Spurred on by the recent changes in Eastern Europe, the Peace Corps is working to recruit U.S. English teachers who are interested in training their fellow teachers in Poland and Hungary.
Jon Keeton, director of international research and development for the Peace Corps in Washington, said the organization hopes to send 60 teachers to each country in June.
Poland, in particular, needs as many as 10,000 teachers of English, Mr. Keeton said, to meet the demands created by increased contact with the West. The Peace Corps volunteers assigned to that country will train Polish teachers in how to teach English as part of the effort to meet that demand.
Teachers accepted for the two-year assignments--which will also include teaching English to secondary students--will be provided with housing, a living allowance, transportation and medical costs, and a stipend of $200 a month.
No knowledge of a foreign language is necessary, Mr. Keeton said, but applicants should be experienced in teaching English as a second language, and have a record of academic excellence.
“These will be extraordinarily exciting places to teach in the coming year,” Mr. Keeton said. “People there are so hungry to learn English.”
The National Education Association has designated four more school districts as Learning Laboratories, doubling the number of these experimental sites.
In each district, educators are collaborating with their communities to develop programs to restructure and improve their schools.
Each of the new sites announced last month will receive a $5,000 grant to cover startup costs, as well as ongoing technical assistance from the national teachers’ union.
The new sites are Greece, N.Y.; Greensburg Salem, Pa.; Chickasha, Okla.; and Mendon, Mich. The first four Learning Laboratories--in Chaska, Minn.; Marshalltown, Iowa; Memphis; and Westerly, R.I.--were announced last July.
