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Alumni

Alumni Small Grants Project Summaries

• TEA 2006-2008 Round 3
• TEA 2006-2008 Round 2
• TEA 2006-2008 Round 1

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ALUMNI UPDATES

Diana Japaridze (TEA ‘08) was one of three teachers selected from Georgia to participate in 2008 Teaching Excellence and Achievement Program at George Mason University. After returning home from the program she immediately started working with both students and teachers to share the new knowledge that she acquired in the United States.

Currently she continues working as a teacher while at the same time serving as the Branch Manager of the English Teachers’ Association of Georgia (ETAG) in Gori where she has served since 2006. Diana is responsible not only for her students but for the English teachers of the region as well.  

Diana organized a series of eight free workshops for ETAG members. Twice a month, Diana gave 2 hour sessions on electronic portfolio, lesson planning, life style inventory, leadership, field trips, and how to create power point presentations. The workshops started in January and ended on the first Saturday of April.  Diana balanced theoretical discussions by putting all the new skills into immediate practice.

While in the United States Diana also became familiar with book clubs. She started collecting information in order to create a similar club at her school in Gori. Diana said that “after coming back to Georgia, my students and I organized an English club.  Advance English language students plan and deliver sessions to younger learners.  These students use English books and interesting activities to help beginners learn English better. My role as a teacher is to assist stronger students to not only plan motivational activities, but to facilitate the sessions as well. This was a very successful project that gave me an idea to help other schools establish the same kind of clubs and create a network of English clubs. We decided to involve IDP kids in the   project so we wrote a small grant proposal. We think that in this way we will help them be involved in community activities and at the same time, they will be teaching/learning English and leadership.”

During the TEA program, teachers do a two-week internship at a US middle or high school where they are exposed to classroom as well as after-school activities such as language clubs, intramurals, etc.

 

 

Nata Kevkhishvili (TEA ‘07) became very popular among her entire school district because of the Small Grant project she implemented entitled “Touch of History: Experience Treasured Collections Making History Educational (A Portable Museum).”

“The project created opportunities for interactive teaching and learning that became an effective approach to curriculum development. Now, both teachers and students of local schools can use materials and books items. Teachers can create even more attractive lessons using all kinds of visual materials. The learning environment changes the atmosphere through such things as music, artifacts, historical maps, and pots, which motivate learners because of their novelty.

Those benefiting in the project total more than 100 teachers, educators, administrators and 1,400 students at school #166. Other schools borrowed the trunks and this resulted in an additional 50-60 teachers participating in the project. The result was unexpected and more teachers from neighboring schools asked for help and workshops, so we created workshops for them and the school net partnership group of parents and community members was actively involved in creating the trunks.”  

After completing the TEA program, alumni are encourage to apply for alumni small grants sponsored by the program to implement projects that benefit secondary education in their home countries. 

 

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Spotlight on Alumni Grants

Md Anwar Hossain, Bangladesh
“Teacher Training Workshops in Sreepur, Bangladesh”
Bangladesh
Grant amount: $2000

 

In Bangladesh, Anwar Hossain from Rajendrapur High School, Sreepur provided trainings in interactive teaching methods to English teachers and school principals. Fifty teachers and school principals from fifteen different schools in rural Bangladesh attended the two-day workshop. The participants were from some of the most underserved communities in Bangladesh and had received very few training opportunities.  The training conducted by Anwar focused on providing student-centered methods for teaching the four language acquisition skills for learning English (listening, speaking, reading and writing).  In addition, other TEA alumni joined the workshop to share their professional development and cultural experiences in the United States with the group. The participants walked out of the workshop with an understanding of how to use the new methodology to enhance students’ English Language acquisition. As a result of the workshop, two teams of volunteer trainers were formed that will visit the participants’ schools to conduct follow-up activities and trainings.  Also, there was an agreement from the workshop participants to continue to work together to developing lessons that are based on an interactive teaching style. The participants will meet every three months to discuss their progress, challenges and ways to overcome the challenges.

