Ongoing Coaching & Professional Development
Before COVID-19 , Teach For Armenia successfully finalized and launched its Kochari . As such , we spent the initial months of the year engaging in discussion with our Teacher- Leaders around our new Theory of Leadership and Our 2050 Promise . Then , due to the onset of COVID-19 and conflict , we shifted our attention to emergency response efforts while maintaining a focus on leadership development .
Scan to Learn More : Teach For Armenia ’ s Kochari .
Scan to Learn More : End the Digital Divide .
Scan to Learn More : Podcast with Lusine Aghabekyan .
In March , schools shut down because of the pandemic and students were sent home to learn remotely . All subsequent programming and activities were shifted online . In the process of creating a contingency plan for our Leadership Development Program , we discovered that a quarter of our students did not have access to technology and the internet in order to learn remotely . In response , Teach For Armenia launched a campaign to End the Digital Divide so that we could equip our students with the technology necessary to stay connected . In total , we purchased 3,460 Lenovo tablets for students in Armenia and Artsakh between the onset of the pandemic and the end of the fiscal year .
Concurrently , the Program Team supported our Teacher-Leaders to find new ways to keep our students engaged . For example , Teach-Leaders conducted classes by phone and created a bank of digital resources with e-lessons and tutorials to be shared among peers . Our team also facilitated a collaboration with the National Center of Education Technologies of Armenia to record e-lessons . Alumni-Ambassador Ani Mkrtchyan and fifth generation Teacher-Leader Anush Amirbekyan were selected to develop lessons for their e-school platform that were broadcast across Armenia on public television . The e-school platform has grown to include content by 17 of our Alumni-Ambassadors .
In October , we then launched an emergency response to the conflict unfolding in the region . Our methodological priorities centered on trauma-informed teaching practices and social-emotional learning . The training sessions were designed and facilitated by Learning Development Manager and psychologist Lusine Vardumyan as well as psychologist Lusine Aghabekyan . At one of two of our full cohort convenings in 2020 , the Armenian American Association of School Psychologists provided a virtual deep dive into trauma-informed teaching practices , social-emotional learning , self-regulation , stress management , and integrating refugee students into schools . After the event , 90 % of participants rated this webinar as productive or very productive .
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