Excitement builds as TTT is about to expand in leaps and bounds… to the north!
With a new school year on the horizon, we reflect on how we have trained 1,100 teachers and school leaders over the past seven years. And now, we look forward with great anticipation as we will train about 50% more in this upcoming year because of our repurposed one-year program.
Looking forward, 600 Haitian teachers and school leaders will receive basic teacher training in six locations throughout Haiti over the next year. As we continue to train in Les Cayes alongside two of our partners (FEPH and RMI) in the southern part of the country, we are expanding to the northern part of Haiti as well. This is a new and welcomed adventure and possibility for exponential growth.
In our one-year program, there are 3 three-day seminars. One day of each seminar is devoted to school leaders. And then, school leaders attend the other two training days with their teachers. Roland Barth, a former educator, principal and retired member of the faculty of Harvard University is an advocate of effective school leadership. Author of seven books, he writes:
“The school leader, as head learner, engaging in the most important enterprise of school experiencing, displaying, modeling, and celebrating what it is hoped and expected that teachers and students will do.”
In our model of training, school leaders support professional growth and development in their teachers. Teachers learn the how to be more effective teachers through a better understanding of their role and how students learn. In a collaborative learning environment, participants gain knowledge while facilitators bridge what is learned to what can be tried in their classrooms. Secondly, school leaders also collaborate among other school leaders. TTT seminars create the opportunity for a web of professional relationships, where effective change is a possible outcome.
Accessible training throughout more locations in Haiti means that more school leaders grow as professionals, as a community. And, more teachers trained throughout the country means more students receive a quality education because they attend school with well trained teachers.
Beth is the President of Teaching Training Together, an organization based in Burlington, Massachusetts, that provides initial training through professional development seminars to underserved school leaders and teachers.