Volunteers in the English Education Project will support Moldovan teachers, students and community members to strengthen their personal and professional capacities by improving English language teaching and learning, developing capacity for critical thinking, and supporting school and community-driven initiatives. This is a full-time, in-class, formal team-teaching position, requiring daily classroom instruction. Instruction will be implemented with a partner teacher and comply with the English teaching curriculum requirements of the Moldovan Ministry of Education.

Volunteers serving as English Education Teachers will team-teach with local teachers and implement a range of approaches to English language instruction, including using traditional TEFL methods, a conversational approach, and content-based courses in English in middle and high schools, to students of ages 11 to 18 (i.e., grades 4 to 12). They will develop lesson plans together with their Moldovan school English teaching colleagues, team-teach classes, enhance each other’s creativity, use individual strengths to complement each other, and learn how to share accountability for the quality of their team-taught lessons. The English Education Teacher’s teaching schedule will be from Monday to Friday.

In addition to classroom teaching, Volunteers will participate in professional growth activities, organize and involve English teachers in Teacher Communities of Practice, share resources, develop teaching materials with local teachers and become involved in community- and school-based projects. Volunteers will organize and run English Clubs, will undertake and implement a variety of extra-curricular activities such as Debate Clubs, health and environmental awareness activities, create and organize libraries, assist schools with using computers to help with teaching and learning, etc. In summer when school is not in session Volunteers continue with their extra-curricular activities, providing youth and community members with opportunities to gain new skills through local summer camps, courses for adults, etc.

Peace Corps Moldova Volunteers promote gender awareness, girls’ education and empowerment through their activities. Volunteers in this program will receive in-depth training on incorporating methods of gender analysis into education, community assessment and development efforts. Volunteers will be encouraged to find culturally appropriate ways to incorporate gender awareness and the promotion of youth, especially girls, into their work and projects.

Qualified candidates will have one or more of the following criteria:

• Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Science degree in any field (preference will be given to degrees in Education, or Language Acquisition or similar subjects) and
• A strong desire to teach English and readiness to learn foreign language acquisition methodology

Strong preference will be given to candidates with at least 30 hours of English, foreign language, or literacy tutoring experience with primary, middle, or high school students or adults.

Competitive candidates will also demonstrate any of the following desired qualifications and/or skills:

• Professional teaching experience of foreign language or literacy tutoring

• TESOL/ TEFL certificate
• Prior experience working within formulaic systems driven by curriculum or fairly rigid training content and schedule
• Experience working with youth
• A patient, positive, flexible, and professional approach to work and local culture.

There are no pre-requisite language requirements for this position.

This position has no language requirement but experience with Romance languages is beneficial for learning Romanian, the primary language taught in Moldova by Peace Corps Language Facilitators during Pre Service Training. Volunteers work closely with professional partners and other community members with limited or no English skills, so it is critical for Volunteers to have good Romanian language skills. Trainees must demonstrate Intermediate Low oral proficiency in Romanian Language at the end of the 10-week training period and continue to develop this ability throughout their service.

Volunteers may, on rare occasions, be placed in communities where Russian is the primary language. Those in this situation will receive training in Russian language but this will be in addition to, rather than instead of, Romanian language instruction.

Housing:
Host family accommodations provide a safe private room, food, access to laundry, land-line telephone, access to transportation and sometimes internet (for an additional fee). Host family stays are required during the 3-month Pre-Service Training period and for an additional 3 months in site after training (total of 6 months). A majority of Volunteers live with a host family for the full duration of their service but they may also seek private accommodations after the required 6 months, if alternate lodging arrangements are available (unlikely, given rural sites). Regardless of housing options, Volunteers usually form close relationships with their host families.

Communications & Travel:
Some Volunteers will be placed in isolated sites where transportation may not run regularly and where they may be a significant distance away from other Volunteers and from the Peace Corps office in Chisinau. Internet access can be limited due to irregular power supply, poor telephone lines and limited Wi-Fi capabilities.

Professional Appearance:
Moldovan cultural expectations around professionalism include conservative attire and neat appearance. Long, untrimmed beards and mustaches, some hairstyles, and earrings for men are not accepted in Moldovan culture.

Climate:
The climate in Moldova is similar to New England, with four distinct seasons. Winter lasts from November to March and can be challenging. It can be quite cold and is characterized by heavy snowfalls.

Special Considerations:
Peace Corps is challenging regardless of where one might serve, and in some way or another all Volunteers will be a minority. As an ethnic minority they may face additional unwanted attention. Peace Corps Moldova’s Pre-Service Training will address these types of concerns to prepare Volunteers for service. Despite limited exposure to minorities, host families and counterparts are generally very accepting of diversity among Volunteers and close relationships are forged without any regard to ethnicity.

The Social Security Administration (SSA) has indicated that it will not continue Social Security payments to recipients who live in certain countries where Peace Corps serves (Georgia, Kyrgyz Republic, Moldova, and Ukraine) except under very specific procedures that require them to appear personally before a US Consular Officer each month. The Peace Corps program in each of these countries will work to find practical ways to help individual Volunteers who are SSA recipients to fulfill the SSA’s in-person requirements. However, due to the varied geography and Peace Corps’ commitment to site placement based on matching the skills of the Volunteer to the needs of the community, fulfilling SSA requirements will not always be feasible and cannot be guaranteed.

Couples can currently only be considered for service in Moldova if each member applies for different programs. Both members of a couple therefore cannot be considered for any single program (i.e. both English Education, both Health Education, or both Community Development). It is also not possible to consider a couple in an English Education-Health Education pairing.

While they must work in different sectors, couples will serve in the same community after their 10-week Pre-Service Training period. During their Pre-Service Training, however, couples will be separated to be hosted by different host families in different locations.

Once Volunteers move to their site of assignment, couples must be prepared to stay with a host family for the duration of their service. An independent living arrangement may exist, but the likelihood of this is quite limited (given rural sites). Volunteers serving as a couple will need to be particularly flexible and will be expected to accommodate to local living standards.