Teach with Africa and LEAP in The New York Times
Teach With Africa in The New York Times The New York Times article “New Schools in South Africa Serve the Underserved,” by Celia W. Dugger, highlights the...
Support our Student Teacher Intern Exchange Program in DC!
Please support Teach With Africa’s Student Teacher Intern Exchange Program by donating to offset the costs of two South African interns from LEAP Science and Maths School’s placement at Howard Public Charter Middle School in Washington DC.
TWA’s 2012 program will be the second annual exchange of Student Teachers from LEAP School with San Francisco partner schools. For the past four years, TWA has brought young leaders and faculty from LEAP for a cultural exchange experience. This year, we are expanding our reach to new regions where there is a large base of TWA support. We are thrilled to have Washington DC as our second program site. We are grateful to 2011 Teaching Fellow and teacher at Howard Public Charter Middle School for facilitating this new host school partner.
The purpose of this visit is to generate a meaningful exchange between LEAP alumni who are training to become teachers and Bay Area school communities. The internship focuses on providing these young student teachers with opportunities to observe “best practices” in teaching at top schools in the U.S. Additionally, and of equal importance, is the exchange of teaching and learning through which American and South African peers can celebrate their values, connect culturally, find their voices, and collaborate on breaking down barriers to understanding and collective problem solving for equality in education.
Our goal is to raise $6,000 for the two DC interns. This sponsorship covers the cost of their airfare, per diem, and transportation. Any amount you can contribute will be much appreciated.
Support our Student Teacher Intern Exchange Program in DC!
Please support Teach With Africa’s Student Teacher Intern Exchange Program by donating to offset the costs of two South African interns from LEAP Science and Maths School’s placement at Howard Public Charter Middle School in Washington DC.
TWA’s 2012 program will be the second annual exchange of Student Teachers from LEAP School with San Francisco partner schools. For the past four years, TWA has brought young leaders and faculty from LEAP for a cultural exchange experience. This year, we are expanding our reach to new regions where there is a large base of TWA support. We are thrilled to have Washington DC as our second program site. We are grateful to 2011 Teaching Fellow and teacher at Howard Public Charter Middle School for facilitating this new host school partner.
The purpose of this visit is to generate a meaningful exchange between LEAP alumni who are training to become teachers and Bay Area school communities. The internship focuses on providing these young student teachers with opportunities to observe “best practices” in teaching at top schools in the U.S. Additionally, and of equal importance, is the exchange of teaching and learning through which American and South African peers can celebrate their values, connect culturally, find their voices, and collaborate on breaking down barriers to understanding and collective problem solving for equality in education.
Our goal is to raise $6,000 for the two DC interns. This sponsorship covers the cost of their airfare, per diem, and transportation. Any amount you can contribute will be much appreciated.
Apply for a 2012 Teacher Training Fellowship in South Africa
Teach With Africa (TWA) is recruiting highly qualified and motivated teachers to participate in our South Africa Teacher Training Fellowship program for the summer of 2012. We typically select certified teachers with several years or more of classroom experience teaching high school math, science, English, or computer science. Applicants with middle school experience will also be considered. A limited number of history/ social studies/ general studies Fellows have been selected in prior years. Ideally, TWA Fellows will have expertise in one or more of our focus areas:
- Student-centered Teaching
- Integrating Technology in the Classroom
- Teacher Training
- ESL/ ELL
- Professional Development
- Reading Fluency
- Curriculum Development
- Project-based Learning
- Learning Style Differences
- Multiple Intelligences
The Program Dates are tentatively June 18 to August 12, 2012
Step One application materials are due by December 31, 2011. Applicants will be notified on a rolling basis until January 15, 2012 if they are invited to submit for Step Two of the application process.
Download the 2012 TWA 2012 Teacher Training Fellowship application and program information here.
