You can help ConnecTeach when you shop for back-to-school supplies on Amazon. You purchase and Amazon donates. It’s a simple and easy way to help us in our mission of education for all children.
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#StartWithaSmile at http://smile.amazon.com/ch/45-3192080 and Amazon donates.
ConnecTeach recommends EARLY LANGUAGE AND LITERACY IN INDIA, A POSITION PAPER. We are proud and honored to have participated in the development of this document that “will enable policy makers and educators (practitioners and academicians) to develop a set of informed actions based upon the principles of language and literacy development in young children.”
The entire document is available here.
The second annual International Conference on Education as a Human Right kicked off Saturday, April 16 in Farmington, NM.
Four panels of experts discussed how indigenous peoples, environmental issues, poverty and gender intersect with education.
ConnecTeach and the Dallas Embrey Human Rights Program at Southern Methodist University sponsored the event along with Navajo Prep.
The first conference was held in 2015 at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. This year, ConnecTeach and Embrey Human Rights Program partnered with Navajo Preparatory School to host the conference near the Navajo Nation in order to discuss the rights of indigenous people.
The keynote presentation was delivered by Zoe Tryon, founder of One of the Tribe, an organization dedicated to protecting the rainforest and the advancement of indigenous rights in the Amazon Basin. She spoke about her experiences working with the indigenous people in Ecuador, including people of the Cofán and Shuar nationalities.
Other speakers included Bhavani Parpia and Amy Merk from ConnecTeach, Farmington Mayor Tommy Roberts, Navajo Nation Attorney General Ethel Branch, singer and domestic violence activist Radmilla Cody, and Jennifer Denetdale, an associate professor of American Studies at the University of New Mexico.
As with our conference last year at SMU , this year’s conference highlighted many important issues and initiated important conversations including the balance between preserving tribal culture while changing those practices that serve as barriers to gender and economic equality and environmental sustainability.
This past April (2016) in Uganda, ConnecTeach partnered with the Kikulu Foundation and Walugogo Teacher Training College in an initiative to train more than 350 teacher trainees and more than 15 training college instructors.
In a country where teacher development opportunities are rare in rural communities, a teacher can spend an entire career without the opportunity to attend professional development focused on teaching and classroom management strategies. In fact, a Kikulu partner Director in Uganda never had the opportunity to attend a teacher development workshop in her 20-plus-year career. ConnecTeach is honored to be a part of this multi-year teacher development initiative and our role in the week-long workshop training current teachers and teacher trainees.
“I teach because it is the only way to sustain life. It is a part of survival. Pupils become somebody through teachers”
– Walugogo Teacher
Once trainees complete their training and begin teaching, many of them will have classrooms of more than 100 students and will be required to teach with little to no resources. To make matters worse, they do not receive the continuous training they need to be most effective. In fulfillment of our mission to empower educators in the world’s poorest communities, we look forward to our partnership with the Kikulu Foundation and Walugogo Teacher Training College in providing access to professional teacher development to 353 teacher trainees and 17 teachers in rural Uganda.
ConnecTeach is a nonprofit organization committed to breaking the cycle of poverty by equipping teachers with the skills needed to give their students a quality education and lead in the development of the world’s poorest communities. We believe that teachers and students are the most powerful changemakers- locally and globally. Think. Change. Join our movement.
We are pleased to announce that students from Barack Obama Male Leadership Academy and Newman Smith High School will be coming together for a student-led conference on education as a human right. This conference, which will be held at the Barack Obama Male Leadership Academy on Saturday, November 14, will explore the impact of gender, poverty, and displaced communities on education. Breakout sessions will include action planning, using social media for change, and a poetry anthology. 
