Teaching Internships – our “Coaches”
To staff our after-school maths classes, we recruit pre-service teachers(Coaches) from teacher training institutions in the areas where we operate. We specifically recruit Bachelor of Education (B.Ed) students as they have a vested interest in gaining classroom exposure. Our year-long teaching internships develop the next generation of teachers through maths content and pedagogy training, individualised mentorship, ongoing personal and professional development, and practical teaching experience.
Rigorous Recruitment and Training
The application process for teaching internships with Numeric is highly competitive, we receive ten applications for every intern invited to training. For the 2019 year, we received over 1000 applications for 80 available internship positions.
After recruiting the most motivated and enthusiastic coaches, we train them intensively for two weeks (80 hours) in a training boot-camp that is run in the first two weeks of December and is run on university campuses in Cape Town and Johannesburg. Students are trained in an intensive curriculum of maths content that they will be required to teach during the year, effective board work and presentation skills, classroom management, and learner engagement methods, and are provided with a variety of practical tools which support them in creating high-quality learning environments for their learners. We also use an online training platform called Khan Academy and interns are required to complete 150 competencies on that platform before they enter the classroom.
Mentorship
Each coach is mentored by one of Numeric’s dedicated program managers. Each program manager is responsible for 10 coaches and visits them in their classrooms regularly. Formal observations provide opportunities for feedback and ongoing development as well as individualised support. In addition to observations, program managers meet with their interns individually once each term to check in with them and provide informal support and feedback.
Ongoing Training and Development
Interns attend bi-weekly two-hour training workshops that provide ongoing training in content, pedagogy and classroom management. Interns are treated as professionals and are expected to engage actively in these training sessions.
In total our coaches receive 240 hours of development during their year-long internship:
Hours of in-class teaching time in Numeric’s after-school programs
Hours of ongoing mentorship, formal observations, one-on-one meetings, and personal and professional development during the year
Hours of coach training boot camp
Numeric External Training
“We are not what we know, but what we are willing to learn.”
Using the experience we have gained in developing the curriculum for our after-school programs, training hundreds of pre-service maths teachers, and using Khan Academy both in teacher training and in the classroom environment, Numeric provides short courses for in-service teachers and other community organisations who wish to introduce innovative approaches into their own classrooms. These typically take the form of 3-5 day short courses during school holidays. We do our best to adapt the training to suit your organisation’s needs.
Interested?
If you are interested in arranging a training for some of your teachers, facilitators, or tutors, please contact us on info@numeric.org for more details, or fill out the form here.