2011 Fellows Return from South Africa
TWA just wrapped up our summer Teaching Fellowship Program in South Africa. This marks our fourth consecutive year operating the fellowship program since our founding in 2008. We were thrilled with our team of 20 outstanding and passionate educators from all over the United States and one from the United Kingdom, many who were traveling to South Africa for the first time. TWA reached new heights this year by expanding to six different fellowship placement sites with our partner schools: LEAP 1 & LEAP 2 (Cape Town), LEAP 3 (Johannesburg/ Alexandra), LEAP 4 (Johannesburg/ Diepsloot), SIngita Sabi Sand Community Preschools (Mpumalanga), and Fort Brown Primary School (Eastern Cape). The fellowship program ran from June 18 to August 10, which means that our dedicated fellows volunteered their entire summer to offer enrichment experiences for students and collaborate with local teachers to share best practices and curriculum development.
Here are some program highlights:
- One house built by TWA, LEAP, and Habitat for Humanity
- Two weeks of enrichment workshops taught by TWA Fellows to 300+ students during school holidays
- Three preschool teacher trainers conducting workshops in Sabi Sand community preschools
- Four LEAP Schools sites with the addition of the Diepsloot campus
- Five returning educators from previous TWA Fellowships who participated in our 2011 program
- Six days a week LEAP students attend school (Monday through Saturday) with our Fellows supporting their Saturday School tutoring
- Seven days for our Johannesburg Fellows team from High Tech High to master driving on the “other side” of the road without turning on windshield wipers instead of blinkers
- Eight weeks in South Africa for learning, sharing, exploring, teaching, and discovering in our summer Fellowship Program with more than 600 students and faculty
- Nine elephant sightings on the way to our new rural fellowship placement at Fort Brown Primary School in Eastern Cape
- Ten robots donated by TWA for LEAP’s computer programming class
We’re still collecting stories, photos, and videos of the many excellent experiences from this summer. Look out for more of these features in future editions of our e-newsletter! It’s not too late to support our 2011 Fellows Team. Many of our educators are still working to meet their individual fundraising goal to offset the costs of the fellowship travel and program expenses. Read their profiles and make a donation on their page.
Fort Brown Primary School Pilot Program
This year, TWA piloted our first rural primary school program in partnership with the Angus Gillis Foundation and Fort Brown Primary School. Located in the rural community bordering the Kwandwe Game Reserve in Eastern Cape Province, this school is tremendously under-resourced in teaching staff. With only 3 teachers (including the principal) to instruct 60 students ranging from kindergarten through grade 7, Fort Brown administrators welcomed the possibility of creating a long term program with TWA.
Returning 2010 TWA Fellow Jonah Weaver volunteered with us for a second year in a row to conduct a comprehensive program assessment for this pilot program. Jonah’s extensive expertise in international education development, including work in Sierra Leone and Southern Africa, combined with over 14 years of experience teaching English in the US and abroad, made him ideal for this fellowship placement. “During my month living at Kwandwe Game Reserve, I observed several areas where a Teach With Africa volunteer would be a benefit to the Kwandwe and Fort Brown Primary School community. There are are opportunities for educational and health projects within Kwandwe and for continuing curriculum development and teacher training at Fort Brown.”
The teachers at Fort Brown were engaged and excited about the prospect of learning and sharing new teaching techniques that could be effective in multi-age instruction. They also brainstormed new tactics to increase parent involvement and improve English language instruction. In addition to the opportunities at Fort Brown, we have also identified potential areas to support the surrounding community of Kwandwe in areas of adult education, English skills, and exercise programs. TWA is exploring the possibilities of continuing this program as a long term partnership to support rural education development.
LEAP Spotlight: Meet Karen Kirsch & Sammy Mulaja
People Change People.
Karen Kirsch Page “K2”, Teach with Africa Faculty-in-Residence
Karen Page – or K2, as she is known at LEAP, is a Teach with Africa Faculty in Residence member. She spends a shorter period of time onsite compared to other fellows, leading workshops in the community and at LEAP Schools.
“South Africa is a country that is moving in the right direction and is forward thinking in many ways. But because LEAP kids were born in the 90s, around the time that apartheid ended, this is the first generation that is directly free from apartheid. As a result, there are huge challenges and struggles in the area of education.”
