What We Do
Teaching and Learning Exchange with Africa
Teach With Africa’s goal is to increase local capacity by bringing educators to Africa both teach and learn. Teach With Africa supports academic programs, sustainability efforts and social entrepreneurship initiatives by placing highly qualified educators in underserved schools in South Africa. Teach With Africa Fellows work closely with community partners to benefit students by providing:
• teacher mentoring program
• student tutoring
• classroom resources
• teacher training workshops
• counseling services
• small business workshops
Teach With Africa Fellows teach classes, provide tutoring in core academic subjects (science, math and English) and implement student workshops designed to give learners quality time with experienced educators. Specifically, we are looking for a small cohort of experienced and credentialed high school teachers in math, science and English who are supported by their schools and communities.
In addition to working directly with students, Teach With Africa Fellows partner with school faculty to share best practices on instructional methodology, differentiated learning, critical thinking, lesson planning, assessment practices, technology integration, and curriculum development.
Check out our 2012 Teacher Training Fellows and Faculty-in-Residence.
Local Education Programs
In three years, Teach With Africa has brought 60 educators to South Africa to teach classes, tutor in core academic subjects and implement student workshops designed to give learners quality time with experienced educators.
For the teachers and their students, the experience is transformative. By bringing lessons back to their U.S. classrooms upon returning, these educators benefit from a reciprocal exchange of teaching and learning.
The KIPP Life Orientation Advisory
One teacher (Mike Rettberg) at a San Francisco charter school, KIPP SF Bay, introduced a Life Orientation Advisory after he first observed it while working for Teach With Africa in South Africa two years ago. The class, which emphasizes social and emotional learning in which students talk about personal problems that can derail an education, pairs a teacher with a mental health professional. Barbara Blasdel, Ph.D. and APA member, has partnered with KIPP SF Bay to develop the curriculum and provide in-school training. Life Orientation has been so successful in developing students’ self-esteem and self-awareness at KIPP SF Bay, the principal recently asked Blasdel to help bring it to all 7th and 8th grade students in the school.
YMCA Bayview Summer Academic Camp
This summer Teach With Africa partnered with the Bayview/Hunter’s Point YMCA in San Francisco, CA, to run an academic camp for local, at-risk youth. More than 75 students, grades 2-8, participated in Math, Science, Writing, and Life Orientation classes taught by former (and future) Teach With Africa Fellows. This camp allowed us to bring home some of the lessons we’ve learned in South Africa. Knowing that summer learning loss is highest in low-income neighborhoods—and that this severely impacts the widening achievement gap for students—it was a great chance for us to address local educational needs.
