A new group of World Teach Volunteers are now going through teaching and cultural orientation before the opening of public schools in two weeks.
Acting director of education Fa’auifono Vaitautolu says about 22 teachers are in the latest group from the Us organization that sends out teacher volunteers to work in underserved communities.
DOE has emphasized in its teacher recruitment , educators for hard to fill core content areas such as math, science, English as well as the trades.
The new crop of World Teach volunteers are newly graduated university students with Bachelors and Masters degrees, and a few have passed their Praxis I and II exams.
The new volunteers who arrive Monday of last week are going through an orientation program which includes instruction on classroom management, writing up lesson plans, teacher student interaction in a Samoan setting and some basic lessons in the Samoan culture.
The instructors will be farmed out to Manu’a, Aunu’u and Tutuila high schools and elementary schools after the DOE assembly and orientation week which begins Monday.
Since DOE started hiring World Teach volunteers five years ago, American Samoa has become a popular assignment for the volunteers.
Some stay on after their one year contract, to work as regular contract employees of DOE.
At least two have married and settled in the territory.