K2 returned to South Africa in 2011, after working at LEAP in 2009 and 2010. Of the experience, she says, “Part of what brings me back is LEAP’s receptiveness to implementing modern technologies, so the kids can broaden and further develop their communication skills. But also, LEAP is successful in science and math, and they are attracting very focused students, who don’t all fit in those two academic categories. A media arts education can lead to careers in journalism, broadcasting, filmmaking, advertising, marketing, web and graphic design, software development, engineering, and many other strong, high-paying fields. I value LEAP’s openness to exploring and embracing these fields.”
K2 appreciates Teach with Africa for allowing her to have an impact on underserved communities in South Africa. She describes LEAP founder, John Gilmour, as a visionary educator, who after hearing about the programs K2 developed in multimedia arts, approached K2 with a passionate desire to see those skills developed in the LEAP community. She has achieved much success in her workshops. Students, who initially did not know how to click a mouse, conclude by producing a full-page newsletter, with graphics. K2 runs these workshops with a certain amount of free open source programs because LEAP lacks the funds for software, such as an Adobe package, which for K2 would be a dream to teach LEAP students.
An interesting observation K2 has made is that in South African culture, singing and music are everywhere. In the U.S., music rarely happens outside a music classroom, and children are often told to stop humming in other classes. Americans tend to see music and art as confined to particular periods of the school day and rarely merging with other subjects. She appreciates that at LEAP she can let music and art create a synergy with technology and as a result of this she brings these ideas into San Francisco classrooms to make her class projects there more original. “It’s great to capture and archive musical moments as they come up in the school. Also, LEAP sends students into Cape Town and Johannesburg to record, or help a craft collective design a newsletter, providing students with further ways to reach out to the community and demonstrate leadership skills.”
“People are starting to observe that LEAP really is a model program and government institutions and representatives are already impressed with the graduation rates and overall curriculum.”
Sammy Mulaja, Coordinator, LEAP Learning Centre
Sammy Mulaja, a Congolese refugee, is Coordinator of LEAP’s Learning Centre. He teaches in local primary schools—LEAP feeder schools—and tutors students during LEAP’s Saturday school. He also acts as Project Manager for the Kalkfotein Project, a Learning Centre initiative that seeks funding to build a medical clinic in the Kalkfontein township; presently the community doesn’t even have a day clinic.
Sammy began working at LEAP when it opened in 2004, developing a partnership between LEAP and the primary schools by holding afternoon classes for learners in the local townships. The LEAP Learning Centre doesn’t have a physical space–tutors, such as Sammy, are the Learning Centre!
According to Sammy, the Learning Centre’s greatest strength is providing education to the community. His mission is to transform the community through education, while also encouraging the LEAP students to be active in this effort.
“LEAP is a good space for refugees from other countries,” he remarks. He sees the tutors’ values — responsibility, accountability, integrity, and respect — reflected at LEAP.
Sammy is thrilled with the relationship between LEAP and Teach with Africa and envisions “a big collaboration” to include more visits by TWA fellows to the local townships. He feels it is critical that TWA fellows experience the schools from which the LEAP students hail, and that those students in the primary schools gain exposure to the gifts the Teach with Africa fellows bring. Sammy appreciates that this year’s fellows participated more in the local community than in past years, and he is excited for the contribution future fellowship teams will make to this work.
Sammy’s passion for the Learning Centre is contagious. He enthusiastically tackles the unique operational strengths and financial challenges present in each community project he oversees and operates through the Learning Centre. Three such projects are: Books for Africa, started in 2008 as a collaborative effort with a
U. S. Rotary Club, distributes books from U.S. locations to LEAP and local libraries; LEAP Student Association Support Program, identifying graduated LEAP students who are in distance learning teacher-training programs for tutoring support in engineering, science, and math, subjects in which Learning Centre tutors hold higher education degrees; and the Langa Computer Studies Facility, a community program that fills a gap for underserved children and is where students from township high schools go after school to learn about computers.