Anwar Hossain has also gone beyond the walls of his school and has taken his knowledge and experience beyond his country’s borders.  He is currently in Afghanistan on a mission supported by BRAC.  Anwar is working as a Material Development Specialist and Trainer.  He is developing modules for English language learning to support government schools in Afghanistan.  He is working closely with his colleagues at the Ministry of Education in Afghanistan.  Once the Ministry approves the materials, Anwar and his colleagues will embark on training teachers across Afghanistan to use the new modules to teach English.  Anwar is very proud of his work and full of enthusiasm to share the knowledge and skills he received during the TEA program with others around the world.

 

Nata Kevkhishvili
 “Touch of History: Experience Treasured Collections Making History Educational (A Portable Museum)”
Georgia
Grant amount: $2220

In Georgia, Nata Kevxishvili worked on her small grant despite delays and political challenges. She collaborated with Lorraine Dumerer, a Texas Social Studies teacher and TEA U.S. participant, and Anano Baghdavadze, a Tbilisi ESL teacher, to create a portable history museum to stimulate student learning. During the report period they created three permanent “historical discovery trunks” equipped with historical and cultural artifacts and instructions for their use in the classroom. The trunks encourage creative and student-centered lessons in the history and culture of Georgia and the US and the lessons will be presented in English to energize ESL learning.

This project-based learning initiative has stimulated the students, parents and teachers to create creative writing anthologies, websites, reports on government figures, art exhibits etc.  The teachers and parents have been so enthusiastic about the project that they have contributed in-kind donations to the project by bringing materials from home. 

Currently teachers of various other subjects have begun to collaborate to develop their own integrated lessons that will use the history trunks.  As a continuation project the students in Lori’s school in the US are also collecting artifacts that will be sent to Georgia for the history trunks. Similarly the students in Georgia are collecting artifacts to send to the US in exchange that can be used in Lori’s school to teach social studies.  

 

Tadzhidin Khaitov
 “English Language Resource Center”
Tajikistan
Grant amount: $2736

Tadzhidin Khaitov implemented his project in the Khathlon Region of Tajikistan. Tadzhidin worked in collaboration with Mary Johnston from Wauwatosa West High School in Wisconsin to establish an English Language Resource Center (ELRC) at the Qurghonteppa Secondary School in Qurghonteppa, Tajikistan.  The resource center was established with a number of new resources to assist learners and teachers of English language.  In addition to providing resources; Tadzhidin provided training to teachers on how to use the resources and included methods to teach English to different grades. The impact of this project has been far reaching beyond the Secondary school.  This center has become a hub for English Learners in the entire community, including the State University students who are now frequent visitors to the center.  Thus far, the ELRC has 143 registered members and this number is anticipated to increase.  In addition to running this ELRC, Tadzhidin has become a resource for teachers and students in the community.

 

Sukanya Chakraborty
India
“Setting Up a Cluster Resource Room for Surat Schools”
Grant amount: $ 2919.7

Ms. Sukanya Chakraborty worked with TEA alumnus Rashmi Diwan and with TEA U.S. teacher Janet Hall a social studies teacher from Oklahoma City,  to establish a “cluster resource room” for students with learning disabilities in order to accelerate their learning process and better integrate them into classrooms with the other students. Special education is rather new to the India schools and the resource room was made available to some 50 schools near the city of Surat and also serves as a resource for teachers with little awareness of the special needs of learning disabled students. Ms. Chakraborty’s project included two workshops for Indian teachers on the special needs of students, two video conferences with Ms. Hall’s school in the U.S., and monthly round-table meetings of the participating teachers. In February, 08 Sukanya arranged the very first videoconference between Janet's school special education department and Sukania's school teachers. About 14 teachers participated in the video-conference in Surhat. The follow up workshops focused on the teaching techniques for   working with the students with learning disabilities.

As a follow up to the initial project the principal of Sukania Chakraborty's school from Ahmedabad visited Janett Hall’s school in the US. The principal came on a short terms 1,5 week visit to Janet's school in Oklahoma City in November 2008.  ESSAR steel, the largest steel company in Asia, flew the school principal to the US.  Bethany Public School Foundation in Oklahoma City paid for her room and board while she was in the US.  She visited many different classes, and spoke to 3rd grade, 6th grade world history, 7th grade world geography (Janett's students), high school world geography, high school world history, high school economics, and high school psychology. The principal also spent time with the school's special education department to further discuss the work with the special education students.