In early May, participants and alumni of Teach For Armenia, Teach For Austria, Teach For Belgium, Teach For Bulgaria, Renkuosi Mokyti! (Lithuania), Teach For Romania and Teach For Ukraine came together for the first virtual edition of Sprout to Be Teach, an annual event previously organized by Teach for Belgium alumni. 

This year’s Sprout to Be Teach was a collaborative effort led by Teach For Belgium alumna Fiona Buidin, Renkuosi Mokyti! alumna Urté Penkauskaite, and Teach For Belgium teacher coach Yohann Fleury. The goal of the event is to inspire participants’ collaboration, and enable them to share ideas, learn from one another, and find solutions to common struggles. This year, Sprout to Be Teach focused on the question “How can collaboration help me impact all of my students?” 

Before attending a two-day webinar, event participants completed three weeks of pre-work that allowed them to get to know each other, learn about the Belgian education system, and explore a variety of tools and methods that foster collaboration. During the webinar, attendees used these tools to put the main principles of collaboration into practice as they shared with and learned from each other. They also learned from Teach For Belgium staff and alumni about how and why they use collaboration, and even managed to plan a yoga session together! 

The teachers and alumni were surprised by and excited about how easily they were able to work together despite different time zones and local educational contexts. Having a shared vision as part of the Teach For All network, they concluded, helped enable their strong collaboration. “I loved that you invited different people in the call to talk about how they collaborate with their team,” shared Ionela Munteanu from Teach For Romania. “It was really nice to spend two days with nice and interesting people who have lots to share about their work.”

Sprout to Be Teach would not have been possible without the support of Teach For Belgium, and the willingness of staff, teachers, and alumni to share their experiences with attendees. The event’s organizers are hosting an additional webinar focused on collaboration for network teachers and alumni in mid-June or mid-September. Contact the team to learn more or fill in this questionnaire if you are interested.