Succeeding as a new teacher in any context is extraordinarily challenging, but you will not face this challenge alone. Before they start teaching, all corps members will take part in a pre-teaching summer training at the TfR Leadership Academy, followed by ongoing coaching and professional development throughout their two years of teaching.
Vision for training
Teach for Romania’s vision for training is directly linked to its overall mission and theory of change. As such, the guiding principles for our training program are:
• Maximizing teacher effectiveness to show significant, measurable gains in student achievement; and
• Developing leadership capacities in our Fellows to enable them to effect long-term, systemic change.
The Skills
The key to success as a teacher is strong leadership. The training will help our Fellows develop the knowledge and skills crucial for becoming successful teachers and leaders, abilities that are highly transferrable to any fields such as policy, business, management, journalism and education itself:
Analytical thinking – Our teachers develop their ability to analyze and synthesize information, manage challenging situations, seek solutions, and clearly communicate their decisions.
Effective communication – Our teachers learn how to work effectively with various groups of people and develop strong presentation skills.
Management and teamwork – Our teachers learn how to solve conflicts, how to motivate people, and how to effectively manage time, people and resources.
Teaching skills – Our teachers learn how to build a vision for success, to plan their work with students throughout the year, and to build a strong classroom culture.
How it works
The Leadership Academy will be organized in Bucharest during July and August and will bring together experts in their fields, such as leaders from the private sector, top Romanian teachers and alumni from other Teach For All programs, in an intensive leadership and pedagogical training. The Academy will combine theory with the practical application of concepts by encouraging and supporting Fellows to actually teach in classrooms for four weeks of summer school.
During the Academy all corps members will be housed together in accommodations provided by Teach for Romania to facilitate the learning process, give fellows the opportunity to get to know each other and to encourage them to share experiences.
At the end of these six weeks, corps members will have developed the knowledge, skills, and mindsets required to be effective beginning teachers and make an immediate impact on students. They will have also built relationships that will support them throughout their corps experience.