell phone: (+374 93) 42-24-31 (Monday-Friday, 9:30-18:30)

Web Site: https://belcast.ph-int.org