Empowering the Next Generation provides tools, resources, and opportunities for teachers and students to move beyond basic technology skills and integrate digital literacy into Hope Foundation-affiliated classrooms so that children can achieve the critical 21st century learning skills to be globally competitive. Empowering the next generation requires empowering their teachers, not only with the strategies to facilitate instruction so that all students are engaged, but also with the digital literacy needed to develop student skills to be on par with those who have privileged access to education. A recent report on BBC News (Footnote 1) shows that there is an appalling 100-year gap in educational levels between students in developing countries when compared to their peers in developed countries. The intriguing question they pose is whether there is a “technological way for education systems to leap-frog a few stages forward.” We believe there is–by providing a strategic process whereby technology is viewed as a highly effective tool to complement classroom instruction, “a powerful springboard to higher-level learning”, that replaces a disconnected activity to be tacked only when time permits.
Empowering the Next Generation develops teacher instructional skills that are integrated with digital literacy. It is critically important for teachers and school leadership to increase their level of ICT competence in order for students to develop ICT skills. Incorporating teacher outcomes into this project ensures scalability and sustainability of student learning outcomes. A balanced approach to improving student achievement and youth learning ensures that all stakeholders understand and acquire the skills and knowledge to effectively use digital resources and critical thinking skills to navigate a 21st century education. This also allows for grade-level and subject area alignment of instructional strategies, which increases the opportunity for collaboration among teachers as well as ensuring long-term student success.
Empowering the Next Generation provides tools, resources, and opportunities for teachers and students to move beyond basic technology skills and integrate digital literacy into Hope Foundation-affiliated classrooms so that children can achieve the critical 21st century learning skills to be globally competitive. Empowering the next generation requires empowering their teachers, not only with the strategies to facilitate instruction so that all students are engaged, but also with the digital literacy needed to develop student skills to be on par with those who have privileged access to education. A recent report on BBC News (Footnote 1) shows that there is an appalling 100-year gap in educational levels between students in developing countries when compared to their peers in developed countries. The intriguing question they pose is whether there is a “technological way for education systems to leap-frog a few stages forward.” We believe there is–by providing a strategic process whereby technology is viewed as a highly effective tool to complement classroom instruction, “a powerful springboard to higher-level learning”, that replaces a disconnected activity to be tacked only when time permits.
Empowering the Next Generation develops teacher instructional skills that are integrated with digital literacy. It is critically important for teachers and school leadership to increase their level of ICT competence in order for students to develop ICT skills. Incorporating teacher outcomes into this project ensures scalability and sustainability of student learning outcomes. A balanced approach to improving student achievement and youth learning ensures that all stakeholders understand and acquire the skills and knowledge to effectively use digital resources and critical thinking skills to navigate a 21st century education. This also allows for grade-level and subject area alignment of instructional strategies, which increases the opportunity for collaboration among teachers as well as ensuring long-term student success.
At ConnecTeach, we know we’re making a difference in the lives of the teachers we train and in turn, in the lives of the students they teach. It’s always good to hear our mission affirmed though the words of the teachers themselves.
We just received this note we’d like to share:
“Bhavani and Amy-
Thank you so much for all your hard work and kind support to us. I really appreciate your heart and passion towards education. I really salute for your courage to change the attitude of the teachers in the teaching field.
I am very grateful to God for giving us the right people in our life to guide us. In school, we have changed in many ways. Thanks for showing us the right path to lead the school.
For me, it’s difficult to pick what I liked best [from the workshops]. All the trainings I like very much… I enjoyed a lot & learnt a lot. Once again, a BIG THANK YOU for all your support and love.”
– Kala Vathi, principal, Hope Foundation CA Study Centre School, Hyderabad
The Embrey Human Rights Program, ConnecTeach, and the World Affairs Council Dallas Fort Worth will host international and national experts addressing the critical issues impacting education which include:
• Poverty and Education
• Gender Equity and Education
• Race and Education
• Disability and Education
Lunch will be provided for $10.00.
Please register through this website link:
https://www.dfwworld.org/IEP/Register
High Schools that would like to attend, but bring a sack lunch instead, may register at NO cost throughjbowden@dfwworld.org.
